In the 1700's, most manufacturing was done by hand in the home.  As towns grew into cities, the demand for manufactured goods increased. Some workshop owners began hiring helpers to increase production. Relations between the employer and helper during these times were generally good. However, the factory system that began around 1800 brought great changes. The employer no longer worked beside his employees. In fact, it became rare if an employer actually saw his workers. He was concerned less with their welfare and more concerned with the cost of their labor. Many workers were angry about the changes brought by the factory system. In the past, they had taken great pride in their handicraft skills; now machines did all the work, and they were reduced to the status of common laborers. In bad times they could lose their jobs. Then workers who would accept lower wages might replace them.  To skilled craft workers, the Industrial Revolution meant degradation rather than progress. The Industrial Revolution was dawning in the United States. 

www.nps.gov/edis/ techimpact.htm

Women and Children Workers

The construction of many mills and factories began in the early 1800’s.  Factory owners were in desperate need of workers, and most jobs in these factories required neither great strength nor special skills. In turn the owners thought women could do the work as well as or better than men. In addition, it seemed as if the women were actually better and more obedient workers than the men.  However, economic “laws” would force them to work harder and harder for less and less pay.  Faced with growing competition, factory owners began to decrease wages in order to lower the cost, and the price, of finished products. They increased the number of machines that each female had to operate. In addition, they began to overcrowd the houses in which the girls lived, which the employers supplied in exchange for the females' work. All of this to save as much money as they could. This caused many to leave and others to hold protests or strikes. 

Children were also forced into working in the factories. Children went from being workers in homes and farms, to working in textile factories, brick yards, and coal mines.  Since they were all locked in the factories during the day, their parents couldn't watch over them as they used to. Additionally, families couldn't afford food, so children were much weaker and unhealthy.  They were also much more susceptible to getting sick from the dusty air.  A family simply couldn't support itself if all of the members of the family weren't employed, including the children.  Children worked just as long as their elders did, sometimes as long as sixteen hour days. Children as young as three were being put to work.  Even at age five children were being put to work in textile factories, and iron and coal mines. Children also put to work in gas works, shipyards, construction, match factories, nail industries, and the work of chimney sweeping. 

Many children were forced to work in factories....	...as were many women who simply needed the money.

 
As the factory system grew, many workers began to form labor unions to protect their interests. Labor’s tactics in those early times were simple. Members of a union would agree on the wages they thought were fair. They pledged to stop working for employers who would not pay that amount. They also tried to make it so that employers hired only union members. In the next few decades, unions campaigned for a 10-hour long working day and against child labor. Meanwhile trade unions were joining together in cities to form federations. Eventually, national unions were formed in hopes of improving wages and working conditions. The unions' efforts brought about many strikes and protests. It was a fact - things were definitely changing in America. Some people liked it and others felt they were going to be “thrown out” and de-skilled. Unions and protests proved to be successful in many cases, but nothing could change the fact that this nation was turning into “one large factory.”