Changes+In+The+1800's

There were many changes during the 1800's in a time that we now call the "Industrial Revolution". These changes involved the invention of mass production, the Transcontinental Railroad, and many more. During this time bosses and workers at war.

The Industrial Revolution was a time of change all over the world. The Industrial Revolution changed the way that many families worked. In the south, here were many plantations that grew cotton. Cotton was used for making cloth but it was hard to separate the seeds from the fluff that was used for clothing. A man named Eli Whitney made a machine called the “Cotton Gin” that would separate the seeds from the fluff. After that invention Eli started to create guns for the U.S. government. He created **__interchangeable parts__**. This made it possible to mass produce. There were some decreases in the population of farms because machines that could do the work of many people in less time. Most people moved to the towns and cities so that they could find better jobs. Trains and riverboats were important to the Industrial Revolution. They brought the products to and from the factories. The Industrial Revolution was an important time for America and the rest of the world.

The Transcontinental Railroad was started in 1862 by Ted Judah, a business man from the eastern part of America. Ted Judah had the help of the big four, Collis Huntington, Leland Sanford, Mar Hopkins, and Charles Crocker. The group agreed to help Ted to get the company started by getting him to D.C., hire workers, and to publicize the railroad for a cut of the money that the railroad would make .Not everyone appreciated the railroad. Towns’ people, ranchers, and especially farmers, hated the railroad because it was too noisy, scared cattle, and destroyed crops. The people that worked on the railroad had a hard time too. Workers that were Chinese were paid very low amounts of money, which didn’t give them a very good start in America. Low payments often lead to the loss of homes. American workers hated to work with the Chinese, and often quit, or had fights. Even though the American workers disliked working with the Chinese, the Chinese were very good workers. Chinese weren’t just fast and creative, but overall they were very effective workers that did a good job on the railroad for low amounts of money. Even though the Transcontinental Railroad was booming with speed and was on the right road to being finished, they still would have to face the Native Americans. The train was very noisy, which scared away all of the prey that the Native Americans hunted. The trains also ran through the Native Americans land, decreasing their territory. Another company had challenged the big four to a race to the west, to see which company would be proven better and faster. This company however wasn’t made of strong men ready to build, but machines. Sadly, the Big Four had lost the contest due to the troubles they had in the freezing winters, when they had to shovel their way out for days before they could lay any track. However, they had set a record for ten miles of track laid in one day. Still today, that record was never beaten.

In the 1890s people were very concerned about work and their jobs. Most people worked in factories or sweatshops which were very dangerous and unsanitary. Some people would come to a world’s fair to find a job that they would lose when the fair ended. In addition, many people did not go to school because their families wanted them to work to earn more money. Several parents were not concerned that their children did not get a proper education and that the children also ran the risk of losing a body part in the terrible and harmful sweatshops or factories. More than good education for the children and finding a good job to work in there was the differences between females and males; the women couldn’t vote or go to college. In addition, industries were changing life in America a lot; most people lived in slums and there were laws passed to make work fair for both bosses and workers. There were a lot of problems concerning jobs and workers in the 1890s. The workers that worked in factories or sweatshops had a very hard life. At this time the workers couldn’t change their jobs. More than that, if you worked in one of these places you wouldn’t get any fresh air because the bosses would lock the doors and window. That wasn’t the only problem with sweatshops, they were very dangerous, and some people got seriously hurt; they lost a leg or any body part. Also some people came to look for jobs in the big world fair, but many people lost their jobs after the fair ended. Most families would have a hard time where they used to live and would come to look for a better job here. The families would search for a good job in the world fair and most found one. Sadly though the people would lose their jobs right after the world fair ended.

Back then getting an education wasn’t as important as going to work. Going to work was  way more important to the city people than a proper education so they can earn more money. They believed that you need to buy food and to buy food you need money and to have money you need a job. People were very anxious for money they wanted money fast so they can be able to eat and feed the family. They thought that a bad job was better than having no job at all because if you didn’t have a job you couldn’t get any money.

On my opinion, parents should be concerned that their child or children work long hours in a factory; the factories were not safe and children should be in school. I say this because factory bosses would lock the doors and windows of the factory, there is no fresh air and that is very dreadful for your health. In addition, Children should get a proper education instead of working for so many hours in a factory. Lastly, factories are very dangerous you can get severely hurt with the machines in a factory like the ones in the 1890s.

One thing that was really big at that time was the differences between males and females. One thing that might seem surprising to you is that most women couldn’t go to college. The majority of colleges didn’t accept women. The women were told that they couldn’t learn about labor laws or business. More than that, women weren’t allowed to vote for anything; females had to fight to vote. With them fighting to vote less than half the states let women vote. In addition, to those women had to travel from place to place talking to and pleading to men to let them vote.

Industry was changing life in America because back then most people lived in slums. A slum is a city area with crowded, dirty run-down housing. People were crammed in very filthy apartments heated with wood and lit with candles. Surprising, all the residents shared one single sink. Also in these slums garbage was rarely collected often so there was garbage everywhere. Now most people live in apartments with electric heat and light or in houses. More than that, in the 1900s, America approved more and more industry improvement laws to make work reasonable for both bosses and workers.Laws about working conditions were rare.Bosses required workers to live in certain houses and ay whatever rent they demanded. Bosses sometimes locked workers in unsafe building for extremely long hours. All this was fixed when the laws were passed and made work equal for bosses and workers.

Many people’s lives changed because of the transportation in the 1800’s. They could get places faster and easier. Slaves could get free easier because of the kind drivers and captains. They rode on wagons and rode steamboats and they also (the lucky ones) rode trains. But it was also dangerous with all this new transportation around. People could get hit by wagons or get into wagon crashes. Steamboats could explode or sink, and trains could get in wrecks or explode. Life got easier when they came up with easier transportation. It was faster and safer. Like when they fixed the steam boats or when they improved the train and the train tracks. They also fixed the roads for wagons. Transportation also changed the way we travel today. If there were no wagons there would be no cars and that's how it all started with all transportation. But transportation still needs improvement.

Emily Elderkin section1media type="file" key="Wikispaces Intro.asf" align="right"