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Life in the 1800s has taken on an almost Utopian quality in the minds of many Americans. The images associated with this era of our history are, on the surface, pleasant to recall: one room school houses with a heavy dose of the 3 Rs; rugged self-reliance; living close to the earth, no income tax, steam-powered railroads and individual freedom.
Topics:
A Typical Workday
Child Labor
Workplace Safety
Industry and Energy
The Standard of Living
Hard Times |
Maybe, as we cross into the next century, it's time to take another look at the so-called "good old days."
On
the job
Workdays
in the mid to late 1800s were long and hard. The average worker could expect
to labor anywhere from ten to fourteen hours a day, six days a week. A
sixty or eighty hour work week was the rule, not the exception.
By 1830, a skilled worker or experienced machinist earned as much as $1.25 a day. However, jobs that paid that well were uncommon. An average worker could expect to earn between fifty and seventy-five cents a day. A woman lucky enough to find a paying job earned far less than a man. Her standard wage was anywhere from half to two-thirds less than her male counterpart.
Unions
were almost unheard of. Where they existed they were considered, by factory
owners and industrialists, to be "un-American." When horse-car drivers
in New York City demanded that their traditional 16-hour work day be reduced
to only 12 hours, their demands were branded as "communistic" by state
assemblyman Teddy Roosevelt. When strikes did occur, they were often put
down by troops and militiamen.
Child
labor
Children
often worked the same long hours as their parents. By 1900 there were nearly
two million children under fifteen years of age working in factories across
the nation. Child labor was in great demand by employers who considered
children to be a bargain. Kids were paid between $1.50 and $2.50 a week
for up to 84 hours of work. (Two or three cents an hour was considered
low pay, even by the standards of the day.)
Safety
in the workplace
In
the days before government regulations and the union movement, the place
where you worked could easily become the place where you died. President
Harrison observed in 1892 that, "American workmen are subjected to peril
of life and limb as great as a soldier in time of war."
During
the 1890s it was estimated that nearly a million workers were killed or
injured each year in the work place. Power shafts and belts to drive the
machines were open and unprotected. Factories were dimly lighted and the
workers' machines and equipment were not equipped with the safety devices
now required by law. The rule of thumb,
for
those lucky enough to still have one, was, "if you take the job - you assume
the risk."
Railroads were especially dangerous places to work. In 1900 alone, more than 2,600 rail workers lost their lives in rail accidents and more than 41,000 were maimed or injured. Between 1898 and 1900 American railroads lost as many workers to accidents as the entire British Army did in its three-year Boer War.
Workers' compensation was unknown. Disabled workers received no pay, benefits, or social security. During this same period, the wealthiest men in America were the owners of railroads. Railroad Barons amassed fortunes ranging into the billions of dollars.
Industry
and energy
In
the early 1800s people and animals were the number one and two sources
of energy. In that order. Machinery was relatively uncommon and the amount
of work a person could complete in a work day was almost entirely dependent
upon strength and personal endurance. As the century progressed, there
was a noticeable decline in wood cover around America’s growing communities. 
By
1860 most of the firewood used in Boston, Massachusetts was being hauled
by ship from Maine. Energy was expensive in terms of human labor and cash.
Getting enough fuel to last the winter was a year-round chore for rural
folks. A miscalculation in the amount of wood collected could mean, at
worst, freezing to death and at best, a long miserable winter. In the industrialized
north, water power was the source of energy for mills. By the 1830s, five
to ten horse power was typical for a country mill and twenty-five to fifty
horse power was standard for a large city mill.
Mills often had to shut down for extended periods in the summer and winter months because water power was not available due to droughts or frozen ponds and rivers. Clocks in many mills were tied to the water wheel. The slower the flow of water – the longer the work day. It was a practice called "mill time" that came to an end when towns and churches installed clock towers on the commons.
The standard
of living
While
life may have been cheap for the industrialists, the cost of living was
high for the workers. Looking at the ads in old newspapers, we are often
struck by seemingly low prices of goods and groceries. Some typical prices
at the turn of the last century were:
Hard
times
Without
the safety-net of unemployment insurance, food stamps, or other state or
federal service programs, folks of the 1800s were pretty much at the mercy
of their employer and the whims of a changing American economy.
In the early days, when a man lost his job, he faced the very real prospect of watching himself and his family starve to death. To a large extent, employers realized this and had a steady, if not willing, pool of people ready to work at any price.
In 1887 America experienced a depression that saw nearly three million workers loose their jobs. Many families lost their homes or were thrown out of their city tenements. Thousands of homeless families lived on the streets of major cities.
Between 1893-98, another economic crisis swept the country throwing nearly four million workers off their jobs. Almost one in five workers was jobless.
Factory owners faced with diminishing profits often cut wages. When workers refused wage cuts or attempted to unionize, the factories simply shut down. Lockouts usually ended after workers pledged to the owners that they would not form a union.
