Introduction
The American Civil War marked a new emancipation in various frontiers both locally and internationally. It was the war that would be designated as the triumph of democracy. With it came numerous changes and impacts on the American people. All aspects of society would soon realize dramatic changes. The focus of this essay is the changes and shifts that were realized within the worker population in America. It delves, more specifically into analyzing the freedom changes that were realized at the end of the civil war through to the great depression. The industrial workers are given more precedence.
The Union, having won the Civil War and managed to keep the United States together, gave rise to the democratic era that did posit significant opportunities for the American citizenry. Better living and working standards were expected by the people who had readily welcomed the industrial age. This would not, however, be the case, as the workers would fall into a spiraling exploitation by the industrial companies through to the Great Depression.
Freedom Experience for Industrial Workers
Up until the onset of the American Civil War, most of the Americans primarily worked and depended on farming. Technology, innovation, and management that characterized the post-civil war era revolutionized the industrial space (Blewett 34). A transformation was being experienced on all frontiers in the industries, ranging from the small operations to the much larger enterprises. From the workers perspective, however, the changes had drastic impacts and ramifications.
The freedom and working conditions of the workers were at the mercy of the supervisors and managers who utilized layers of inhumane bureaucracy to maximize profits. For the African Americas, the Reconstruction period proved to be rather disappointing. The 13th amendment, which was adopted in 1865, officially abolished slavery. The African American population looked forward to a great emancipation period (Glickman 86).
The anticipated freedoms and rights upon the ending of the civil war became elusive. For the former slaves, economic freedom was much more elusive. The Reconstruction era, to many, was the onset of the definition of freedom for which the civil war had been fought.
Understanding freedom for workers after the civil war begins by understanding the environment in which the industries were operating in
Having total freedom with minimal interferences from the government or workers, employers had the upper hand on various levels. Free enterprise formed the foundation for the operation of the industrial revolution, and as such, labor was treated as a commodity. In the free market dynamics, labor could be bought and sold at the price that the market dictated. On a humanistic level, this was detrimental to the workers and their freedoms and rights (Rothbard 36).
The growth of industrial power shifted the power balance between the employers and employees. The individual worker lost his power as the relationship became less personal. The working conditions of the workers were poor since they were determined by the managers and supervisors.
A significant number of the workers worked for the lowest wages. The working conditions and were poor and their working hours were dauntingly long. The federal law had no control over the labor market owing to the free enterprise ideology. In an effort to counter the discrimination of businesses, workers formed unions to push for their rights. The unions would be used as a collective power against the industry owners.
This idea arose from the realization that the individual worker no longer had any power over the companies. For the industries, unions were a direct threat to economic efficiency and freedom of operation (Montgomery 88). The unions had the power to negotiate for higher wages and better working conditions. For company owners, this was a violation of the free enterprise, which was the basis of their establishment.
Having realized the loss of power individuality, the workers formed unions in an effort to fight for their freedoms and rights. The unions were a tool for lobbying for concessions from employers. In as much as the unification of the workers was a mode of fighting for freedom, it did also curtail their individuality. The formal associations took to organizing various activities to band the workers together.
The solidarity and unions did also come at a price. The unions meant that the individual had to submit to the will of their fellow workers. Decisions were not being made by the individuals anymore, but that they had to be channeled through the union. Union membership also came with dues and fees that had to be paid.
The innumerable number of available workers made them expendable and thus vulnerable to the demands of the industry owners. The newly acquired freedom of Reconstruction was replaced by wage slavery and long working hours. The health and safety of workers in their workplaces were evidently poor. The laws of government offered minimal to no protection at all for the workers.
The unions would later be used as tools for organizing strikes to push for agendas of the workers. By the onset of the First World War, the labor unions had won a number of legal rights and had become more vocal. The Great Depression set the prelude for the reinvention of the relationship between employers and employees. For the industrial workers, layoffs and pay cuts became the order of the day (Berton 67).
For the industrial worker, the freedom experience meant that one had to either work for the available wages or be forced out of employment. Inadequate and high priced food meant that most of the workers had to spend more of their income on prevention of hunger for their families. Exploitation was at its peak even as company owners struggled to keep afloat in the crunch of the economy.
The economic condition further curtailed the freedom of the workers on various dimensions. The choice of wages, food or lifestyle, was all left to the mercy of the federal government and the employers. However, the great depression allowed for significant changes in the labor laws. The federal labor laws change resulted in the ability of unions to confidently negotiate for its workers. The economic crisis and the resultant success of the unions would realize an unprecedented increase of members for the unions.
The freedom of the workers created an endless power-balancing shift with the industrial owners who did seek to reassert their dominance and maximize on profit. The worker freedoms were thus dependent on the success and will of the industrial owners (Mandle 48). Freedom in its actual sense was elusive for the industrial workers right up to the great depression. Having lost individual power, the unions’ alternative still removed their individuality, and they had to be governed by the group thinking and decisions.
Conclusion
The analysis and discussion provided above delves into the freedom dynamics that were experienced by industrial workers right after the civil war and all the way into The Great Depression. The hopes and dreams that the pot-civil America depicted would soon be thwarted by the endless bureaucracies of the industrial companies.
For the workers, the replacement of the agrarian economy with and industrial one did post great opportunities. This was, however; short-lived as their freedoms would be curtailed and their working conditions further worsened. The freedom that had long been sought after by the Americans in the civil war seemed to be attainable even in the post-civil era.
The much-anticipated emancipation was quickly replaced by the wage slavery with workers struggling to make ends meet. The freedom experience for the workers after the civil was simply elusive and non-existent. The struggle for better wages, working conditions continued right through to the great depression. The entry of unions into the scene did slightly change the freedom dynamics, but it was also short-lived.
The loss of individual power for workers would become a subject of exchange for unions and industries until the development of federal labor laws. Evidently, as highlighted in the discussion, the industrial revolution, right up to the great depression exploited the workers to the benefit of the company owners. This period, however, marked the onset for the foundation of worker unions aimed at liberating the workforce from the exploitative arms of the industrial owners.
Work Cited
Berton, Pierre. The Great Depression 1929-1939. Toronto: Anchor Canada, 2001. Internet resource.
Blewett, Mary H. Men, Women, and Work: Class, Gender, and Protest in the New England Shoe Industry, 1780-1910. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1990. Print.
Glickman, Lawrence B. A Living Wage: American Workers and the Making of Consumer Society. Ithaca, NY [u.a.: Cornell Univ. Press, 1999. Print.
Mandle, Jay R. Not Slave, Not Free: The African American Economic Experience Since the Civil War. Durham: Duke University Press, 1992. Print.
Montgomery, David. Citizen Worker: The Experience of Workers in the United States with Democracy and the Free Market During the Nineteenth Century. Cambridge [England: Cambridge University Press, 1995. Print.
Rothbard, Murray N. America's Great Depression. Princeton, N.J: Van Nostrand, 1972. Print.
