Thesis and Outline: Industrialization after the Civil War
Thesis Statement
An analysis of the period that followed the American Civil War reveals changes in the economic, political, and social spheres as the country shifted from an agrarian society to an industrial one.
Essay Outline
Factories emerged as the people shifted to an industrialized society. Before the American Civil War, industrialization was most prominent in the Northern States while the Southern economic backbone encompassed plantations. With the end of the war, the country’s economy changed as the Northerners’ influence spread beyond their States: “canal companies and later railway companies provided transport infrastructure” to aid the spread of businesses (More, 2000, p.31). Machines replaced manual labor while the increase in both production and trade propelled the people to seek employment in factories as opposed to farms. Accordingly, the first significant aspect of industrialization stemmed from the effects of having a factory-based economy: better infrastructure promoted trade, machines increased production, and work opportunities went beyond the farm setting.
The second aspect of industrialization after the American Civil War revolves around urbanization where the regions with the most factories gained favor among many Americans as unemployment rates rose with the economic shift. In other words, the populace moved from rural to urban territories in search of better job opportunities; on that note, overpopulation went hand in hand with the migrating masses and changed the American societies (More, 2000, p.51).
Finally, yet importantly, one’s wealth status determined his or her position in society. In other words, whereas the Antebellum Era focused on skin color to determine a person’s access to available opportunities, the abolition of slavery introduced wealth as the new determinant factor. For instance, Social Darwinist William Graham Sumner argued in 1880 that for liberty to be a reality, inequality was inevitable (Foner, 2014, p.500).
Five specific groups affected by industrialization and two examples for each.
The African American populace gained freedom after the Civil War and responded by seeking employment in the factories. In the Great Migration from 1910, more persons of African descent found job opportunities by moving to the Northern States (Foner, 2014, p.597). Employment paved the way for other to enlist as soldiers in the United State Army and went on to form the 369th Infantry Regiment of 1916.
The United States witnessed an increase in its number of immigrants as individuals came to the country in search of work in the emerging industries. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 gives evidence to the fears that Americans harbored towards the possibility of losing work to immigrants (Foner, 2014, p.525). The first Red Scare of between 1919 and 1920 also highlights the tension between Americans and the Russians residing in the country by the mentioned period.
As one would expect, females made up part of the minority groups in the industry setting and as a result, factory owners took advantage of their lot. In the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory tragedy of 1911, one hundred and twenty-three women died with no records of male workers (Zinn, 2005, p.326). The 1908 Muller v. Oregon case showed that factory owners were against State laws that hindered production levels, including legislations that reduced working hours for women.
Aside from women and persons from low-income families, children created another source of cheap labor for industry owners. In 1911, the photographer Lewis Hine photographed children aged less than fifteen years to draw attention to “persistent social inequality”; his tactics worked as other journalists made more effort to highlight the demerits of child labor (Foner, 2014, p.546). Eventually, the government endorsed the Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 to regulate child labor (Foner, 2014, p.571).
With industrialization came the need for more lands on which investors could establish more businesses; hence, Native Americans created another group affected by the mentioned changes as they lost their lands and had their culture eradicated. According to the Dawes Act of 1887, the communal life enjoyed by native tribes became illegal in the United States as land ownership became subject to individuals (Foner, 2014, p.490). Tensions between Caucasians and the Indian tribes escalated to the 1890 Battle of Wounded Knee.
Five ways that industrialization affected the life of the average working American.
Most, if not all, ordinary Americans worked under unfavorable working conditions as factories lacked safety measures for the better part of the target period.
The division of labor into smaller factions within the mill setting limited the skills of the workers and the machines rendered most of them useless in different areas of production.
With urbanization, came overpopulation and the rise of the major cities that went on to form the homes of average American workers.
As noted above, women and children created a vulnerable group that employers could hire to perform hard labor for meager wages; hence, it was common to find the typical male worker out of employment.
Unlike in the farms where the weather and climate influenced working hours, the situation was different in factories since employees received wages based on the total working hours.
Conclusion
The economy, politics, and societies of the United States changed after the American Civil War as the people embraced a new social order that did not rely on slavery.
References
Foner, E. (2014). Give Me Liberty!: An American History (4th ed., Vol. II). New York: W. W. Norton & Company.
More, C. (2000 ). Understanding the Industrial Revolution. Abingdon: Psychology Press.
Zinn, H. (2005). A People's History of the United States . New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics.
