U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction

U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction
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U.S. Labor and Work Before the End of Reconstruction
The industrial age that immediately came after the war of independence has played quite a significant role in the history of the United States labor. The work that was initially done manually was beginning to be automated with the use of machines, and due to the large-scale emancipation of the slave laborers, labor became inadequate, and children and females ventured into the labor market. Massachusetts and Pennsylvania were the first industrial places in the United States post the civil war, with shoemaking and textile industries being the building blocks of the economy of the regions. Although the industrial revolution disrupted the traditional American work culture, some attributes related to work remained persistent throughout the reconstruction era, including the reliance on the apprenticeship systems and an all-rounded workforce consisting of children, women, and males. Some interventions were put in place in the 19th century by American workers to help better their workplaces, including demand for high wages, formation of workplace societies as well as the initiation of industrial action.
Older Traditions of Work
Apprenticeship System
The early American workplaces, majorly textile industries and shoemaker shops, had quite a unique setup, and all the activities seemed to center around the master. Journeymen and apprentice came underneath the master (History Matters, n.d.), journeymen to represent the highly skilled personnel still working for the master and yet to graduate to be independent proprietors. The apprentices, both boys, and girls as young as twelve years were attached to a master in a specified field to acquire some meaningful skills in exchange for their labor before they graduate to journeymen. Apprenticeship was deeply rooted in the American work culture before the colonial period, although it slightly declined during the industrial period due to the adoption of machines (History Matters, n.d.). The apprenticeship system remained persistent post the reconstruction period and strongly defined the American work culture.
Diverse Workforce
The American labor force in the reconstruction era constituted people from all genders. Children also played a significant role in providing labor in the industries. From the testimony of the textile operative, Fleming's factory, where he worked for 26 years, had at least fifty employees, with the female making up to a third, four children and the rest being male. The female gender and children worked on tasks that required fewer skills. An element of slave labor is also evident in the American workforce. Children and all the other laborers worked more hours for less pay and faced the infliction of severe punishment for lack of punctuality, a habit familiar with the slave labor.
Interventions to Improve New Jobs
The industrial revolution substituted the manual labor that the laborers had been accustomed to with the use of machines, making their work a bit easier. Other than the introduction of machines and new technologies to aid in labor productivity, the disruption became a wake-up call for some American workers who had been subjected to extreme oppression. This prompted them to start demanding better working conditions.
Demand for High Wages
The shoemaking business of the 18th century was booming up until the journeymen went up in arms against their masters in demand for high wages (Grubbs, n.d.). The contentions between the masters and journeymen were fueled by the arrival of new masters from overseas, who led to the emergence of new prices for low-quality products and high wages for the laborers (Grubbs, n.d.). The only thing that the journeymen and the masters seemed to agree on was the opposition to the marketing of cheap products by the incoming craftsmen. The arguments for the opposition, however, varied, with the journeymen concerned about their wages, whereas the masters' major concern was on the compromised markets due to the introduction of low-quality products with low prices by the incoming masters. The female workers in Massachusetts also demanded pay rise for their services, as observed from Amelia's speech in New England (Amelia, n.d.). The children worked long hours without proper regulat...