Us Industrialism

From 1865-1900 America was going through the beging stages of becoming an industrial country. After period after the Civil War was when Labor Unions, and technological advancemnts had a huge impact on the industrial workers of America. Labor Unions helped the workers get fair wages and working conditions, and technology affected all aspects of indusrty and work.

After the Civil War Labor Unions began to form in America fighting for the rights of laborers. One of the first Labor unions to form was the Knights of Labor lead by Terrence Powderly in the 1870’s. Unlike other unions the Knights of Labor was a very accepting union to everyone, which included skilled and unskilled workers, African Americans, women, and immigrants. The way Unions would help these workers is to negotiate the wages and working conditions for all the workers with their boss’s. If negotiating didn’t work the next step was usually to hold a strike. One example of a strike was one lead by Jay Gould of the Knights of Labor who led the strike through Kansas, Texas, Missouri, and Arkansas. Unlike most strikes which involve no violence or fighting, this strike escalated and became very dangerous. Due to all the violence Powderly called of the strike. However this was not the only strike which got out of hand, on May 1, 1886 labor unions began a strike known as the Haymarket Square Riot. In this strike workers wanted shorter work hours, but were not getting their way. When the police surrounded the strike at the McCormick Reaper factory the police and workers got into a brawl which killed and injured a few people. After the violence was over many laborers became very angry with the polices violent actions towards the strikers because they felt