Notes on Industrialization, Child Labor, Urbanization, Immigration, and Social Reform

In 1890, Marshall Field's Department Store in Chicago exemplified how department stores set fashion standards for men and women.
Brightly lit windows attracted onlookers to discover the latest fabrics and styles.

Child labor was widespread in the United States.
A photograph from the late 1860s depicts factory workers, with many appearing to be children as young as eight or ten years old.
The factory owner and foreman are seen overseeing the workers.
Lewis Hine photographed a young cotton picker in the American South around 1910.

The late 19th century witnessed the expansion of industrialism, creating jobs and economic opportunities but also social problems.
Young people worked in factories and small businesses under primitive conditions and long, demanding workweeks.
There were few protections for children injured on the job, and they could be easily discharged.
Efforts to regulate child labor faced resistance due to the prevailing belief that work built character and the economic need for extra income in large families.
Photographers like Lewis Hine educated the public about child labor conditions between 1890 and 1910, contributing to political and economic reforms.

In Maine (1911), boys aged 7 to 12 worked as cutters in the Seacoast Canning Co., often suffering injuries.
Workers earned around $0.75 to $1.00 per day, with irregular hours that sometimes extended from 7 a.m. to midnight.
Mamie Laberge, a 13-year-old, worked in a cotton mill in Winchendon, Massachusetts (1911).
A young employee in an Alexandria, Virginia, glass factory alternated between day and night shifts.
In 1908, Lewis Hine photographed children working in textile mills in the South.
Children in Mississippi and North Carolina cotton mills were also photographed in the 1910s.
Lewis Hine captured an image of three young girls (Josie, Bertha, and Sophie) working as oyster shuckers in Port Royal, South Carolina in 1911, for the National Committee on Child Labor.
In 1913, Rosie, a seven-year-old, worked full time at the Varn & Platt Canning Company in Bluffton, South Carolina, starting at 4 a.m. daily and not attending school.
Children, many from immigrant families, labored in mines and factories.
In Bells, Texas (1913), children as young as five picked cotton on H.M. Lane's farm, supervised by only one adult.

The percentage of children in the labor force peaked around the turn of the century.
State laws requiring school attendance until age fourteen and limiting employment ages led to a decline in child labor.

By 1900, the U.S. population nearly doubled from 40 million in the 1870 census, while the urban population tripled.
This cityward drift affected the United States and the industrializing world, with European peasants migrating to cities due to competition from cheap American foodstuffs and the lure of industrial jobs.
A revolution in American agriculture thus fueled industrial and urban revolutions in both Europe and the United States.

Between 1860 and 1910, the urban population increased significantly, but the rural population also grew.
The largest population increase occurred in towns and cities with populations between 2,500 and 500,000.
Essentially all 20th century US population growth has been in cities, increasing the urban population fraction from 40% in 1900 to more than 75% in 1990. This move to the cities is projected to continue.

Children in immigrant and working-class neighborhoods used streets and sidewalks as play sites, prompting the creation of playgrounds and clubs to ensure their safety and orderly play.
Crowded living conditions in urban tenements were common.
Urban life was hard on families, leading to emotional isolation.
Families had to go it alone, separated from clan, kin, and village.

Urban life dictated changes in work habits and family size.
Mothers and children as young as ten often worked in scattered locations.
The economic advantage of having many children on farms was reversed in cities, where more children meant more mouths to feed and increased crowding.
Birthrates declined, and family size shrank, with marriages being delayed and the use of birth control increasing.

The stresses of urban life strained families and led to increased divorce rates in the late 19th century, marking the beginning of the