Her abilities to analyze and write were getting stronger every day. By 1861 she submitted a short story to the Atlantic Monthly titled, "Life in the Iron-Mills." The story established Davis's reputation as a remarkably adept and pioneering realist who focused readers' attention to the abuses of working-class laborer and the environmental damage of unregulated manufacturing. (pg xii paper back) .
Pennsylvania led the new nation in the production of iron. The first iron rails and the first iron bridge were established in Pennsylvania. Pennsylvanians could relate to Davis's material because it was present in many of the workers lives, and that is what Davis wanted to accomplish- capture the event of the time she and others lived. " Life in the Iron-Mills" discussed the true state of the workers in the iron mills: "Masses of men, with dull, besotted faces bent to the ground, sharpened here and there by pain or cunning; skin and muscle and flesh begrimed with smoke and ashes; .breathing from infancy to death an air saturated with fog and grease and soot, vileness for soul and body." Davis wanted the readers to not focus on workers as a unit but more as individuals. Through harsh detail, Davis wanted the truth of what she saw growing up to be a reality for all people. Her story started her path to American literary realism.
Davis wanted to affect social change for blacks, women, Native Americans, immigrants, and the working class by intentionally writing about the struggle of these groups. After " Life in the Iron-Mill" became so popular, Davis continued to write the truth as the reality of living. Davis went on to publish ten novels and a collection of short stories, an additional sixteen serialized novels, hundreds of short stories and essays for adults, more than a hundred short stories for juveniles, and a memoir. Davis's writings addressed major political and social events of the nineteenth century-the relationship of capitalists and laborers, the Civil War, Reconstruction, changing social roles for women, US imperialism, and especially the lives of "everyday men and women.
