Overview of the 19th Century Workplace

            The 19th century was a time in the United States were America took a more modern stance to manufacturing. It started using more technology to produce more products with less work or human effort. This, however, didn't always mean that working conditions were easy for the people inside of these factories. They faced many challenges that made working very difficult in the late 19th century. They face bad living conditions, working conditions, and child labor was sweeping the industrial scene.
             Today, working is actually quite safe. The government puts laws in place that says employers and businesses owners have to make sure their work is safe and provide safe equipment. Unfortunately, it was not like this during the late 19th century. The equipment would not always be safe and would actually harm the employees frequently. The conditions within the factories were even worse. Imagine working 14-16 hour days in a dark factory where you were tightly packed together with your fellow co workers and factory machinery. It would be very hot and the air would be polluted due to the engines. People would eventually get diseases if they weren't already injured from the dangerous equipment they worked with.
             Living conditions in the late 19th century were also far from ideal. The government made little effort to keep streets maintained and healthy. People were faced with overcrowding in the city. It wouldn't be unusual to find 6-9 people living together under a 1 room apartment. This tightly packed arrangement also made it easy for diseases to spread and back then there was a lack of medical care. There were no sanitation codes or a regular garbage pickup so trashed filled the streets. There wasn't a lot of crime enforcement so there would be an increase in crime and overcrowding in prisons. So obviously living conditions did not help people during the 19th century.
             A big argument from the 19th century and its work force was the lack of code to child labor.