Essay On Cheap Labor

During the eighteen hundreds through nineteen hundreds, the United States completely shifted their economy from an agricultural to an industrial society. Due to the change, employees were needed to work in factories, railroads, oil fields etc. As a result, Immigrants were encouraged to come to the United States in order to supply cheap labor for the industrial society. Therefore, the growth of the industrial workforce is caused by two factors; immigrants leaving their country to find better opportunities in the United States and the cheap labor they supplied. The first factor that encouraged the growth of the industrial work force is due to an increasing amount of immigrants moving to the United States for better opportunities. Back in their home country, many of the immigrants were facing obstacles such as persecution or famine. Therefore, moving to the United States supplied the immigrants with a new sense of hope by allowing them to have employment and religious and political freedom. According to liberty of congress.com, “nearly 12 million immigrants arrived in the United States between 1870 and 1900” ( …show more content…
Since the immigrants were willing to work for low wages, the industrial economy was able to grow at a faster pace. However, unlike the immigrants in the past, many of the new immigrants were unskilled or uneducated. Even though they lacked the necessary skills, the company owners knew they were hard workers. Thus, this made it easier for the company owners to take advantage of them. Also, according to manythings.com, many of the new immigrants “did not protest working long hours for low pay” ( ) or “demand better working conditions” ( ). However, over time, the immigrants grew tired of the harsh working conditions and demanded for new policies. As a result, reforms were created in order to protect the immigrants and