Did Industrialization help America?
New inventions, like the steam engine and cotton gin, revolutionized the way that markets
produced machinery to make labor more efficient and powerful, launching the Industrial
Revolution. However, the Industrial Revolution did not help America grow as a country because
the Industrial Revolution discouraged women from work, abused slaves for profit, and gave
white men superiority.
In the Industrial Revolution, women were treated badly and did not have many rights
because their labor was influenced by men. During the Industrial Revolution, America was a
patriarchy, which meant men had power and skill over women. For example, women in the 18th
century had limited education compared to men at the time because they were not allowed to
attend school. This meant that women did not have as many rights as men did, and were
disrespected because of their gender. Women were less valued at the time of the Industrial
Revolution. Furthermore, women during the Industrial Revolution did not decide their own
futures and instead their futures were decided by their fathers or other men in their lives. These
futures could be decided by men in their household and those men decide who they will marry or
what job they will continue to perform in the future. Having the men in the woman’s household
decide her own future for herself and not allowing the woman decide, truly shows that the
Industrial Revolution functioned in a male-dominated society, and it showed that women were
treated as unequal at this time. Finally, women and children had to endure harsh work conditions
while having no personal gain when doing labor in mills. The harsh work conditions had health
consequences, such as dirty and messy workspaces, which could lead to long-term damage. In
conclusion, women’s jobs, daily lives, and labor opportunities were impacted by men, and
therefore they did not have many rights or have power and privilege, which is why the Industrial
Revolution was a bad time for America’s growth.
Secondly, people abused other beings and used them as slaves to make a profit, which did
not help the United States grow as a country. To make a profit during the 1800’s while industries
and inventions, like the cotton gin, were being revolutionized, the amount of labor that had to be
done in order to make a profit was unimaginable. In order to gain profit off plantation farming,
mill and plantation owners had to use other people, mostly black people, to harvest the crops
against their will in terrible conditions. For example, in Frederick Douglas’s journal entries, he
stated that, “There were no beds given the slaves unless one coarse blanket be considered such,
and none but the men and women had these. Mr. Severe, the overseer, used to stand by the door
of the quarter, armed with a large hickory stick and heavy cowskin, ready to whip any one who
was so unfortunate as to not hear, or, from any other cause, was prevented from being ready to
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