Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution helped develop America into the advanced country it is today. With new forms of technology, transportation, and factory production, the great inventors during that time period transformed the daily way of life. (Heilbroner 12) Before the great Industrial Revolution, as in the 1700’s and early 1800’s, three-fourths of America’s total population grew their own food and wove their own clothing all by hand, without any form of technology to help, so simple tasks were very tedious. According to Heilbroner, if someone had a family, their work was twenty times harder than it would have been for just one person. Also, over eighty percent of people worked for themselves. There were no working jobs, where anyone would work for a large company. The only work people could find was to provide for their own family or trade their belongings with others. (Heilbroner 4) The trade routes to most countries had been cut off as a result from the War of 1812. Since Great Britain powered over Europe, the U.S. was not able to get into those countries anymore. America did not have money to trade for, so people needed to find a way to produce their own goods and resources. The people were desperate to find jobs. The people who did not have any money started working in the new sprouting factories. By then, everyone was willing to do anything just to get a job that payed money. Factory owners had an idea to not pay the workers very much, and keep most of the money. This brought a big contribution to the factories’ working conditions. (Drucker 16) Everything about the factories was terrible. This was because the factory owners did not care about the employees’ lives, as long as they worked. The employees only wanted the job done so they would earn money. All of the people that were able to work had to work for long hours at a time, sometimes even days. They would usually have to be woken up at four or five in the morning and go until eight to ten at night. In