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What were some issues immigrants faced during the Gilded Age?

What were some issues immigrants faced during the Gilded Age?

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What were some issues immigrants faced during the Gilded Age?
Perspectives of Laborers Document 1: Interview with Mary Domsky-Abrams, a blouse operator on the 9th floor after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.... Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. In a half an hour, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers-mostly young women were dead. 154 KILLED IN SKYSCRAPER FACTORY FIRE; SCORES BURN, OTHERS LEAP TO DEATH. "...There were very few men in the shop; the hundreds of girls were mostly Jewish, a few were Italians... Most of us were not yet 20 years old. A forelady from the ninth floor jumped from the high floor and was saved by her coat catching on a hook at the sixth floor, and she remained hanging there...Flames poured through the windows of the top floors and thick smoke billowed...[I got outside and] I saw that, besides ambulances, they were bringing caskets... The screams and sobs all around were deafening. Water was being poured onto the flames, the firemen and police were doing their utmost, but they were not prepared for such an overwhelming emergency... A group of men made a human ladder of themselves in an attempt to make it possible for girls hunched in fear at the windows not yet on fire to cross over to the next building... But all the men, about 10 of them, fell down, not being able to bear the weight, and were killed together... [During my time at the sweatshop], The bosses held themselves [distant] from the workers; we never saw them in the shop. They had their offices on the tenth floor, and rarely showed themselves..." 1. What were some issues women faced during the Gilded Age? Document 2: Excerpt from an interview with an immigrant working at a meatpacking factory, 1906. "One of the rules [was that any] man who was one minute late was docked an hour's [pay].... And on the other hand if he came [early] he got no pay for that - [but the funny thing is, they would make everyone start working 10-15 minutes early]. [lf] a man worked a full fifty minutes, but [did not work a full hour] there was no pay for him.... [When processing meat], there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; old sausage was moldy and white would be dosed with borax [a white powder used in detergents, flame retardants, and disinfectants]...and [sometimes limbs and fingers would get caught in meat grinders by accident and be mixed in with animal meat...these workers would be expected to work again the next day]... There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit. . . . There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats...... There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be [mixed] into the sausage. . . ."
Transcribed Image Text:Perspectives of Laborers Document 1: Interview with Mary Domsky-Abrams, a blouse operator on the 9th floor after the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire in 1911. On Saturday, March 25, 1911, a fire broke out on the top floors of the Triangle Shirtwaist factory.... Trapped inside because the owners had locked the fire escape exit doors, workers jumped to their deaths. In a half an hour, the fire was over, and 146 of the 500 workers-mostly young women were dead. 154 KILLED IN SKYSCRAPER FACTORY FIRE; SCORES BURN, OTHERS LEAP TO DEATH. "...There were very few men in the shop; the hundreds of girls were mostly Jewish, a few were Italians... Most of us were not yet 20 years old. A forelady from the ninth floor jumped from the high floor and was saved by her coat catching on a hook at the sixth floor, and she remained hanging there...Flames poured through the windows of the top floors and thick smoke billowed...[I got outside and] I saw that, besides ambulances, they were bringing caskets... The screams and sobs all around were deafening. Water was being poured onto the flames, the firemen and police were doing their utmost, but they were not prepared for such an overwhelming emergency... A group of men made a human ladder of themselves in an attempt to make it possible for girls hunched in fear at the windows not yet on fire to cross over to the next building... But all the men, about 10 of them, fell down, not being able to bear the weight, and were killed together... [During my time at the sweatshop], The bosses held themselves [distant] from the workers; we never saw them in the shop. They had their offices on the tenth floor, and rarely showed themselves..." 1. What were some issues women faced during the Gilded Age? Document 2: Excerpt from an interview with an immigrant working at a meatpacking factory, 1906. "One of the rules [was that any] man who was one minute late was docked an hour's [pay].... And on the other hand if he came [early] he got no pay for that - [but the funny thing is, they would make everyone start working 10-15 minutes early]. [lf] a man worked a full fifty minutes, but [did not work a full hour] there was no pay for him.... [When processing meat], there was never the least attention paid to what was cut up for sausage; old sausage was moldy and white would be dosed with borax [a white powder used in detergents, flame retardants, and disinfectants]...and [sometimes limbs and fingers would get caught in meat grinders by accident and be mixed in with animal meat...these workers would be expected to work again the next day]... There would be meat that had tumbled out on the floor, in the dirt and sawdust, where the workers had tramped and spit. . . . There would be meat stored in great piles in rooms; and the water from leaky roofs would drip over it, and thousands of rats would race about on it. It was too dark in these storage places to see well, but a man could run his hand over these piles of meat and sweep off handfuls of the dried dung of rats...... There was no place for the men to wash their hands before they ate their dinner, and so they made a practice of washing them in the water that was to be [mixed] into the sausage. . . ."
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