Responses to Industrialization

In response to Leo's quotes about the rights of the working man, I found that there were a few quotes I was particularly interested in. The first ones were all about how work is actually beneficial to the society, which I found that to be true. When we are working, we not only learn new things but also the products that we make are beneficial to our society. We need work in order to further humanity. The quote about how we also have the right to rest is also interesting. We all know that rest is important to us, but sometimes resting gets lost in our busy schedules. During the Industrialization period, people had long working hours and were place in harsh conditions. The people were not given the right amount of breaks which lead to many accidents. It makes sense that without rest, people get careless then there work gets careless which could lead to dangerous accidents. Another quote that I found to be particularly profound was about just wages. A just wage is defined to be a sufficient income that can support a family with a wife, children, and himself. However, a just wage is not always seen. People are taken advantage of, especially if they are child workers. These problems still exists today where workers are given minimum wage and can barely support their family.

Ch.17

While reading about the conflicts of the Natives and the miners and settlers into the High Plains, what shocked me was how animals killed were acceptable and encouraged by the settlers and the Army. Especially when they said that in just one year, 430 bison were killed to feed the workers building the Unions Pacific Railroad. What surprised me even more it that the buffalo were seen as a tool to undermine Native resistance.  

The frontier life was hard for settlers as there was little rainfall and psychological troubles that surfaced. It was hard enough to build a house but such dry lands for even harder to grow crops. If I was living in the time, as a woman, I would also go crazy with the limited supplies and the sod houses that was described to be like the ones hogs would live in. I think I would be like the other who just gave up their land and moved on to somewhere that had more rich soil.

As for the new land that the US seceded from Mexico, even though they promised to protect the Mexicans residence but it never really happened. They were pushed out of their land and the Spanish people were expected to adapt to the Anglo American concept. This is really like the situation we have now where it is ironic that the land we lived in used to be from the Spaniards but we are dealing with immigration issues to keep them out of US borders. This issue still exist since Spanish speaking residents are either expected to go back south of the border or assimilate into the Anglo American concept.

Chapter 13

     While reading this chapter, I was really interested in the lives of the immigrants. When they first decided to come to America, they thought of America as an Utopia where they could have better job opportunity and lifestyle. However, they were really shocked after coming here how difficult it was to even acquire land and be landlords. It made me think of how my family were immigrants that was looking for a better life when in reality it was hard to live in a new environment and in an unfamiliar territory. It mentioned how the Germans were secluded within their own neighborhood because they had their own doctors, lawyers, teacher, and merchants making it hard for them to be influential politicians. It reminded me of how as Asians, we would gather in groups, see doctors who can speak my language, and shop in supermarkets that sell the food I am accustomed to.
     I was also surprised that it the Irish would actually have to compete with the free blacks for jobs. I would of though that since they are Europeans that they would have some kind of advantage over the blacks. It seems like the Irish were the poorest because even if they were skilled, they still had to compete with other Anglo Americans. They ended up working for the lowest paying job because no one else wanted to do them. Then towards the end of the chapter, it also mentioned about how Chinese were disliked as immigrant workers. However, after residing in San Francisco, Americans did not stop hiring the Chinese as workers. That really troubled me because if they really disliked the Chinese flowing into America, the Americans should stop hiring them to stop the immigration. However, it did make sense that the Chinese were probably
 the only ones that would want the kind of job that was offered.

Chapter 12

While reading chapter about the Old South and the life of the slaves during the 1800's, I felt that it was interesting how the slaves did not have that much rebellious events. Or if they did other slaves would actually ruin their plans and have them executed. In the case of Denmark Vasey and his abolitionist group, other slaves actually told the authorities that they were going to seize ammunition and rebel against their master. I found that it was interesting how the blacks saw freedom only as a dream and not actively make it into reality. Although there was the abolitionists who helped blacks escape, these hideouts were actually the first place their masters would find their slaves. Also, because the free states in the North was much more urban and had foreign immigrants competing with the blacks for work, it was actually better for the free blacks to become skilled artisans in the South. I feel like the life of a slave with a family is definitely holding them back from claiming their independence. Black people would much rather work and be with their children than risking for freedom, which seems so hopeless and uncertain. Actually their life in general is very hopeless, even if they had a family, many times, their youngest child would die due to malnutrition, diseases, hygiene problems, other times slave families would be sold off to different slave owners since law does not protect black slave families.