How Was Life In The 1800s Different From Today?

​ (1800 – 1900) was much different to life today. There was no electricity, instead gas lamps or candles were used for light . There were no cars. People either walked, travelled by boat or train or used coach horses to move from place to place.

What was life like in the early 1800s?

Life for the average person in the 1800’s was hard . Many lived a hand-to-mouth existence, working long hours in often harsh conditions. There was no electricity, running water or central heating.

What was life like for a woman in the 1800s?

During the early 1800’s, women were generally trapped in their homes and would only perform domestic chaos and duties . Nature and the society had given them roles as the home keepers, ethical keepers for the home and the entire society, as well as house wives for their families(Wayne, 2007, p. 99)..

What was work life like in the 1800s?

Many workers in the late 1800s and early 1900s spent an entire day tending a machine in a large, crowded, noisy room . Others worked in coal mines, steel mills, railroads, slaughterhouses, and in other dangerous occupations. Most were not paid well, and the typical workday was 12 hours or more, six days per week.

What was life like for a child in the 1800?

The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity . Gender, social status, and the region in which a child lived determined how much schooling a child would receive and where and how they would get it.

What was life like in the 1850’s?

Since most people lived on farms, they ate what they could grow, wore clothes they could sew at home , and oriented their daily life around seasonal rhythms. Their houses were built along the same lines as those of their grandfathers, and they kept to their old customs even when they moved to new locations.

What did Victorian ladies do all day?

Victorian women were expected to run the house, manage the servants , be the best possible hostess and raise the children. For the middle-class Victorian woman however, there was also plenty of time free for hobbies and entertainment.

What chores did girls do in the 1800s?

Girls spent long days cooking, milking cows or goats , collecting eggs, churning butter, making breads and cheeses, preserving foods, cleaning, doing laundry, making candles, sewing clothes for the family, preparing fibers like wool and flax to spin and weave, caring for younger brothers and sisters and helping elderly ...

How long was a work day in the 1800s?

In the 1800s, as workers moved to jobs in large factories, employers shortened these hours by standardizing work to the tempo of the factory whistle and using new technologies to raise productivity. The work week declined to 68 hours by 1860, and to about 65 hours at the turn of the century.

How long was the average work day in 1840?

Factory workers regularly put in 12-hour days and 68-hour workweeks. By 1840 the workweek in the major mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts averages 74 hours .

What did people eat in the 1800s?

Most fruits and vegetables were grown on the farmstead, and families processed meats such as poultry, beef, and pork. People had seasonal diets. In the spring and summer months, they ate many more fruits and vegetables than they did in the fall and winter.

What was America like 1820?

The decade of the 1820s in American history brought technological advances in transportation such as the Erie Canal and the Santa Fe Trail, early computing and hurricane studies, and a distinct souring of the way people in the United States saw their government.

What was it like being a teenager in the 1800s?

We may think of it as innocent and carefree, but life as a child was not as carefree as it is now. It was much more harsh and serious. Children growing up in the 1800s were dressed in the same manner as adults and were expected to take on adult responsibilities at an early age. ... Girls often married by age 15 or 16.

What happened in the year 1860?

The decade was noted for featuring numerous major societal shifts in the Americas. In the United States, the election of abolitionist Abraham Lincoln to the presidency in 1860 led to the secession of the southern states in the form of the Confederate States of America (CSA).

What happened in the 1840s?

Captain Charles Wilkes circumnavigates Antarctica , claiming it for the United States on January 19, 1840. William Henry Harrison wins the 1840 presidential election, defeating incumbent Martin Van Buren. ... Ireland’s “Potato Famine” results in an influx of Irish immigrants to the United States beginning in 1845.

How did Victorians go to the toilet?

They were leg coverings that were left split, wide and droopy, usually from the top of the pubis clear round to the top of your buns. This allowed a woman to use either chamber pot, outhouse , or early toilet by just flipping her skirts (which she needed both hands to do, they were so long and heavy), and squatting.

Did Victorian ladies shave?

In the Victorian era, ladies with excess facial or body hair didn’t have the luxury of making an appointment at their local salon. Instead, women employed various methods of hair removal at home. There was shaving and tweezing , of course, but there were also more dangerous methods.

What year did the 8 hour work day become common?

September 3, 1916 : Congress passed the Adamson Act, a federal law that established an eight-hour workday for interstate railroad workers. The Supreme Court constitutionalized the act in 1917.

How did Victorian ladies deal with periods?

Therefore, while women continued most of their daily work, they avoided activities they believed could halt the flow. The most salient precaution was avoiding getting chilled , whether by bathing, doing the wash in cold water, or working outside in cold, damp weather.

What work did kids do in the 1800s?

Children performed all sorts of jobs including working on machines in factories , selling newspapers on street corners, breaking up coal at the coal mines, and as chimney sweeps. Sometimes children were preferred to adults because they were small and could easily fit between machines and into small spaces.

Where did the 8 hour work day come from?

An eight-hour work day has its origins in the 16th century Spain , but the modern movement dates back to the Industrial Revolution in Britain, where industrial production in large factories transformed working life.

Why was the 8 hour work day created?

By and large, the eight-hour work day was created to protect workers who held jobs brought about by the industrial revolution .

What happened to the 30 hour work week?

But we have been here before. In 1933, the Senate passed, and President Franklin D. Roosevelt supported , a bill to reduce the standard workweek to only 30 hours. ... Some studies estimate that when slavery ended, the hours African Americans spent working fell by 26 to 35 percent.

When did the six day work week end?

Hours of Work during the Twentieth Century

In particular, hours fell strongly during the years surrounding World War I, so that by 1919 the eight-hour day (with six workdays per week) had been won.

When did the 40-hour work week start?

1938: Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which required employers to pay overtime to all employees who worked more than 44 hours a week. They amended the act two years later to reduce the work week to 40 hours. 1940 : The 40-hour work week became U.S. law.

What was life like in the 1880’s?

Between 1880 and 1890, almost 40 percent of the townships in the United States lost population because of migration. Industrial expansion and population growth radically changed the face of the nation’s cities. Noise, traffic jams, slums, air pollution, and sanitation and health problems became commonplace.

What was breakfast like in the 1800s?

Before cereal, in the mid 1800s, the American breakfast was not all that different from other meals. Middle- and upper-class Americans ate eggs, pastries, and pancakes , but also oysters, boiled chickens, and beef steaks.

What did they cook in the 1800s?

Pies, biscuits, and cakes were commonly cooked in this type of oven. While the women spent most of their day preparing and cooking meals, the men were busy farming, hunting, fishing, and tending to the livestock. Wild game, such as deer and turkey were commonly consumed as well as pigs. Pigs were a staple in the south.

How did they keep food cold in the 1800s?

By the end of the 1800s, many American households stored their perishable food in an insulated “icebox” that was usually made of wood and lined with tin or zinc. A large block of ice was stored inside to keep these early refrigerators chilly.

Who invented teenager?

Fifty years ago, the word “teenager” was used for the first time – coined by Bill Haley and the Comets during a UK tour in February 1957.

What were the 1800s known for?

Brief Summary of the 1800’s

The invention and first use of technology from the 1800’s is also integral to our lives today. Steam locomotives , the battery, photography, sewing machines, pasteurization, dynamite, the telephone, first practical car using internal-combustion engine and Coca Cola are just a few examples.

What happened in the year 1822?

November 9 – Action of 9 November 1822: USS Alligator (1820) engages three pirate schooners off Cuba, as part of the West Indies anti-piracy operations of the United States. Greek War of Independence: Nafplio falls to the Greek rebels. The Congregation of St. Basil founded in France .

What was going on in the 1720s?

February 24 – Battle of Nassau : Spanish forces assault the British settlement of Nassau, Bahamas during the War of the Quadruple Alliance. March 11 (February 29 Old Style) – Queen Ulrika Eleonora of Sweden resigns, to let her husband Frederick I take over as king of Sweden.

What happened in the year 1818?

October 20 – The Treaty of 1818 between the U.S. and the United Kingdom establishes the northern boundary of the U.S. as the 49th parallel from the Lake of the Woods to the Rocky Mountains, also creating the Northwest Angle. December 3 – Illinois is admitted as the 21st U.S. state (see History of Illinois).

What event happened in 1865?

The American Civil War ends with the surrender of the Confederate States, beginning the Reconstruction era of U.S. history.

What was America like 1870?

In 1870, America was in the middle of great change as the Second Industrial Revolution was just starting, and millions of immigrants were heading for the US. At the time, fashion was more formal, and people loved traveling by carriage, steamboat, or railway. Americans were also shopping via catalogs 150 years ago.

What was invented in the 1860s?