I have been doing some research for my topic and have stumbled about information about the Triangle Factory Fire. The Triangle Factory, a clothing factory in New York City, caught fire due to unsafe working conditions in 1911. According to The Story of the Triangle Fire, "This incident has had great significance to this day because it highlights the inhumane working conditions to which industrial workers can be subjected." The fire sparked (no pun intended) controversy amongst the friends, family, and workers of this community to fight back.
This sweatshop, as it is referred to as, reminds me of the video that we watched in class. Only when horrible accidents begin happening do the owners of the companies begin to notice. Not only this, but the Triangle Factory's workers were not in a union as well. Finally, the fact that after the fire killed over a hundred immigrant workers, protest began for a unionized and safer workplace. The immigrants made up this community and each male and/or female member of the family worked for the factory; therefore, factors concerning the workers were important not just to individuals, but the entire COMMUNITY.
I am not exactly sure if this will work yet for my research project but I am still doing research on it!
Anna - you will be able to find a lot of secondary material on this topic, just be sure that you don't fall into the habit of writing a research paper about the fire itself. While you can discuss this tragedy, as you have pointed out above, you will really want to look at the role of the community and how they responded to the accident. Please be sure that you are beginning to look for primary sources as well. They may be more difficult to come across in Michigan.!
ReplyDeleteI watched a movie about this disaster in my high school history class. This was a very interesting event/situation. The conditions in the factory, the very poor conditions in the factory, were over looked because a large portion of the employees at this factory were women and/or immigrants.
ReplyDeleteAnna,
ReplyDeleteThis topic is relatively close to my heart, even though this is my first time hearing of this horrible tragedy. This is because my family came from Lithuania and were/are immigrants. They had to work in some terrible conditions just to be able to make a "living." It angers me when even today there are companies that only react to situations when they become terrible...