I loved the discussion of her early years. The turn of the twentieth century is one of the most interesting (to me) periods in American history.
Everything was happening at once.
--The Western fronteir had closed, and America was trying to settle into being a country without the endless opportunities to the West.
--The Industrial Revolution was in full swing, people were moving from the farms to the cities, we were becoming for the first time an urban society.
--There was an incredible surge of immigration. My grandparents, and probably many of yours, came to the country at that time.
--And to top it all off, there was the Demographic Transition!
What's that? Every developing country goes through it. In a darming society, the birth rate is high, but unfortunately, the death rate is also high. My great-great-grandparents had ten children, but only two lived to adulthood.
With industrialization, conditions improve, so the death rate drops, but the birth rate doesn't. My grandparents, at the turn of the century, had ten children, and they all lived. My grandmother had to scramble to take care of them. She wasn't the only one. Between immigration and the natural increase, the US population doubled in ten years, almost all of it in the newly formed cities, which were literally bursting at the seams.
Later, the birth rate drops: my parents had two children (PatH and I). But that was later.
Meanwhile, the cities were teeming with just about every social problem you can imagine, as all these people, especially the immegrants, tried to find decent work, decent ousing, etc. Laborers were a dime a dozen, so employers had no incentive to pay or treat them well; there were no laws limiting what they could do (or when there were, they were ignored. Housing was so scarce, families doubled and tripled up. Prenatal and birthing care was beyond the reach of the poor.
Housing, family, and working conditions were at a level we can't even imagine today. And Perkins was in the middle of all of it! She was inspired by Jacob Riis, a photographer who documented the unspeakable housing conditions and managed to get some reforms. She went to Chicago and worked with Jane Addams, the woman who started the settlement House movement to educate immigrants.
And she actually saw the Triangle Shirtwaist fire: an event that was pivotal in the labor movement to improve working conditions. The workers had been LOCKED IN. So when the fire broke out, they couldn't get out, and they died.
Perkins wasn't the only one who was galvanized by this. It was so horrible, it got the attention of many who had ignopred or been ignorant of the working conditions of the day. But Perkins was amazing in how she was able and effective in carrying that attention through her life. What a woman!! I love her already.
