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In this piece of art created by John Sloan in 1911, it is evident that the woman inside of the triangle, representing the Shirtwaist factory workers, is dead while the wealthy factory owners look ahead, not caring or having to worry about what is happening to the workers. This shows how society in this period was rigged against the poor and women, so when Haddix writes about lower-class women protagonists, it shows how much power these women really could have over their lives. Although they did not have many items of value, they were still able to find things in which they can have power. As represented in the artwork, the working class is drowning in interest while being cheated on with their pay and rent, "killing" the workers as they cannot keep up with their strict and intense work regimen. Again, this shows how the factory workers at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory were not just able to survive, but also had the willpower to sacrifice their minimal earnings to go out on a strike for months represents power and control they have over their own life.

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Haddix, P. Margaret. Uprising. Simon & Schuster, 2007.

Shusterman, Neal and Shusterman, Jarrod. Dry. Simon & Shuster, 2018.

A&E Television Networks. (n.d.). Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. History.com. https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/triangle-shirtwaist-fire

YouTube. (2019). Stronger. YouTube. Retrieved May 19, 2023, from https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XSvlIBhpFM8.

Sloan, John. The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire. New York Call, 1911, Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE, United States of America.

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"Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire" by History.com editors

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"Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire" by History.com editors

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https://www.history.com/topics/early-20th-century-us/triangle-shirtwaist-fire

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Table of Contents

1. Working Conditions in The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

2. What Started The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?

3. Importance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 146 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable-most of the victims died as a result of neglected safety features and locked doors within the factory building. The tragedy brought widespread attention to the dangerous sweatshop conditions of factories, and led to the development of a series of laws and regulations that better protected the safety of workers.

Working Conditions in The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory

The Triangle factory, owned by Max Blanck and Isaac Harris, was located in the top three floors of the Asch Building, on the corner of Greene Street and Washington Place, in Manhattan. It was a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English and worked 12 hours a day, every day. In 1911, there were four elevators with access to the factory floors, but only one was fully operational and the workers had to file down a long, narrow corridor in order to reach it. There were two stairways down to the street, but one was locked from the outside to prevent stealing and the other only opened inward. The fire escape was so narrow that it would have taken hours for all the workers to use it, even in the best of circumstances.

Did you know? Exactly 79 years to the day after the Triangle Shirtwaist factory fire, another tragic fire occurred in New York City. The blaze, at the Happy Land Social Club in the Bronx, killed 87 people, the most deadly fire in the city since 1911.

The danger of fire in factories like the Triangle Shirtwaist was well-known, but high levels of corruption in both the garment industry and city government generally ensured that no useful precautions were taken to prevent fires. Blanck and Harris already had a suspicious history of factory fires. The Triangle factory was twice scorched in 1902, while their Diamond Waist Company factory burned twice, in 1907 and in 1910. It seems that Blanck and Harris deliberately torched their workplaces before business hours in order to collect on the large fire-insurance policies they purchased, a not uncommon practice in the early 20th century. While this was not the cause of the 1911 fire, it contributed to the tragedy, as Blanck and Harris refused to install sprinkler systems and take other safety measures in case they needed to burn down their shops again.

Added to this delinquency were Blanck and Harris' notorious anti-worker policies. Their employees were paid a mere $15 a week, despite working 12 hours a day, every day. When the International Ladies Garment Workers Union led a strike in 1909 demanding higher pay and shorter and more predictable hours, Blanck and Harris' company was one of the few manufacturers who resisted, hiring police as thugs to imprison the striking women, and paying off politicians to look the other way.

What Started The Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire?

On March 25, a Saturday afternoon, there were 600 workers at the factory when a fire began in a rag bin. The manager attempted to use the fire hose to extinguish it, but was unsuccessful, as the hose was rotted and its valve was rusted shut. As the fire grew, panic ensued. The young workers tried to exit the building by the elevator but it could hold only 12 people and the operator was able to make just four trips back and forth before it broke down amid the heat and flames. In a desperate attempt to escape the fire, the girls left behind waiting for the elevator plunged down the shaft to their deaths. The girls who fled via the stairwells also met awful demises-when they found a locked door at the bottom of the stairs, many were burned alive.

Those workers who were on floors above the fire, including the owners, escaped to the roof and then to adjoining buildings. As firefighters arrived, they witnessed a horrible scene. The girls who did not make it to the stairwells or the elevator were trapped by the fire inside the factory and began to jump from the windows to escape it. The bodies of the jumpers fell on the fire hoses, making it difficult to begin fighting the fire. Also, the firefighters ladders reached only seven floors high and the fire was on the eighth floor. In one case, a life net was unfurled to catch jumpers, but three girls jumped at the same time, ripping the net. The nets turned out to be mostly ineffectual.

Within 18 minutes, it was all over. Forty-nine workers had burned to death or been suffocated by smoke, 36 were dead in the elevator shaft and 58 died from jumping to the sidewalks. With two more dying later from their injuries, a total of 146 people were killed by the fire.

Importance of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire

The fire helped unite organized labor and reform-minded politicians like progressive New York Governor Alfred E. Smith and Senator Robert F. Wagner, one of the legislative architects of President Franklin D. Roosevelt's New Deal agenda. Frances Perkins, who served on a committee that helped to set up the Factory Investigating Commission in New York in the wake of the fire, would later become Roosevelt's Secretary of Labor. The workers union set up a march on April 5 on New York's Fifth Avenue to protest the conditions that had led to the fire. It was attended by 80,000 people.

Despite a good deal of evidence that the owners and management had been horribly negligent in the fire, a grand jury failed to indict them on manslaughter charges. To settle lawsuits against them, they eventually paid $75 in compensation to each victim's family-a fraction of the $400 per death that they were paid by their insurer.

Still, the massacre for which they were responsible did finally compel the city to enact reform. In addition to the Sullivan-Hoey Fire Prevention Law passed that October, the New York Democratic set took up the cause of the worker and became known as a reform party. Both were crucial in preventing similar disasters in the future.

Fact Check

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On March 25, 1911, the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City burned, killing 146 workers. It is remembered as one of the most infamous incidents in American industrial history, as the deaths were largely preventable.

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Stronger - Kelly Clarkson
https://youtu.be/XSvlIBhpFM8

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Kelly Clarkson - Stronger (What Doesn’t Kill You) (Lyrics)

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What power does an individual have over their life?

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What power does an individual have over their life?

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Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

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Dry by Neal Shusterman and Jarrod Shusterman

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This article summarizes working conditions in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, how the factory fire started, and the importance of the fire. The first section, which is about the working conditions, explains what a day as a Triangle worker is like, having to work twelve hours each day in a harsh working environment. It also explains the inconvenient architecture of the building and how it does not qualify for good fire safety. The second section describes how the fire was started, and the fate of the girls who were working when the fire began. The third and final section talks about why this fire was significant, and what laws and reforms were enforced in order to improve working conditions and lessen risks such as fires.

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In Southern California, a drought has occurred, and in many cities, water becomes scarce, causing citizens to enter a state of panic and fight for water. Alyssa's parents disappear after attempting to retrieve water for them, and Kelton McCracken helps Alyssa and Garrett since his family is prepared for any disaster that might come. The three of them eventually meet Jacqui and Henry, who join their group. At first, they stay in Kelton's apocalypse-ready house, but after it gets invaded, they head for the McCracken bug-out, their backup hideout including necessary survival supplies such as water and food, but Kelton's brother who had been crashing there had used up all the supplies. In the forest they were in, there was a water reservoir that had not dried up, so the group decided to head there before it was too late, seeing as they didn't have any water. Henry runs away, and a campfire marks the beginning of a forest fire and ends up cornering Alyssa's group only a short distance from the reservoir. Not sure what to do, Jacqui decides to risk it all and run through the fire to the reservoir and makes it, and Alyssa, Garrett, and Kelton were near death when a helicopter came to the rescue and saved them.

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Representation - Do you believe the experiences of your protagonist were representative of the experiences of most people at that time? Do some research to confirm and explore this question. 

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Representation - Do you believe the experiences of your protagonist were representative of the experiences of most people at that time? Do some research to confirm and explore this question. 

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The protagonists in Uprising accurately represented the events that occurred surrounding the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and its infamous fire. For one, History.com says, "[The factory] was a true sweatshop, employing young immigrant women who worked in a cramped space at lines of sewing machines. Nearly all the workers were teenaged girls who did not speak English and worked 12 hours a day, every day" (History.com). Neither Bella nor Yetta, both immigrants from foreign countries, could speak English, at least fluently, at the beginning of the novel, but they did end up learning some eventually. In her perspective, Bella also (long work days )

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Bella is a girl who has moved from Italy to the US in order to make money for her family, who was in poverty. Yetta has been trying to start a Union full of shirtwaist factory workers who would strike, forcing the factory to not cheat them and give them better working conditions. Like Bella, Yetta is living in poverty, struggling to get what she needs to survive. Jane has grown up luxuriously compared to the others and has always been something her rich father showed off until she started questioning his morals and ran away from home. When the three meet, they all find jobs and live off of the minimal amount of money earned, still participating in the strike, and attempting to change the world. One day, a fire starts in the factory where they all happen to be. Jane and Yetta, unfortunately, die helping others escape, while Bella lives to tell the tale.

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"But people were dying here. Yetta could help now. Yetta pulled her hand back. 'You go on!' she screamed. 'I still have to help the others!'" (Haddix 242).

"One girl fainted right at Yetta's feet. Yetta reached down and slapped her, jerked her up. 'No time for that!' Yetta screamed. 'You'll die!'" (Haddix 224).

"'Come back and find me again sometime,' Jane whispered. 'Maybe sometime in the spring. I'll be fine, you'll see. Come back and tell me about your daughters…' She would have said 'and my father too,' but her throat had closed up, 'Aye, I will,' Mr. Corrigan whispered back. 'That I will.'" (Haddix 217).

“‘You wanted something to happen now,’ Bella said. ‘And you’-she turned toward Jane-’you wanted real flowers, not fake. So I…’ She gestured at the rose, as if its beauty could speak for itself” (Haddix 267).

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The song "Stronger" by Kelly Clarkson was chosen because it represents how the person who is talked about in the song is an independent person, and how they are able to become independent using their power. In the song, Clarkson says, "You think you got the best of me // Think you've had the last laugh // Bet you think that everything good is gone // Think you left me broken down // Think that I'll come running back" (Clarkson 5-9). In this quote, it is evident that she is beginning to show her independence and that she doesn't need this other person in her life. It also shows that she has power over herself and that she is going to keep living and being happy instead of worrying over the person being sung about. The chorus of the song says, "What doesn't kill you makes you stronger // Stand a little taller // Doesn't mean I'm lonely when I'm alone // What doesn't kill you makes a fighter // Footsteps even lighter // Doesn't mean I'm over 'cause you're gone" (Clarkson 11-16). Here, she talks about how she can be one with the power she has over herself and that she only needs herself to thrive.

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One of the most obvious similarities between these two novels is the life-changing fire that occurs at the climax of the story. From an outside perspective, the fire seems to be one of, if not the most significant piece of the plot. The pacing is fast, and the mood is very intense and suspenseful, making the reader almost want to scream at the characters. A difference between the two novels is the genre. Uprising is based on true events occurring at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory such as the strikes and fire, making it historical fiction. Dry is written in an apocalyptic, dystopian genre and is completely made up. However, it is still realistic to a degree, and would not be completely implausible to happen sometime in the future.