The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire was a very fast and deadly fire that occurred on March 25, 1911 at the Triangle Shirtwaist sweatshop in New York. Within one-half hour 146 mostly young immigrant women died when they could not get out of the sweatshop due to locked doors and windows and inadequate fire escapes. This fire highlighted the plight of the overworked and underpaid garment industry workers, and caused a public outcry against the abuses poor workers faced more generally from unscrupulous employers.
Visit the following link: http://www.ilr.cornell.edu/trianglefire/
Your assignment: “Select, analyze and write about the past”
Visit the website listed above and familiarize yourself with the materials contained therein. They consist of a diverse set of opinions on the factory and the fire.
Choose two of the following sections to focus your attention on:
Political cartoons and photographs
Oral histories
Sweatshops and strikes before 1911
The Triangle Fire
Relief Work and Investigative Activities
Mourning the dead
Fire Victims
As you are reading, consider the following questions:
Does a dominant theme emerge from the information?
How did different sides (factory owners, bystanders, labor activities), view the incident?
Is there some particularly interesting section that sheds light on the fire or the victims?
Write an essay (2-3 pages or 500-1,000 words, double-spaced, 12 pt. Times New Roman font) on the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. In your essay, you should:
Include a “funnel introduction” with a thesis statement. See my Canvas Powerpoint on “How to Write a Kickass Essay.”
Provide a brief summary of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire (first body paragraph).
Using 2 oral histories under the Listen to and read interviews of survivors and witnesses link, examine the event from two different perspectives. What major themes arise? (This should be a substantial position of your paper. I suggest 2-3 body paragraphs).
Finally, examine the ramifications and impact of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire. How did people react initially? What reforms were implemented after? What long-term impacts have the fire and reforms had on American society and labor relations? (1-2 body paragraphs).
*A note on sources. You should ONLY be using sources from the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory website and American Yawp. Do NOT use any outside sources. That means no Wikipedia or any other online article.
**When citing sources, you can simply cite the author at the end of your sentence in parentheses, followed by the page number. For example:
The New York Times claimed, “bla bla bla (New York Times, 232).”
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