Making It in America: The Almost Impossible Quest to Manufacture in the U.S.A. (And How It Got That Way)

by Rachel Slade

In the wild days of unregulated industrialization, disaster sometimes struck. In January 1860, the Pemberton Mill, a five-story brick and iron building, collapsed under the weight of new industrial machinery the owners had piled onto the second floor in search of greater profits, killing at least eighty-eight people in what would be deemed one of the worst industrial accidents in American history. The twisted iron, piles of broken bricks, and massive machinery trapped more than six hundred women and children in a scene of horror. As evening approached, rescuers built bonfires to aid their search, revealing “faces crushed beyond recognition, open wounds in which the bones showed through a paste of dried blood, brick dust, and shredded clothing,” recorded an observer. The year before the accident, the millworkers earned their shareholders the equivalent of $42 million.