Post-bellum America experienced a shift from a rural, agrarian society to an urban, industrial society which caused a conversion in the way families functioned, forced Americans and immigrants alike to adjust to the unsympathetic factory system, and gave career opportunities to women for ages to come.
Born in the country, America moved to the city in the decades following the Civil War. As agriculture deteriorated in relation to manufacturing, America could no longer aspire to be a nation of small freehold farms. Industrial jobs, above all, drew country folks off the farms and into fac…
