What social effects did the 19th century mining boom have?
Like many other industries that existed throughout the 19th Century, such as factories, mining created a social hierarchy in which the man or men who owned the mine usually became rich off this venture and may own multiple mines. Below him, he would have foremen and other supervisers who were paid decently, but had it much better than the miners themselves, who would have been the peasants in this scheme. These miners, at least in Michigan in the copper and iron ore mines in and west of Marquette in the Upper Peninsula, generally came from Europe. In Michigan’s case, these men came from Scandinavia and sometimes England, especially Cornwell. There were many instances where the miners and their families would live in a company town, where they were very proximal to work and everything that they would need would be nearby, including stores, churches, etc. Many times, the miners would be paid with credit which would only be good at the stores in town, which allowed the owners to get wealt
