With the advancement of Industry Lowell started to operate textile plants. From the early 1800’s to the 1850’s the number of plants doubled, tripled, and quadrupled. This boom in industry caused Lowell to come up with new ways to produce items. These plants produced many different items. However, it was not the items that were produced that were unique, it was how they were produced that was. In Lowell the use of female labor was much higher here than in most of the rest of the country. By 1836, out of the 6,000 employees in the town, 5,000 were women. (The Northern Nation- The two Nations, 2011). Women were paid less then men, however they had more chances to learn and get an education than anywhere else in the entire United States. Lowell also was producing textiles at a higher rate than anywhere. In fact they produced more than the entire south combined. This was what made the town so unique. Not only were they producing textiles at such an extreme rate, they were using women to do it. This set the mold so to speak for a form the rest of the country could follow in the wake of their success.
In the booming economy of the industrial revolution, Lowell Massachusetts was setting the pace and style for what was to come. It was these styles that set the pace for the rest of the country.
Works citied:
http://www.libraryindex.com/history/pages/cmxyrbwuxk/northern-nation-nations-industry.html
You May Also Find These Documents Helpful
-
* Agriculture in the New England Colonies: poor soil, mountains, cold winters, and a short growing season.…
- 1600 Words
- 7 Pages
Good Essays -
Waltham played a crucial role in the American Industrial Revolution. Established in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell and his fellow entrepreneurs (known as the Boston Associates), the Boston Manufacturing Company transformed the country’s textile industry. The integrated spinning and weaving factory built in Waltham was the first of its kind in the world. By introducing significant technical and organizational improvements (including a power loom, strict supervision and less…
- 478 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
When the colonists arrived in Massachusetts a man named Thomas Prence bought land in Brewster from the Native Americans. He saw how the Native Americans were using the river to catch herring. Prince thought it would be a great place for a grist mill. When the grist mill was built everyone loved it for the corn meal. Back then everyone ate cornmeal or cornbread everyday, maybe even twice a day. So to have that so readily available was amazing for the colonists. Fabric was also sent there to be “pre-shrunk” in the water before giving to families to sew. In 1706 the first mill sadly burned down. 45 years later in 1873 they decided to build another one. They didn't think they really needed another one but they thought that it was such an amazing part of the history so they built another one for anyone to use. That very one has been there ever since.…
- 378 Words
- 2 Pages
Satisfactory Essays -
Farmer was born March 23, 1857, and raised near Boston, Massachusetts. Her family believed in education for women and Farmer attended Medford High School; however, as a teenager she suffered a paralytic stroke that turned her into a homebound invalid for a period of years. As a result, she was unable to complete high school or attend college and her illness left her with a permanent limp. When she was in her early 30s, Farmer attended the Boston Cooking School. Founded in 1879, the school promoted a scientific approach to food preparation and trained women to become cooking teachers at a time when their employment opportunities were limited. Farmer graduated from the program in 1889 and in 1891 became the school’s principal. In 1896, she published…
- 176 Words
- 1 Page
Satisfactory Essays -
The American economy was growing and changing in the mid 1800’s and new technology meant more demand for work. With the demand for work increasing the work place also changed from just men working to both men and women working. This new trend was set in Lowell, Massachusetts by a man named Cabot Lowell. Cabot had seen the textile factories in England and he wanted to make sure that his factories were not as dirty as the ones in England. To give his companies a good name he made sure that the general public saw the woman that worked in his factories as pure church going woman (Wheeler and Becker, 136). Despite the efforts to make woman working in factories popular there was a lot…
- 434 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
The wages for women were generally higher than others, “it was a planned community with mills five to seven stories high flanked by dormitories for the workers, not jammed together but surrounded by open space filled with trees and flower gardens set against a backdrop of the river and hills beyond.” This was the ideal work place, even today. Today, one hears complaints as to how terrible it was to work in their factory workplace. Having to work overtime at late notice and for workers at Ikea factories, “it's common to find out on Friday evening that they'll have to pull a weekend shift, with disciplinary action for those who can't or don't show up.”(Los Angeles Times) Lowell turned out to be no different, it wanted to maximize its profits and so it did. Like throughout most of history, most labor unions, such as the American Federation of Labor, failed and as a result many people were fired and blacklisted. Such labor unions protested, and as I’ve read in the young…
- 500 Words
- 2 Pages
Good Essays -
In John F. Kasson’s “Civilizing the Machine,” Kasson enlightens his audience that cities did not create factories, factories created cities. During the dawn of the British Industrial Revolution, the Americans began to adopt their own form of this event through the creations of factories and water-powered generators which, at the beginning of the time, revolved around the New England/ Boston area. Kasson explains through his article of the various entrepreneurs who founded these first factories and the then goes on to describe the positive and negative effects this had on people of these areas. On a more broad perspective, he argues for claim that this first step towards modern day industrialization, although it accommodated to the region, changed the land significantly. Kasson also infers that the protests of this event led to the growing population of Irish.…
- 867 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
1. As evidenced by the formation of the Lowell Female Reform Association in 1844, female workers in New England…
- 2835 Words
- 12 Pages
Good Essays -
In a letter from a Lowell mill girl in 1844, she describes her work schedule, which occasionally ranged to 13 hours in the factory per day. Although provided breaks, she states the girls’ annoyed beliefs saying that “laboring girls can say, who think nothing is more tedious than a factory life.” (Document B) An opportunity for women in the workplace was still extremely rare, but becoming more known. Still under the impression of becoming a ideal bride, women worked before marriage and then became housewives/mothers. In the family, women were also becoming in charge of a new trend, a child centered environment. This differed from in the past where childhood was short and tough. During the Age of Reform, middle class women played a big part in the reform crusades, finding it as a way to get out of the house and enter public affairs. Not only was the reform about evangelists and the market revolution, but criminal codes and laws were lightened, mocking the European practices. A problem that was brought to Dorothea Dix (the superintendent of women nurses, and an opinionated reformer) that those diagnosed of mental illnesses was being treated with superior cruelty. Carrying this awareness with her and trying to put a stop to it, she…
- 1074 Words
- 5 Pages
Good Essays -
For many girls who lived in 1835, they lived on a farm with their families working at home living under the men in the house. They did not go to college as often as their male counterparts. Word began to spread of a place where anyone of any social class could live and work for a high wage. Soon girls from all over began to migrate to these factory towns know as Lowell cotton mills. The industrial age in America was an innovative time in American history.…
- 1909 Words
- 8 Pages
Powerful Essays -
As the industrial growth started in the 1800s many factory owners began to hire women. Majority of the women who worked in the factories were poor, young, unmarried or widows, women of the middle-class were privileged to stay at home to provide their domestic duties. Women were paid lower then men due to women were subordinate to them., it did not matter what kind of quality the women produced. Any income women received legally belonged to their husbands and with that status employers were able to keep women’s wages low. Eventually women created labor associations because they wanted to sort issues out such as the terrible working conditions, low pay, and longer hours. The Female Labor Reform met once a week to discuss conditions that needed to be improved. Even though they were doubted by many that they would not make any difference and would not be listened to, they never gave up.…
- 662 Words
- 3 Pages
Good Essays -
From its’ foundation, the New England region harbored a great amount of people, the average lifespan of these people was in their sixties. This stability and abundance of women created an environment suited for family life. Women could live long enough to become married, have children, raise children, and see their children go through the process. In fact, it has been said that the New England colonists invented family, because they were like a shining beacon of hope in a dismal, violent wilderness. This was a huge impact of society as well. As the family life came about, so did the concept of sharing. A community within the town began to grow, regulating the wages people received and the prices on objects would be deemed based on the status of the families in the region. Thus, women affected the New England region because there abundance allowed for the creation of family and a community-like…
- 899 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The Industrial Revolution was the greatest transformation period in human history. When people think about the Industrial revolution, they think about big steel, machines, and railroads. What’s missing are the exhausted, overworked laborers that operated the machinery that made things run. A prime example is the female textile mill workers from England and Japan. In the textile industry, women and young girls were the main employees. The main reason for this is that nimble fingers were needed to tend the spinning and weaving machines. Originally spinning and weaving were done at home or small spin shops but the Industrial revolution changed that by bringing house spinning and weaving to factories. With the mass production of textiles, women were given a chance to actually work for wage. This seemed like a grand opportunity but this work experience was difficult for these women. The experiences of the Japanese and English female workers were in fact similar. Both of which had to deal with long working hours with little pay, sexual and physical abuse from male supervisors, and hardship with their families over their occupation.…
- 796 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
Before the Women’s Suffrage movement began, women faced hardships that would later motivate them to take a stand for women’s rights. Women were, at that time, being abused and mistreated by men and society, in order to gain what was necessary to survive during this time in American history. The industrial revolution had just swept the nation by surprise. The industrial revolution changed the process of production from hand tools and man labor, to power driven machinery. (Dublin). This change from hand labor to power machinery affected the women greatly. The women continued to do the same jobs as before the industrial era, but now all work was done on machines to increase both output and production rates on products. This new way of manufacturing…
- 787 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays -
The Industrial Revolution was a gargantuan change in the history of the world which affected our agriculture, industry and transport and communications. According to history.com, “The Industrial Revolution was a period during which predominantly agrarian, rural societies in Europe and America became industrial and urban.” This monumental change evoked in England during the 18th and 19th centuries.…
- 849 Words
- 4 Pages
Good Essays