Lowell Mills And Chimney Sweeps

The Industrial Revolution brought many changes to society in the nineteenth century. With the rise of factories following the Agricultural Revolution and Enclosure Movement, it allowed goods to be readily available to the public due to mass production from having a large and available workforce. This led to further economic growth within the urban areas. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of this economic growth, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were the lack of working conditions, child labor, and horrible living conditions.

The Industrial Revolution was a major turning point in history that took place between 1760 and the mid 1800’s. During this time frame, a variety of different machines were invented and put in factories to make workers and everyday people’s lives easier. These machines had to be run by people such as women and even children because the men were mostly in coal mines. Some of the many negative consequences about these new jobs and new machines being invented were; child labor, physical abuse on the job, and unsafe working conditions. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because more jobs became available, it was actually a negative thing.

The Industrial Revolution occurred in Britain and America around the late 1700’s to 1900. This revolution improved the production of goods using new mechanisms and machines. Human labor was in high demand in order for the highest production rates. Factories employed low to middle-class people that were as young as three years old (Document 9). These workers were benefited with money, shelter, and clothes, but the working and living conditions were not satisfying. The average industrial worker experienced a variety of factors that can be classified as good or bad, including the positive effects of labor, like the shelter, money, and food they were given; and the negative effects of the factory,

Textile mills grew because of new inventions that would make the product and people willing to work for a living. In the 1790’s, Samuel Slater built the first factory in Rhode Island, which had a machine that could spin thread and yarn. This allowed an increase in the New England area of spinning mills. In Lowell, Massachusetts, factories were created on the Merrimack River combining all parts of cloth production, such as combing, spinning, shrinking, weaving, and dyeing (Roark, 262). This also brought the change in the workforce by using girls as employees. These young women would work at the mill until they got married, and replacements were always

At one point, Industrialization had a very negative impact on society. It had affected many people’s lives in a very gloomy way. While some people might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive effects for society because there was better business and financial opportunities it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s negative effects were unsafe working conditions, bad employers, and many people were separated from their families.

Reforms were made during industrialization to help improve the poor working conditions present in mines and factories that had been created by the rapidly expanding workforce. Workers often worked in conditions that had detrimental effects on their long term health and had many hazards. Miners were exposed to heavy falling rocks, excessive smoke, poisonous gas and bad air. They often got what is known as miners’ asthma and many died from it (Doc 1). Factory workers worked in cramped, unclean buildings that had many fire hazards and safety issues.

In the 18th and 19th centuries, the industrial revolution was at its way, gaining many economic and technological advances but the price of hardship forced onto the workers and children during this time was paid. During this time period rural societies transformed into urban/industrial ones and a shift from working at home to factories and mass production with machinery. Many different advancements including the iron and textile industries, and also the invention of the steam engine helped pave the way of the revolution. Industrialization brought an increase of manufactured goods and also helped pave the way to our world as we know it today. As all these things were great, the industrialization significantly and truly lowered the living conditions

Before the Industrial Revolution occurred in the late 18th century and 19th century, skilled workers were needed to produce finished goods. The production rates of items were slow due to the limited amount of trained craftsmen and complexity of creating products. This caused goods to be limited in quantity and highly priced. However, the advent of the Industrial Revolution increased production rates, reduced prices of items, and diminished the need for skilled workers. Although the Industrial Revolution positively impacted consumers and businessmen, it also negatively impacted the low skilled laborers used to manufacture goods.

The working class during the Industrial Revolution made up 80 percent of society, the other 20 was composed of wealthy business owners. People in the 1800’s migrated from shops in their home to work in dangerous and life threatening factories. While many say this was a positive period, it came with negative consequences. The Industrial Revolution was more negative than positive because working conditions were very unsafe, workers worked extremely long hours, and employees worked for cheap wages.

The Lowell Mills, in Massachusetts, before the Market Revolution bosses acted like family and they were paternal to their workers. Prior to the market revolution, paternalism guided the relationships between employers and their workers. Paternalism meant that employers took care of their workers in a similar way to how they would care for their own family members. In times, employers would keep their workers working instead of firing them, and they would overlook transgressions such as tardiness. They would also take care of workers in their old age. As the Lowell Mills exemplified, the demands of the market, however, fundamentally changed this relationship. Between 1822 and 1839, Lowell's population grew from 200 to 18,000 people and the mills rivaled the world's major textile centers. Lowell was unique for its size, but also because it employed mostly young, single women rather than men, like the vast majority of other mills and factories. Lowell chose women because they received less wages since they were perceived as not having a family to feed. They were also seen as more obedient and less rebellious, and their smaller hands were believed to be more dexterous and suitable for detailed textile work. Lured by the potential of the market, the Lowell Mills departed from the traditional paternalism and instead sought to maximize profits. As the women's wages decreased, the pace of work and the regimentation of the work place increased. Moreover, workers became deskilled because they only made one part of the final product instead of the product in its

It can be argued that a drifting away from the old artisan putting out system was not helping the economy, and a push for increased industry was a economically healthy path to choose. However the horrible working conditions in the relatively new and supposedly “revolutionary” factories cannot be denied. Yes, the common people were making more money than they ever had with stable jobs and increased production of goods, but at what cost? The first industrial cities in England such as Manchester and Sheffield were transformed into dystopian, dirty slums where the polluting factories loomed overhead. This idea is translated in Document #3 which depicts such an urban slum. One might even classify the image as that of the Middle Ages much less an age marked by invention and progress. The working conditions of the industrial age were not only unsanitary but also extremely dangerous with little safety precautions. Such safety features and skilled training with machinery would cost manufacturers money and money was the only thing separating the boss from the disgruntled employee. Unsafe working environment can be seen in Document #2 depicting a coal mine worker. In most cases, it was the youngest of the workers who were

The Lowell System was fair towards its female workers in the early 1800s. In the early 1800s, Francis Cabot Lowell created the “Lowell System”. This recruited young, unmarried women from local farms to work in textile mills. The first textile mill was opened in 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts. To begin with, as stated in Document A, women were paid monthly wages and were provided a room in a boardinghouse. They shared this room with three other girls. The girls were also all given three meals a day in a common room. Unlike at home, the women were paid for all of the hard work that they did. They were also provided a room to stay in that had two beds and a fire place in it for warmth. At home, the girls had to share a bed with their siblings and now had a lot more space to live in. The meals

Lowell, Massachusetts was named after Francis Cabot Lowell who was known for inventing a way to manufacture textiles in factories. After he discovered a new way of manufacturing textiles, on 1836 it created factory jobs for New England women. Lowell Factories were estimated to have 52 million workers, more than 10,000 were mainly women. The majority of Mill Girls were women and children that ranged from ages thirteen to late twenties. The girls wrote the documents like “Complaint of a Lowell Worker,” to expose the strict and poor treatment of the female workers.

of the employees. This workforce allowed these owners to pay a low wage since they were young girls who otherwise where not generally employed in society previously. Many of these workers were young women who had little or no hope of getting married or finding a job. Men were heading out west, so young women needed to find work. Many of them came to work to help pay off the family debts, or to save money for education, or save money for a younger siblings education. This brought on a new era for women. Through the Industrial Revolution, girls in Lowell, and furthermore the country, had a changing role in society by speaking on working regulations, women’s rights, and having a paying job.

When the Industrial Revolution began, it quickly mechanized the working class 's way of life. It transitioned the working world especially in industries like farming, mining, factories, and many other sectors of the economy. To fuel these growing industries, many people migrated from more rural areas to cities, although often new city residents were immigrants, like German, Irish, British, Scandinavian, and Polish people who were seeking better lives for various oppression-related reasons. The influx of immigrants was huge, and fueled a rampant spread of nativism. “The immigrant tide swelled rapidly: 8400 in 1820, 23,000 in 1830, 84,000 in 1840, and 310,000 in 1850.”(Wyatt 104) This nativism was a response to the increased competition for work which stemmed from this growth in immigrant populations. These coveted jobs could be very dangerous, however. The number of combined work-related injuries were sky-high, and many workers didn 't survive very long. Farming and mining had the highest growth rates of all the industries – so of course some of the highest amounts of injuries.“...The production increases for industries such as cotton and iron...are far higher than for other industries: output rose by one hundredfold or more.”(More 3) The growth was self-explanatory, everyone needs clothes, household goods, and money.