Lowell Mills Industry Analysis

“Women at Work” by Thomas Dublin is a case study that focuses on the workforce of the mills located in Lowell, Massachusetts. The author goes into depth about the experiences and lives of American women that faced the demands of industrial capitalism. Thomas Dublin explains in detail the beginnings of the mills that began in the nineteenth century around 1820. The production of the mills lead to the increasing number of women leaving their rural homes to work in the expanding mill towns. The transformation of the work is focused in detail about the social and economic aspects,and the effects it had on the community, workers, and the Irish.

Lowell mill girls had a very tight schedule and did a lot of work too. They would wake up at around 4:30 and then they would have 15 minutes or so to eat there breakfast then go to work. Most of the girls that worked there would work 14 or more hours unless they went to school in the morning. “ Lowell mill girls worked 70 or more hours a week in hot and difficult workplace conditions,”( Lowell.com ). In 1836 the Lowell mill decided that they were going to lower the mill girl’s payment by 15% and increased the rent for the boarding houses too. The mill girls were outraged and they decided that they were going to go on strike,

All of the factory workers aren’t as strong and youthful as they were when they first came to work in the mills. It really wasn’t “right for this place to suck the strength of their youth, then cast them off like dry husks to the wind.” (113) This is what the factory life did to the young workers. It wasn’t at all fair for the factory life to drain the workers of their youth. After the factory life sucks their strength & youth, the workers will “never be strong enough again to work in a mill thirteen, fourteen hours a day.” (113) The workers will never be strong enough just because they worked in the mill. They are permanently scarred for life due to their weak body. Also, Lyddie had heard “that wretched hacking sound that sawed through her rib cage straight into her heart …and knew it to be Rachel.” (139) Even the youngest & newest worker can quickly get sick. Rachel hasn’t worked in the mill for even a month yet she is already sick. Lyddie should sign the petition because the factory life drains the youth out of the young factory

How does Larcom’s memoir helps us to understand some of the market revolution on the lives of ordinary Americans? Larcom’s family circumstances pushed her to paid employment in the textile mill at age eleven. She was forced to sacrifice her childhood to provide much needed income to her family. But it was not and couldn’t be, the right sort of life for a child. Therefore, Larcom’s memoir indicates that effect of the market revolution has some positive side shifting work from home to factory and gives a chance for women and girls to work on factory to get some income in order to fulfil their basic needs and their families. While, forcing childhood to provide much needed income for their families, not respecting

Girls as young as 10 years old start working 13-14 hours a day for 6 days at the Lowell mill. The book “Lyddie” by Katherine Patterson conveys the struggles girls faced in the 1800s because of the working condition in the Lowell. The book revolves around the world of a 13 year old girl who is separated from her family so she can pay the debts and save their farm. Some people say Lyddie should not sign the petition because she needs to earn money for her family. Lyddie should sign the petition because the environment at the mill is not healthy nor is it safe and the corporation makes workers work hard for very less pay and wears them out.

Woman along with the children were affected while working during the industrial revolution. During 1834 and 1836 Harriet Martineau, a British feminist and abolitionist, visited America and enthusiastically embraced the social implications of the Industrial Revolution, (DTA, 223). Martineau compared the lifestyle of women to slaves and said the United States contradicted the principles of the Declaration of Independence. She did believe though with some progress that it could become New England’s new industrial order. One of the Mill factories Martineau visited, Waltham Mill, was a prime example of the scheduled lifestyle of women mill workers. Women Mill workers of all ages worked at Waltham Mill, which I compared to a boarding school because of their strict schedules. The ladies had a time to wake up, to be at work, to eat, and to go to school. A lot of women did not mind the harsh conditions they lived and worked in because they fought for their equality of rights for a long time now.

The author uses quotes from a variety of people, all of which corroborate the idea the working conditions women faced in Lowell changed from being a positive model of a work environment in a factory setting to a dismal work environment in less than 10 years. (check the time range). Since the quotes were from a wide demographic of individuals, they are fairly reliable because they represent more than one view about Lowell. Klein also discussed the Lowell Offering as a source of information and its impact on the perception of the manufacturer to describe the standard of living in Lowell. The women working in the factory contributed stories to the Lowell Offering. At first, their writing showed that they were interested in bettering themselves by being willing to write for a

According to the document, the Lowell girls lacked “the means of health and comfort” and “bathing-rooms fitted in the basement of each mill” (Document E). Those were just two of the many complaints about what should and need to have been fixed about the Mills. There were also complaints of the lack of proper house ventilation and the fact that the girls barely got any time for their breakfast and lunch breaks and their passing times. None of the workers at the Lowell Mills had adequate working conditions and were not treated very fair for the work they were doing for the

Lowell factories started to be made so the owners needed workers; the owners chose to use girls to work in the factories. Women got paid less during that time period so it would be cheaper for the owners. The women who worked in the mills were called mill girls, they were usually 15 to 35 years old. Mill girls worked 12 hours for 6 days a week, and lived in boarding houses. The textile corporations of Lowell paid higher wages than textile cities even though the work was difficult and tiring and that it was bad for their health. The mill girls protested the wage cuts few have succeeded.

Mill Girls Working conditions were much worse than the living condition. If they were even a little late they would be scolded or worse fired. The girls worked in really hot and damp rooms. Even with the horrible conditions they only got $2 to $3.50 a day for working 11-12 hours. If you think that was bad, the rent was raised and the pay was lowered. Anyone who went on strike was fired for good and never rehired.

During the industrial revolution, factory girls worked as hard as slaves to make very little money. Lyddie, a mere 13-year-old, was one of these factory girls. She was paid by how much cloth she wove and did not complain when they sped up the machines. Lyddie wanted to work hard to pay off her family’s debts and bring them back together. She liked to believe she was free, but she wasn’t.

The Lowell factory was an experiment into an alternative way of running a factory where both the workers and owners could benefit equally. One of the most major points to be made is that most, if not all, of the workers were female. The factory consisted of the manufacturing area, the dorms, and the facilities for the workers. The facilities included places such as lecture halls and schools for their education. This was all supposed to facilitate a place for a life of work as well as learning. However, for multiple reasons, this may not have been the case. Three different sources have provided different accounts of factory life.

Let me first off by saying labor back in the 1800s was something none of us would want to experience and thank god for changes that were made as women workers fought for the rights that were needed in the work place. The working conditions were unbearable and the hours you worked as a women, child or slavery was ridiculous. The job of the Mill Girls was to turn cotton into fabric. They operated fabric-weaving machines called looms. The women often worked for 12 to 14 hours a day, six days a week (Factory Girls, 2014). As I have stated in previous discussions that I am all for favor of women’s rights and that the challenges that they went through was tough and a lot of fighting, but what is more preposterous is today we are still fighting for

In Lowell, Massachusetts, in 1822, a new opportunity arose for young single women. A factory operated there with several cotton mills. Their work environment wasn’t in the best shape as their factory yard was full of mud. The work involved cleaning, burling, inking, marking, and fine-drawing cloth. These women could work long days at the mills in exchange for pay. This work became very popular and many women came to work at the mills from morning until night. However, they didn’t receive an extraordinary amount of money for it.

Women in the Lowell Factory were so closely supervised because women women who were closely supervised were not able to organize. Also,they were supervised since that idea appealed to many parents who would send their daughters to the mills. Some parents would send their daughters to the mills because they could barely provide for their children. Not many jobs were for women at the time, especially those that paid a so called ‘good’ wage.