Slavery in the Factory- Part 2
According to Arthur L. Eno, Jr. (Cotton Was King) ”In man’s
four million year career he has revolutionized his economy only twice. The first time was about seven thousand
years ago when man learned to domesticate wild cereal grasses. He went from being a hunter to a farmer…..In
the mid-eighteenth century the second economic revolution introduced factory
production of textile goods on a large scale using machines powered by energy
derived from water-wheels.”
Cotton Was King - A History of Lowell, Massachusetts,
Ed., ArthurL. Eno, Jr.,
New Hampshire Publishing Co.,1976
It was the production of textiles that began the industrial
revolution. In the past, textiles for
family use were made in the home. With
the exception of royal workshops which produced a very small quantity of
textiles for the royal entourages, or government controlled guilds producing a
very narrow range of specific textiles, clothing and household linens were made
by family members, often after their work in the fields was completed for the
day. Gradually, small mills began processing
textile fibers, but each mill was specialized, that is, providing only one step
in the process. At this time there were
other mills, of course: grist mills, saw mills, even gunpowder mills. For power, the mills used water, which
fell onto a waterwheel.
Europe was already into their industrial revolution and
sending their exports around the globe when American industrialists began
following their lead by firstly manufacturing the machinery necessary to
produce large quantity of goods.
The story of the Lowell Offering is the tale of astute,
resourceful business entrepreneurs seeking high return for their
investments. Francis Cabot Lowell was
an international trader who was much impressed with the European textile
industry. Gathering other investors he
established textile industry in New England and set a precedence for
industrialization throughout the country.
He established a factory system
that produced the entire finished product within one mill. This required large capitalization,
expert management of both resources and
labor, producing cheap goods in quantity.
The Lowell Offering- Writings by New England Mill women (1840-1845), Ed. Benita Eisler, Harper and Row Pub., 1977
Other manufacturers relied on male laborers, some skilled,
some not. The Lowell Experiment hired
young, farm girls from New England. To
assure the families of the safety of their daughters, boarding houses were built
and run by older women, while some girls lived in the city with relatives. The wages for these “mill girls” were paid
in cash, monthly, and they were encouraged to open savings accounts in banks. In other systems, wages were credits at the
“company store” and often the laborers became indebted to the company to the
extent that were not able to leave their employment.
Although the “mill girls” were undoubtedly better off
financially than if they had remained on the farm, there were also
disadvantages. They were required to
remain for at least one year and their lives were strictly regulated, working
long hours. Often the boardinghouses
were overcrowded. The working conditions
in the factory led to health issues: lung disease and typhus.
Cotton Was King, Page 124
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Lowell - The Story of an Industrial City
Produced by the Division of Publications, National Park Service,
U.S. Department of the Interior, Washington, D.C., 1992
The early years of the 20th century saw production in the Lowell mills falling. Aging machinery was not upgraded. The Yankee “mill girls” were replaced by
immigrant labor. The years following
WW1 saw a decline and hours of production and salaries were reduced. To make the situation worse, there came the
depression.. There was a short reprieve
during the Second World War, but textile manufacturing would go the way of much
manufacturing in the US, elsewhere.
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