| The
Reading Selection:
This reading is condensed from a well known account about
factory conditions in Massachusetts in the 1840s. The selection here
deals mainly with the textile mills in Lowell. The mill town built
there was somewhat unique in that the factories hired young women to operate
the machines in the factories.
The hope of the Lowell factory owners was that the system
of employing young women would avoid creating a permanent factory laboring
class. The expectation was that the young women would work a few
years, marry, and leave to raise their families. The Lowell system
worked for a time, but eventually the factories there hired laborers of
all kinds.
Remind students that work on a farm was no picnic in those
days. The conditions described might well have appeared more appealing
than farm work to many young women. The factory work also gave them
a rare chance to live on their own, not under the control of their parents
or a husband.
The
Picture:
A young woman of the mid-19th century. The textile factories at Lowell,
Massachusetts, employed young women in large numbers to operate the machinery. |
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Group
Discussion:
The factory conditions described
in this account would certainly never pass the kind of health and safety
regulations that exist today.
The hours were long, up to 13 hours
a day in the summer. The noise from the machinery is described as
"frightful and infernal." The air was hot and filled with cotton
dust, which is now known to cause lung damage if exposure continues for
long periods. The lodging provided for the women was cramped, with
little privacy.
Factory owners of that time had plenty
of arguments to defend themselves from such accounts, however. Farm
work was also hard and dirty. Many people preferred factory work
if given a choice.
Factory owners would say that they
were providing jobs for people who might have no other way to earn a living.
The factory boarding houses were certainly not as nice as the homes of
the wealthy, but they were not shacks either.
Finally, factory owners might point
out that they were not forcing anyone to come into their factories.
They offered the going wages for factory work, and employees could always
leave if they didn't like it. |