Factory Girls and Child Labor

Early factories and Industrialism

Refresh: Retail shops and custom-order work gave way to wholesale business Merchants (who sought control of supply) and ambitious artisans (who used the labor of others to enrich themselves) joined to enlarge the scale of production. Consolidation production under one roof; Drive costs down;

Drive wages down; Increase work hours; Attempted to break down traditional apprenticeship system; Use women and children for cheap labor; Prison labor

The factory system in America was first developed in the

textile industry. First emergence can be seen with Samuel Slaters Pawtucket

Mill (R.I) in 1790. Produced yarn Water power and manned by children Yet not a full-fledged factory Machinery was only used for

turning raw cotton into yarn; weaving was still done by local farmers in their cottages.

1810 - Francis Cabot Lowell went to England to study

factories. Returned in 1812 formed the Boston Manufacturing Company In 1814 first modern factory made its appearance in Waltham,

Mass. (West of Boston) (The Waltham-Lowell System.) Brought power loom to U.S. as

well as brought Spinning, weaving, dying, and cutting were now completed in a single plant

First company town in the United States. Charles River had very little power source and when Lowell

past away in 1817 His partners established the Merrimack Manufacturing Company (1823) in East Chelmsford, Mass (North Boston) on the Merrimack River- changing the name to Lowell, Mass (1826).

City boasted ten factories that all used the Waltham-Lowell System (also called the Lowell System)

Soon afterwards the system spread to throughout

Massachusetts, New Hampshire and Maine with Lawrence (MA), Dover (NH), Holyoke (MA) and Chicopee (MA) becoming industrial centers.

Factory Girls

The mills employed women (often referred to as mill or factory girls) Ages: 7-35

Appealed to young single daughter of farm families

Height of industrial revolution 8,000 women were recruited

Wages promoted as relatively high (though half of mens wages) to help pay off family mortgage.

Lived year round in boarding houses near the mills

Temporary work (a few years) before marriage

Factory Girls

Lived by strict rules curfew, strict moral codes such as church on Sabbath and no men in living quarters.

Reading rooms and access to education

Economic conditions forced farmers to rely on cash crops and causing parents to rely on their daughters cash relief obtained through work in the factories.

Work conditions were poor. Factory windows closed causing extreme heat. Fast pace. Women would pass out due to conditions.

The work was also dangerous. Newspaper accounts frequently reported accidents such as a woman's hand being mangled in machinery, or a girl losing her scalp when her hair became stuck in the looms

STRIKE!!

May 1824 Pawtucket (R.I.) strike debate about whether mills owned by Samuel Slater. Issue was reduction of wages and increased hours. First womens strike. Community support compromised reached.

In December 1828 strike by cotton-mill operatives at Dover, N.H. involving 300-400 girls and women over the changing of the factory ownership and the forced reduction of wages.

Local newspapers were biased in favor of Dover's major industry, the mills, in

their reporting of the incident. The Dover Enquirer December 30, 1828 wrote:

Turn Out- A general turn out of the girls employed in the cotton factories in this town to the number of 6 or 800 took place on Friday last, on account of some imaginary grievance. It has, we believe, turned out to their cost, as well as disgrace; and since that time many of them have returned to work, and all, who are permitted, will without doubt, return in the course of a few days. The girls on leaving the factory yard formed a procession of nearly half a mile in length, and marched through the town, with martial music: accompanied with roar of artillery. The whole presented one of the most disgusting scenes ever witnessed.

After two days of strike the women returned to work under the reduced rate.

February 1834 Board of Directors of Lowells textile mills announced a 15% reduction in wages effective March 1 due to serious economic downturn. Women engaged in a turn-out or strike and withdrew their savings from two

local banks as an act of protest. Strike failed women returned to work at reduced pay or quit. Womens actions were perceived as unfeminine.

October 1836 Directors proposed an additional rent hikes for those

living in the boarding house. Female textile workers formed the Factory Girls Association First Female labor

union in the U.S. and went out on strike.

During the strike, the women would parade in the streets singing:

Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I

Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die? Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,

For I'm so fond of Liberty, That I cannot be a slave.

Twice as many women (1,500) joined the strike and unlike the previous

strike this one had community support. After two weeks the employers rescinded the rent hike and the strike was a success

1841 the Lowell Offering a magazine was published by the employers to promote the womens life in the factories as a veritable heaven on earth.

In response the women established their own periodical called

The Factory Girl and Factory Girls Album Crudely produced, but effectively highlighted the 13-14 hour days for a

wage of $1.56 a week Wages so low that women were forced to abandon their virtue to live/

January 1845 the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. Organized by Sarah Bagley Formed a newspaper, Voice of Industry First action petition demanding ten-hour day (denied). Between 1845-1852 - young farm girls were replaced with Female Irish

workforce

3 July 1835 (Children) - Textile workers, many of whom were children of Irish descent, launched the1835 Paterson textile strike in the silk mills in Paterson, New Jersey fighting for the 11-hour day, 6 days a week. 2,000 workers in 20 factories. After 2-weeks the strike was broken many families were blacklisted.