WORKERS AND OWNERS IN THE FACTORY SYSTEM

Unit 5 Day 3

Workers and Owners – Contemporary Views

Illustration of Workers in a Textile Mill

The Luddite Movement

Luddites smash a power loom (1812)

Beginning in 1811 the Luddite Movement protested perceived injustices of factory owners by storming factories and breaking up the expensive machinery kept there.

Named for the (possibly fictional) Ned Ludd, the Luddites responded to the particularly poor working conditions during the Napoleonic Wars (1792-1815) and specifically to wage reductions and the use of young unapprenticed labor.

The Luddite Movement

1812 Engraving – “The Leader of the Luddites: Drawn from Life from a [British Army] Officer”

The response to the Luddites was severe. In 1812 Machine Breaking was made a capital crime by the “Frame Breaking Act.”

Luddites clashed with the British Army on a few occasions.

In 1813 suspected Luddites were rounded up in the city of York and subjected to a mass trial during which 17 men were executed. Many others were sent to the penal colony of Australia.

English Labor Legislation in the Industrial Revolution

The Factories Act of1802 All factory rooms must be well ventilated and lime-washed twice a year.Children must be supplied with two complete outfits of clothing.Children between the ages of 9 and 13 can work maximum 8 hours.Adolescents between 14 and 18 years old can work maximum 12 hours.Children under 9 years old are not allowed to work but they must be enrolled in the elementary schools that factory owners are required to establish.The work hours of children must begin after 6 a.m., end before 9 p.m., and not exceed 12 hours a day.Children must be instructed in reading, writing and arithmetic for the first four years of work.Male and Female children must be housed in different sleeping quarters.Children may not sleep more than two per bed.On Sundays children are to have an hour's instruction in the Christian Religion.Mill owners are also required to tend to any infectious diseases.

The Factory Act of 1833 Children (ages 14-18) must not work more than 12 hours a day with an hour lunch break. Children (ages 9-13) must not work more than 8 hours with an hour lunch break.Children (ages 9-13) must have two hours of education per day.Outlawed the employment of children under 9 in the textile industry.Children under 18 must not work at night.Provided for routine inspections of factories.

The Mines Act of 1842Forbade women and children from working in mines.

Factory Act of 1844Applied standards for children set in 1833 to women.Required ages to be verified by doctors.Required machinery to be fenced in.

The Factory Act of 1847 (Ten Hour Act)Limited the workday for women and children to 10 hours a day.

Lowell, Mass.

Like Manchester in England, Lowell was a major center for the cotton textile industry in the United States, though the scale was much smaller. In 1850 only about 30,000 people lived in Lowell. Compare this with the 400,000 who lived in Manchester. The town was named for Francis Cabot Lowell, an entrepreneur who took advantage of the War of 1812 to develop the domestic textile industry by building cotton factories in Massachusetts.

In 1813, the Boston Manufacturing Company was founded in Waltham Mass. and between 1822 and 1825 the company, calling itself the Merrimack Manufacturing Company, expanded into the town of East Chelmsford (renamed Lowell) which it re-created as a planned factory community.

Lowell, Mass.

The planned community at Lowell was developed as a response to widespread complaints about factory life in England. It also responded to the new sociological fact that many of the workers in these factories were women. Workers were organized into dormitories and were expected to meet certain standards of morality and conduct.

Lowell, Mass.

Lowell, Mass.

Lowell, Mass.

Two Weavers (1860)