Lowell Mills
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The Lowell textile mills
The Lowell textile mills were a new transition in American history that explored working and labor conditions in the new industrial factories in American. To describe the Lowell Textile mills it requires a look back in history to study, discover and gain knowledge of the industrial labor and factory systems of industrial America. These mass production mills looked pretty promising at their beginning but after years of being in business showed multiple problems and setbacks to the people involved in them.
Lowell mills were located in Lowell, Massachusetts and specialized in manufacturing cotton cloth. The strong currents from the surrounding streams of water powered the mills machinery. More often then not, a mill was a communitys largest employer and mill owners frequently had other business investment in the neighborhood such as general stores, real estate, and residential properties (Inventing America p.391).
Finding workers for Lowell was not much of a problem. Workers were attracted for the great cultural opportunities available at Lowell. “Besides the obvious attraction of a place of labor people saw the mills to constitute a great social experiment, with moral gymnasiums where employees would not only earn wages but also experience moral and spiritual growth” (Inventing America p394). Lowell mills tried to base their manufacturing differently then Europe. The operatives in the manufacturing cities of Europe were notoriously of the lowest character for intelligence and morals (Lucy Larcom: Among Lowell Mills Girls). Lowell wanted to give workers opportunities to make great friendships and enjoy a fulfilled church life.
The mills filled with girls from smaller towns who had good country morals and stayed away from the unpleasant urban conditions. These women workers were given the name mills girls. In 1836, Lowell boasted twenty mills with 6,000 workers: 85 percent of Lowells labor force consisted of single women between the ages of fifteen and twenty-nine (Inventing America p.394).
In the early years while the profits were high working conditions looked promising to the mill girls in their brief opening experiences of factory work. Jobs required little skill because the machinery was mostly self-acting. It looked very pleasant at first, the rooms were so light, spacious, and clean, the girls so pretty and neatly dressed, and the machinery so brightly polished or nicely painted (Harriet Farley, Letters from Susan, Letter Second). Lowell employees worked hard and were paid well in cash for there work.
In the mid 1830s competition increases and technological improvements expanded the capacity of textile machinery, prices and profits began to fall (Inventing America p.195). Lowell companies were forced to make changes to improve profits and unfortunately the alterations affected the worker the most. Workers were force to work at a faster pace to keep up with new machinery. After a few years of this the output per worker nearly doubled, while wages increased only slightly (Inventing America p.195). This was the beginning of the new Lowell.
Longer hours were instituted tiring the workers and making the days go longer. A usually working day consisted of twelve to fourteen hours of work. Along with the longer hours health problems were being discovered at the work place. The machinery in the mills was dangerous and loud. Female workers in Lowells massive textile mills frequently wrote home about colleagues who had lost fingers, limbs, and sometimes even their lives by becoming entangled in the gears and moving parts of textile machinery (Inventing American p.401). No health insurance existed leaving employees high and dry after serious injury. The intense grinding of heavy machinery at fast speeds was hazardous for workers. Workers complained of their legs aching so that they might fall off and it wasnt uncommon for girls to faint on the job because of the impure air(The Conditions of the Operatives). They almost say that when they have worked here a year or two they have to procure shoes a size larger than before they came (Harriet Farley, Letters from Susan, Letter Second). After working in a noisy mill for several months, workers frequently complained of headaches, sinus infections, and breathing problems (Inventing America p.402). Little to their knowledge the dirty air in the mills lead to serious complications, one of which was byssinosis, or brown lung disease, an often fatal affliction. Time loose minutes/ fixed clock conditions of operation.
Living conditions were restricted and limited but provided spiritual opportunities for the workers. Company regulations required girls to “board in the companys boarding houses,” “attend public worship and to conform strictly to the rules of the Sabbath,” and to refrain from “frivolous and useless conversation (Inventing America p.394). Boarding houses were dormitories owned and located close to mills.