The Lowell System was not only more efficient but was also designed to minimize the dehumanizing effects of industrial labor by paying in cash, hiring young adults instead of children, offering employment for only a few years and by providing educational opportunities to help workers move on to better jobs, such as
When was the Lowell factory system invented?
After returning to the United States, he and some investors, known as “The Boston Associates,” organized the Boston Manufacturing Company. In 1814, the company opened a mill next to the Charles River in Waltham, Massachusetts. This is where Lowell developed and implemented a new approach to textile production.
What was the Lowell system and why was it important at that time in history?
In the 1830s, half a century before the better-known mass movements for workers’ rights in the United States, the Lowell mill women organized, went on strike and mobilized in politics when women couldn’t even vote—and created the first union of working women in American history.
Who started the Lowell system?
One such factory was established between 1812 and 1814 in Waltham, Massachusetts. At this site, on the shores of the Charles River, industrialist Francis Cabot Lowell (1775–1817) built the Boston Manufacturing Company, the first complete cotton spinning and weaving mill in the United States.
Why is Lowell important?
Lowell is considered the “Cradle of the American Industrial Revolution“, as it was the first large-scale factory town in the United States.
How did the Lowell mills start?
After a trip to London in 1811 during which he memorized the design of power looms, Lowell founded the Boston Manufacturing Company in 1813 along with Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, and the other so-called “Boston Associates”.
What was a unique feature of the Lowell System?
What was a unique feature of the Lowell system? Young farm girls were employed as factory workers and lodged in company boardinghouses.
What was the immediate cause of the Lowell strike of 1834?
Because of fierce competition for existing jobs, labor lost bargaining power.
What caused Lowell to start to decline?
When the war ended in 1945, orders for munitions and textiles fell off, and the city lapsed into its old economic doldrums. It was clear that the textile industry would not lead Lowell back to prosperity.
How did the Lowell mills work?
Waterwheels, wheels that rotate due to the force of moving water, powered the mills; the rotation of the wheel is then used to power a factory or machine. Belts ran up from the wheels to all floors to run the machines.
What were the results of the Lowell strike?
It is hardly necessary to say that so far as results were concerned this strike did no good. The dissatisfaction of the operatives subsided, or burned itself out, and though the authorities did not accede to their demands, the majority returned to their work, and the corporation went on cutting down the wages.
Why did the mill girls work there?
For many of the mill girls, employment brought a sense of freedom. Unlike most young women of that era, they were free from parental authority, were able to earn their own money, and had broader educational opportunities.
Why did the Lowell mills prefer to hire female workers?
To find workers for their mills in early Lowell, the textile corporations recruited women from New England farms and villages. These “daughters of Yankee farmers” had few economic opportunities, and many were enticed by the prospect of monthly cash wages and room and board in a comfortable boardinghouse.
What were the women’s demands at the Lowell mill factory?
The demands of factory life enabled these women to challenge gender stereotypes. Over time, adult women would displace child labor, which an increasing number of factory owners, such as Lowell, were disinclined to hire.
What life was like for the Lowell Mill Girls?
Difficult Factory Conditions
These women worked in very sub-par conditions, upwards of 70 hours a week in grueling environments. The air was very hot in these rooms that were full of machines that generated heat, the air quality was poor, and the windows were often closed.