Lowell and The First Industrial Revolution

Ben Windle

COTTON PRODUCTION IN AMERICA

0

1000000

2000000

3000000

4000000

1810 1820 1830 1840 1850 1860

cotton bales by million

Growth of Cities 1790 1820

Population 4 Million 9.6 million

Largest City

Philly 42,000

New York 124,000

What do we see?

What can you make with a bale of cotton?

3,557 socks or

1,943 sleeveless t-shirts

1,256 pillow cases

690 bath towels

215 pair of jeans

Industrial Process

On of the most concrete changes occurred in the allocation of time

If you spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on mills and machines, you needed them present and busy

The mechanical clock, the ability to measure time precisely, was essential to the quest to control and intensify the pace of work

The master craftsman

McCormick's Reaper works, 1850's

Federal Manufacturing

Census1810 1860

Value of goods $162M $2B

Per capita production $22.60 $60.61

Banks 88 1,562

Bank Capital $23M $500M

Impact on Workers

Deskilling of most factory workers and the drawing in of agricultural workers to factory life

Wage earners, for the first time sell their time, not necessarily their skill

Demands of Workers

10 hour day

Free public schools

Abolition of imprisonment for debt

Legal protections for unions

Abolition of prison labor contracting

Life of a Lowell Mill Girl

Yankee unmarried girls came to Lowell to make money for various reasons (dowry, family, brother's education)

14 hour days in cramped, dim, unsafe, pressure filled environments

As influx of willing Irish immigrant workers flood the Lowell area the paternal/utopian female boarding houses are replaced

"It is possible, reading standard histories, to forget half the population of the country. The explorers were men, the landholders and merchants men, the political leaders men... The very invisibility of women, the overlooking of women, is a sign of their submerged status." -Howard Zinn

I am going home where I shall not be obliged to rise so early in the morning or be dragged about by the factory bell, nor confined in a close noisy room from morning to night. I

shall not stay here... Up before day, at the clang of the bell and out of the mill by clang - into

the mill and at work in obedience to that ding-dong of a bell...

-Mill Worker writing in the Lowell Offering, 1840

What do you see in this advertisement?

Mary Paul Letter 1Dear Father,

I get along very well with my work. I can do as fast as any girl in our room. I think I shall have frames before long. The usual time allowed for learning is six months but I think I shall have frames before I have been in three as I get along so fast. I think the

factory is the best place for me and if any girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell...

- this from Mary S Paul

Mary Paul Letter 2Dear Father,

Doubtless you have been looking for a letter from me all the last week... I was unable to get my old place in the cloth room on the Suffolk or any other corporation... So I went to my old

overseer on the Tremont...and I went to work last Tuesday, warping , the same work I used to do. It is very hard indeed

and sometimes I think I shall not be able to endure it. I never worked so hard in my life... The wages are to be reduced on

the 20th this month... It is very difficult for anyone to get into the mill...all seem to be full of help. I expect to be paid about

two dollars a week but it will be dearly earned...

- Write soon. Yours affectionately Mary S Paul

Hudson River School of Art

A mid-nineteenth century American art movement that focused on LANDSCAPE painting

Was a response to industrialization

The school was not a room but rather a group of artist who shared the same vision of wilderness, discovery, exploration and settlement

Thomas Cole is viewed as the father of The Hudson River School of Art

Asher Durand, Kindred Spirits, 1849

Thomas Cole, The Oxbow,1836

Thomas Cole, Kaaterskill Falls, 1826

Henry David Thoreau

"In wilderness is the preservation of the world.". -Thoreau

"I cannot believe that our factory system is the best mode by which men may get clothing. The condition of the operatives is becoming every day like that of the English; and it cannot be wondered at, since, as far as I have heard or observed, the principal object is, not that mankind may be well and honestly

clad, but, unquestionably, that the corporations may be enriched." - Thoreau, Walden (1854)

Thomas Jefferson

Agrarian

His philosophy centered around moderate-sized farms

He feared that industrialization would destroy our young republic and under mind the growth of civic virtue

Alexander Hamilton

Was an Outspoken advocate for large-scale manufacturing

As Secretary of treasury he proposed a government sponsored industrialization to ensure our political and economic independence

Free Response Question

What opportunities and problems originated from developments in

American industry and transportation in the early 1800's?