U.S. HistoryChapter 13: Industrial Growth in the North

Section 2: Changes in Working Life

Factory Families

•Samuel Slater couldn’t find enough workers

•Used apprentices

•Menial tasksSamuel Slater

Factory Families

•Hired entire families

•Children worked for low wages

•Tasks simple enough for children

Factory Families

•Adults earned in one day what children earned in a week

•Rhode Island System—practice of hiring families an dividing factory work into simple tasks

The Lowell System

• Francis Cabot Lowell: built a water-powered loom that could weave thread and spin cloth on the same mill

• Hired young, unmarried women from local farmsFrancis Cabot Lowell

The Lowell System

•Noted for clean factories and neat boarding houses

•Women paid $2-$4/week

•4 year stay

The Lowell System

• Encouraged to pursue outside activities

• 12-14 hour workday

• Highly regimented workday

• Bigger, faster machines

Workers Organize

•Craftspeople threatened

•Factory worker wages decreased, work conditions worsened

•Immigration, unemployment due to Panic of 1837

Workers Organize

•Lowell girls replaced by immigrants

•Skilled workers felt threatened

•Trade Unions—organizations created by workers to improve working conditions

End of Child Labor

Worker Safety

40 Hour Work Week

Increased Pay & Benefits

Workers Organize

•Strike—employees refuse to work until employers meet their demands

•Courts and police usually supported companies

•Became politically active

Labor Reform Efforts

•Sarah Bagley—union founder who publicized workers' struggles

• 1844: founded Lowell Female labor Reform Association

• Fought for shorter workday

Labor Reform Efforts

• 1840: President Martin Van Buren granted 10-hour workday to federal employees

• Bagley wanted this extended to the private sector

• 12-14 hour workdayPresident Martin Van Buren

Labor Reform Efforts

•Opposed by business owners

•VP of new England Workingmen's’ Association

•Some legal victories

•Loopholes