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I always wanted to be able to help provide for my family and our farm and have a sense of independence. I finally got an opportunity to do just this when I went to go work at the Lowell factory. I had numerous expectations of what it was going to be like, hoping for the best. I was mainly excited to get an education, as I had never done previously, and learn about other various informative topics. Of course the mill was not entirely as great as I desired, but it was a helpful way to make means for my family at the time. In the factories, working conditions often felt quite harsh, but overall was good work to help support my family. Everyday, except on Sundays in which we had off, I had to wake up extremely early at five o’clock, already tired due to the previous day. I had to work on a spinning mule, which turned cotton into thread at large quantities. I would have to do this until seven at night, which left me exhausted, and I usually fell asleep immediately as I reached my bed. Although, luckily for us mill girls, we were never pushed to do more work than we could bare. Ultimately, all the labour was worth it upon receiving the paycheck I worked so diligently to earn. As a mill girl, I was provided with the necessities I needed in order to survive, such as food and shelter. I slept in a boarding house that was run by women who treated me …show more content…
This was of course until the wages were cut, slowly decreasing the sum of money my fellow mill girls and I received. Not only that, but Hitherto the corporation caused us to be paid a dollar less each week, since they paid twenty-five cents a week to the board. My co-workers and I decided it was time to strike back on this injustice and walked through the streets making sure anyone near would hear our cries. Regardless of the fact that the strikes turn out was not as good as it was hoped to be, I would still do it
What would one expect to be the sentiment of a young women who worked in the Lowell textile mills? It is just such a depressing story; and the sad heroines are the young women of Lowell - Lucy Larcom- who Stephen Yafa portrays in his excerpt “Camelot on the Merrimack.” A perception through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old Lucy Larcom reveals that, “For her and the other young girls, the long and tedious hours they spent tending to demanding machines robbed them of their childhood.” The imagery in “Camelot on the Merrimack,” from Big Cotton by Stephen H. Yafa disclose the working conditions in those sordid mills.
Many of us complain about the tough hours we work or the amount of chores we have to complete, but think about the truly harsh conditions that young girls and women had to work in the textile industry with very little pay and no accolades. Back in the 18th century, when the Industrial Revolution struck, it made it hard for female mill workers to enjoy being employed. Due to the terrible working conditions, the amount of hours worked, and the low wages were a few of the similarities that the female mill workers in England and Japan shared.
A multitude of mills going up created back water which hindered the mill’s wheels from turning more freely, but with more competitors came more jobs to the area. In addition to more work came the need for more workers. Francis Lowell of Massachusetts decided to make a wholesome atmosphere to attract young country women to his mill to work. He offered wholesome living with room and board, decent pay, strict rules, and curfews to enforce the safety of the girls that worked for him. These workers came to be known as the “Lowell girls”.
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
The poem “My Boy” shows how long the work hours were by saying, “[Before] dawn my labor drives me forth. Tis night when I am free; A stranger am I to my child; And he one to me.” (Document 2) From dawn to night was a normal time period that people would work and she would come home to her family where they were strangers. The long hours were not only tiring on the body, but also put a strain on the quantity and quality of time spent with family. The hours were not easy labor either, the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley shows that labor was difficult and the bosses worked the employees
The kids under the age of fourteen were sent to go assist with the textile workers. They then would beat and verbally abuse the child. And if children would show up late, they would be weighted. Weighted means to put a very heavy weight on the child's back and have them walk up and down the factory aisles for hours, so other children can learn from it. This then resulted in back and neck injuries. (“Child Labor in Factories”) While this all seems really cruel, there were many positives that came out of child labor. Children were still able to contribute to their families. Money was a big struggle, and it had a major impact for poor families. Children were also getting a wide range of opportunities and work experiences for the future ahead. Although it might not be the best way to get experience, they were still helping out there families and showing respect towards them. This shows that during the Industrial Revolution, children were used harshly for labor, and the positives and negatives out of
Textile mills were established in New England’s countryside. Many women left farms in order to work in the mills. What were they offered? What were working conditions in the mills like? Why was the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association formed?
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).
against their employers, employees were able to go on strike and prove a point. Some
The girls that worked in the textile mills enjoyed new freedoms but also faced many challenges. Per Feller, the mill girls found “a blend of independence, conviviality, respectability, and reward” (120). These new experiences for the young women of New England came with many rules and harsh conditions but provided them with a sense of purpose and unique liberties.
They were forced to go out to work and make a rapid transition into adulthood. In these work places they, like any other adult, had a limited amount of time to eat. Patience Kershaw, a miner at the age of 17 recalls having cake for dinner- in inadequate dinner- and she does “not stop or rest at any time for the purpose” referring to her inability to eat throughout the day . She of course is not the only one, Elizabeth Bentley who works in the mills was asked whether she had the opportunity to eat in the factory. The 23 year old who began working at the age of 6 replied with a “no” saying how she had little to eat. The human rights were furthermore diminished as I read further on about the consequences there were if a child were to arrive late to work or became drowsy. Clearly the long hours and often times the long travel from home to work would severely tire anyone, to keep the kids under control and alert while working, the over lookers resorted to strapping them “when they became drowsy”. Matthew Crabtree explains the dread that these kids had of getting beaten, due to the fear they had we can infer that the means of physical abuse was prevalent in these factories. In the mines the young girls and women had to adapt to the conditions of their workplace. The vigorous lifting and loading was a strenuous activity done by both sexes, males worked naked to combat heat while females also worked
An additional job opportunity occurred for women-factories. Most men in general did not have a desire to work under the directions of other men, they preferred to be their own bosses as farmers, or as some other type of manufacturers. Because of this aversion for factory work, first workers in factories were women. In the factories, women faced discrimination, and employers frequently paid women less money for the same job that man would do. The wages were disgraceful; an average female worker would earn 104 dollars per year in the factory. During this period, factories did not have good conditions for workers, and most of them lacked lighting, air-condition, heat etc. If a women worker gets an injury on the job, they would simply be fired, and no compensation were provided. “You’re being confined from five in the morning till seven at night” Claims Amy Melenda Galusha-one of many women who worked in a textile mills in Lowell, Massachussets, in 1849, in a letter to her brother. Amy compares the advantages and disadvantages of being a man and a woman working in a
A woman's job in the early 1700s was to cook, clean, teach the children and tend to the house while the men worked outside. However because of the Lowell system, women were viewed immensely different. Thanks to Frances Lowell, not only women but unmarried women were allowed to work in factories and raise money for the family or themselves. However, because the role of women changed, many people were unsure of how to accept their new roles in society. Many were spectacle of women rising society because for the past hundred years, society had viewed the role of the women as lower than men because they were not able to do as much work because most work during the time period was physically demanding and a woman's body is not built as strong as a man's. However, because of the Lowell system, women were able to work and earn money, thus rise to new level in society. But even then, people still viewed women working in the factories as inferior to those women who did not work in the factory. Mostly older women did not believe that the women should work in a factory. For example throughout the book Lyddie, whenever people saw a “factory girl” they always gave her dirty looks and talked about how they should be at home, not working in a factory. They still had an older mindset on the role of women. Even though the workers faced the prejudices of others, they still succeed in life are rose
John Stuart Mill describes a principle and system that regulates the social relations between women and men. The principle Mill proposes is the legal subordination of one sex to the other. He is referring to the dominance that men have over women. In 1869, the Parliament in Europe gave little rights to women that created a tremendous gap between men and women. Men would be given the final say on what women could and could not do. The system that regulates the social relations between men and women was the system of inequality. Mill wrote that inequality was not forced on women, but was the way of life since the start of society. Mill argued that even though women voluntarily accepted male domination the majority of women were against it. The only way Mill said that women living in the mid-nineteenth century in Europe could get their opinions known was through written works. The main argument women were trying to make was to be as educated and given the same opportunities that men received. Women wanted to obtain jobs in high positions; jobs that required men to listen to women and follow the orders that women gave to men.
I jumped when Mom woke me up at 5:15 in the morning. Dad was already on his way because their supervisor increased the quota for the coalmine, so he figured he should start the day early. At the factory, we do not get a break for breakfast, so Mom and I quickly shared a bowl of grits and a warm cup of tea, dressed as warmly as we could, and set out for our mile and a half walk to work in the snow. We arrived at the factory ten minutes before our shift. Punctuality is essential, or else the doors lock and the owner will not pay you for that day. If you are repeatedly tardy, you might as well lose all hope because they fire late employees.