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Explain Why Women Went To Work In New England Textile Mill Dbq

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For these young women that went to work in the mills, leaving the family farm to live and work far from home in the textile mills was a huge change. In the 1800s, the Industrial Revolution happened because Francis Lowell brought it to America. Women started working in textile mills to make money, but the hours were long and they could injure themselves. The work conditions were not the best, but they still did and some women even wrote for newspapers or were in literary clubs. Why did women go to work in the New England textile mills? Young women went to work in New England textile mills for at least three reasons: they could earn money, they could gain independence, and they could support their families. One main reason New England young women sought work in the mills was that wages were able to earn money.The women in the mills made more money than salaries paid to domestic services, seamstresses, and school teachers (Doc B). The daily pay at the mills made it possible for workers to actually save money. On average, women make 60 cents a day (Doc A). Room and board cost the women about 1.20 per week. (Doc A) This allowed them to …show more content…

Factory Girl said, “one of the most lucrative female employments should be rejected because it is toilsome, or because some people are prejudiced against it. Yankee girls have too much independence for that” (Doc B) because Orestes Brownson said that factory work is immoral for women. Another worker, Lucy Ann, said “if I go to Oberlin I take comfort & forget all those long wearisome mill days & perhaps I prepare myself for usefulness in this life. ” (Doc F) because her parents and neighbors keep taking her hard earned money instead of it being hers. Rather than staying at home on the farm, or working as a domestic or school teacher, these young mill workers were able to make money for themselves and not give it all away to family

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Mary Paul, a mill worker, said “I advise ‘any girl’ to come to Lowell for employment” (Document 1). The creation of the assembly line was also very good for

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Lowell Mills Girls According to the article “Power Looms. One Girl Works Four.” , women held nearly two-thirds of all textile jobs in Lowell, Massachusetts. Francis Cabot Lowell hired women, mostly from farm families, to work in the city for his textile factories.

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The dangers of working in factories gave a great perspective of what it was like to do a man’s job, but women weren’t afraid. They desired equality and

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Women in New England wanted to work at textile mills so they could afford education, support their families, and it was a high-paying job opportunity. Mills became popular in the early 1800s during the Industrial Revolution. They first became a thing in the US when Francis Lowell went to England and memorized how the factories worked since stealing the plans would be illegal; he then remade them in New England. The Industrial Revolution and mills changed how daily life was lived. Before, families attended to their own needs; farmers supplied food, women tended to the livestock, sewed clothing, and did the laundry, and the children helped with any chores around the house.

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Yafa writes about Boston businessmen who made Lowell, Massachusetts the first planned industrial community. The mills (factories) were built, and instead of using men to run the textile (fabrics) mills, the Boston Associates used “healthy, young, farm girls to work the mills.” Often the girls were very young and were separated from their families, lived in boarding houses, and saved some of their very low wages to send back home to their parents and to save up for their dowries (to give to future husbands).

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The jobs that the women were doing that were originally men’s jobs, they were getting paid around half of what the men got paid. As one woman said: “It was hard work and boring too. We worked for long hours and it was dirty and very, very noisy.

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Gloria L. Main in her article ,“Gender, Work, and Wages in Colonial New England”, describes to us the economic issues women would partake in at the colonies and how they differ from those given to men. At the beginning of the colony, there were few women and little economic gain from textile industries so there was little business done in the making of fabrics, a role seen to be only for women. Near the start there was also little mention of brewery, baking, butter making, etc. because they lacked the tools for it, these were also traditionally a women’s task in household at the time. During this time, women helped men in the fields, doing the gardening, planting, weeding, and many other activities.

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The large amounts of southern cotton shipped north to the textile factories developed them into the first American mechanized industries. Textile mills, which made cloth more efficiently than the homespun variety, grew in the North when America imposed tariffs on Britain after the war of 1812 (303). The growth of textile mills created a new system of employment where women worked away from home. This system, best elucidated by the Lowell system, employed young, unmarried women from farm families to work for one of the highest wages for women at the time: $2.50 per week. At Lowell, women had basic necessities such as food and shelter to compensate for the mundane work with quick, intricate weaving machines; yet, they eventually went on strike because their hours became longer and their wages decreased (306).

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They began to have women and children work in factories instead of homes and farming because they less they get payed the more they save but for that happening it could cause protest or strikes. Child labor was very seductive and unfair because families couldn’t afford to buy food or provide care the children need which puts the children in sickness or even worst death. (Doc 3) Changes in the textile industry inventions were to use machinery, which was cheaper than products made by hand (which took a long time to create), therefore allowing the cloth to be cheaper to the consumer. The inventions were a flying shuttle that was helpful for increasing speed of weaving and that was created by John Kay and spinning jenny was for to spun 8-10 threads at a time; used at home which was invented by James Hargreaves and water frame was for large spinning machine driven by water in factories and that was create by Richard Arkwright. The power loom was created by Edward Cartwright and his invention was to water powered; automatically wove thread into cotton and cotton gin was to separate seed from raw cotton and that was created by

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because it taught women a new way how to live and work. The Lowell Mills Girls had half an hour for breakfast every day. They worked for about 13 hours each day and they had very little pay. The girls were supervised by older woman called “Matrons.” next the young girls were expected to educate themselves.

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The industrial revolution was an impactful era for humanity’s advancement, all over the world. People becamse eager to find faster and easier ways of doing everyday tasks, and began inventing in the 1760’s. England was the first to begin the textile revolution, which was the mass production of cloth in mills and factories. The role of women in the textile industry was significant because of their agility and smaller hands. Soon after England’s revolution, Japan followed along, about a century later in the late 1800’s; through their emperor:

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Why Did Women Go to Work in New England Textile Mills?Women went to work in textile Mills because of the need to make money, help their families, and build independence. One main reason New England young women sought work in the mills was that wages were higher than other jobs. Wages were higher in the mills than wages paid to many domestics, seamstresses, and school-teachers. The daily pay at the mills enabled workers to actually save money. A Dresser earns 0.78 cents and a Warper earns 0.73 cents; the lowest pay it goes down to is a Sparehand going down to 0.44 cents.

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Though in the beginning, manifest destiny began to grip capable, hardworking men and dragged them out west in search of cheap land and new opportunities. With this in mind factories like those in Lowell, Massachusetts began hiring women due to the lack of men, but also found that their feminine hands had the dexterity to perform the skills needed for machine work. There were many different reasons for the mill girl’s original attraction to the factory communities. Some were there to help pay for family needs, grab onto educational prospects, or to simply earn an income and gain some economic independence for the first time. Being mostly New England farm girls the attraction of a place that provided them with tolerable work, meals and boarding provided for, moral disciplines to reassure the family, and then academic and cultural opportunities.

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The evangelical development of the Second Great Awakening, and the progress of the Market revolution swept the nation during the first half of the nineteenth century. During the same decades, the role of women in America changed. The Market Revolution indicated the downturn of subsistence farming and the commercialization of economic life as the everyday life of Americans. For the first time, factories arose, as textiles were progressively manufactured in mills like those in Lowell, Massachusetts. Although still treated lesser to men, women attained new opportunities in the working profession as teachers, nurses, and domestic service providers as a result of the Second Great Awakening, and the Market Revolution.

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Industrialization in the United States created increased employment opportunities in factories and metropolitan regions, liberating women from conventional homemaking responsibilities. Consequently, women sought independent lives, gaining financial independence and personal expression (Source 4). Women from various racial and cultural backgrounds, particularly those from working-class neighborhoods, entered the workforce, advocating for better working conditions and fair pay. These advancements shattered preconceived notions of gender roles, laying the groundwork for future women's rights

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