Blog Post #2 (Option 2)

          So far in this class we have talked about how much children have taken a role in the Industrial Revolution. But it seems that we have left out how big of a role women took in this period of time. You would wonder why women would want to leave their families and countries and come work in the Lowell Mills. The women that came to the Mills had some benefits from coming, but definitely had some costs that came with it.

          The girls who came to the Mills were in way over their heads. They were not expecting to come to another country to have to work all day, make little money, and suffer these horrible conditions. But I mean, why would they come in that case? Instead of telling the girls what they would really be in for, the "Factory Agents" might have exaggerated a little bit. The video we watched called "Daughters of Free Men" talked about how these Factory Agents would come to homes, door to door, and ask the father of the family if they would be willing to send their daughter to America to work in factories and make some money. The Agents would always ask the father because the father of the family is the one who makes all of the decisions, the one who made sure all of the rules were followed, he was the overseer. So the Factory Agent would come and ask the father for his permission to send his daughter to America to come work in these factories where she would be making her own money.

          But it was the way the Agent would ask that convinced the father. The Agent would talk about how the daughter of the man would develop lots of working skill, gain lady like habits, find a man to marry, and make herself some money. The video we watched talked about how this convinced the father because back then, women were viewed as fairly useless. They were literally viewed as just an extra mouth to feed. And when a woman met a man, the parents of the girl would pay the parents of the husband because they are basically "taking her off of their hands." This money being paid was called a dowry, so some of the money the woman would make would go towards her dowry. Once the father heard all of this, the daughter was as good as gone.

          Believe it or not, their were some benefits of these girls being sent to the Mills in Lowell. The girls would be making their own money while working here. They would also develop friendships with fellow coworkers, they would develop working skills, and learn lady like manners. One of the huge reasons why the women came was because they thought they would meet a nice gentleman to marry. But at the same time there were definitely some costs that came with it. The conditions of the factories were not nearly as great as they were picturing it, "Daughters of Free Men" and the document on Edline called "Labor in Lowell" talks about how the conditions were awful and the work was extremely hard. Plus punishment was very severe for these girls, they would be locked in rooms, threatened, or even scalped.

          The "Mill Girl" era ended right around the time of the Civil War, which was around 1863. This era came to an end because eventually the factories cut the pay of the women. When this happened, the women snapped. They went on strike in order to raise the wages, but the first time it didn't work. The women tried it a second time, this is when it finally worked, the factories had shut down. The document on Edline called "Women March in Lowell" talks about how the women made a great attempt, but the first strike ended up unsuccessful. It says  "800 women walked out in protest, and held a march through the center of Lowell.
However, the owners quickly recruited replacements from the surrounding countryside, and the strike was defeated."

          Describing the "Lowell Experiment" is very hard. Lots of different things happened in a short period of time. These women were persuaded to come to these factories that were projected to lead the woman to have a very nice and successful life. Then they were sent to the factories and realized how miserable it was going to be there. Then their payments got cut, so they protested, and failed. Then they protested again and it actually worked. The actions of these women lead on to women standing up for themselves and lots of them ended up joining the Women's Rights Activists. So a lot happened during Lowell Experiment, and a lot more happened due to the influential acts of these women during this time.

         

Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Conditions During The Industrial Revolution

Sean Conroy

9-16-14

G Block

If I were to wake up around 250 years ago, I would get up at 4:00 am to go to my dangerous and hazardous workplace, and then come home right around 9:00 pm and then go to bed to get ready for work again tomorrow. The Industrial Revolution began in the late 18th Century and and ended around the 1820’s. The Industrial Revolution happened in both the United States, and Great Britain. It was one of the most important things to happen to the United States. Everything we do has to do with the Industrial Revolution; technology, cars, tap water, plumbing, EVERYTHING! The Industrial Revolution happened in both the United States, and Great Britain. But even though it was so important, times were very hard for people during the Industrial Revolution, including young children. Children had to be at work at 5:00 am, would work until 12:00 pm where they would have a short lunch break, would eat dinner while still working at the machines, and then they would finally leave sometime between 9:00 pm and 11:00 pm. So, were the conditions for the workers during the Industrial Revolution inevitable? Absolutely not, but the child labor was most certainly necessary.

In the Background Essay, Dickens talks about how much he wants the British factories to be like the American factories. In the Background Essay, Dickens talks about how terrible the conditions were in the British Factories. So in American Notes, Document A, Charles Dickens talks about the upside of the conditions for the workers. He talks about how the girls looked healthy and clean, and the rooms they were staying in were always nice and neat. In Document A, it says “They were healthy in appearance, many of them remarkably ao, and had the manners of young women: not of degraded brutes of burden.” He is trying to talk about how much better the American Factories were, so that maybe Great Britain would change their ways. In Document A, he mentions how they did not have too many children working, how they had a church, and how clean and nice the rooms were. So clearly conditions did not to be so dangerous, but they could still allow children to work and get the job done.

As if the conditions for the girls weren’t enough, the girls also had to leave their families in order to work there. It wasn’t easy for the girls to leave their families to go work until they’re about 21 years old. In Document B, it says “I cannot but fear the taking such young persons from the eyes of their parents.” This quote was said by one of the masters at the factories, so even they understood how rough it must have been for these girls. This Document also talks about what the “Bobbins Girls” had to do. It talks about how these girls would work on these machines all day without any intermissions. So not only were these girls forced to leave their homes, but they would be working all day non stop. Also, when I say left, I mean left. These girls would be at these factories from whenever they arrived, until the age of 21! So this proves my point because these girls definitely could have gotten their work done, but also had time to visit home.

The conditions of the factories lead to many deaths, not only by accidents, but by illnesses. The terrible quality food, unsanitary surroundings, and lack of sleep slowly killed these children overtime. Document C consits of a series of letters from a girl who worked at the factories namd Mary. Mary wrote these letters to her father to check in. Throughout these letters she discussed things like payments, things happening at the factories, and her health. But when she adresses her health, she talks about how it was fairly good. But at the note in the bottom of the page, it says “She claims her health has been ‘pretty good.’ In reality it had been failing for 3 years.” This shows that she was unaware of her health at the time, but it had been decreasing over time. So it is defintely possible that the factories could have changed their ways to check for health or change their food so that the workers would have the neccesary nutrients so that they could perform this work all day.

The conditions themselves were bad enough in these factories, but the masters made them even worse. If children started to fall asleep while working, they were constantly beaten and abused. The masters were very strict and were always on the workers’ case. They left no slacking time, they didn’t even allow the children to eat away from their machines. In Document D, a 16 year old girl named Hannah Goode’s talks about how they had little to know free time, and how aggresive the masters were. She says “William Crookes is overlooker in our room; he is cross-temprered sometimes. He does not bet me; he beats the little children if they do not do their work right.” So she is talking about how this man will beat small children if they mess up while working for 14 hours a day. This strongly proves my point because the masters could have easily treated the children better when they were doing their work.

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most important things in the United States history, but the condition were just disgusting. They would force these children to work around 14 hours a day and would get to leave once which was for dinner, other meals would be eaten while working. Accidents would happen a lot, and these accicedents weren’t just your average scrape; limbs being torn, bones being crushed, lives being taken. Their frood consisted of little to no nutrients, so they would have no energy in their system to be able to work these kind of hours. Children were being beaten if they weren’t doing their work correctly, or if they were falling asleep on the job. The conditions were not inevitable at all, they could have had better conditions while still getting the work done, but they needed that child labor to do what they did.

The Ups and Downs of the Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution was one of the greatest things to happen to our country. It improved so many things, and allowed us to do the things we do today. When we use electricity, drive a car, drink tap water....all of these things are possible because of the Industrial Revolution. But the Industrial Revolution wasn't all good, during this curating project I realized that the effects were great, but times for people who were living during it were awful. Children having to work all day, small amounts of payment, and unsafe environments for the workers. This project is important because it allows us, as students, to learn about all of the parts of the Industrial Revolution. It was also much more of a fun way of learning than having to study and take a test on it. 

This is a picture of my group's poster. Our poster was about how slavery took a huge roll in cotton production, and how they had to increase the number of slaves in order to keep up with all of this mass production. The title was made because it is a perfect way to show that without cotton, there would have been much more freedom. But without freedom, there would have been much more cotton production which was necessary at a time like this. So we put up our sources with a brief note showing how it related to our topic. We wanted our classmates, and anyone else who sees this, to learn just how much slavery helped the amount of cotton production during the Industrial Revolution. But also to learn how terrible it was for the slaves for the Americans to be making money. A great example of that is the picture in the top right corner that shows a slave working very hard and the outcome is the factory making loads of money. 

1.) All Work, No Play 

This poster got its point across very well. It showed me that children were forced into working their entire day in horrible and dangerous living conditions. They had to suffer all day only until they would go home at night to sleep for a small amount of hours, where they would then wake up the next day to do it all over again. They worked like this up until 1833 where the Factory Act was written, this was a document that prevented young children from working in these conditions, and wouldn't aloow any child to work more than 12 hours in one day. 

2.) Spinning Into The Future 

This poster talks about how families had a big part on the industrial revolution. It talked about how the machines weren't only located in factories, but they were also located in homes so that families could do their own work. It also showed how the father's money was huge because if he did not have enough to support his whole family, then the children would work in factories. 

3.) Hot Stuff

This poster shows how the steam engine imp[acted the Industrial Revolution greatly. It shows just how much things like transportation was improved and how the steam engine took a huge role during this time period. But people were very skeptical about this machine, believing that it would not do much for them or that it was just a waste. But those skeptics, were very wrong. 

4.) The Dark Side of the Industrial Revolution

This was a very well put together poster that showed just how many inventions were created during the Industrial Revolution. It also showed how pollution greatly affected the air during this period of time. Smoke filled the air, causing people to not even being able to see the sky. Small areas where people stayed became very overpopulated as well. 

So each one of these projects truly show just how much the Industrial Revolution affected America's pastime. It affected it in a good way because everything we are able to do nowadays is because of the Industrial Revolution. But it also had it's bad affects because of the child labor, pollution, and extremely dangerous work environments. It didn't matter who you were or what age you were back then, you had to work. So I'm really glad we did this project because I have learned so much about the Industrial Revolution, and I got to learn it in a fun way.