American History

In the Western society, early mechanization and development arose from the rationalistic view of the world. Development is seen through advancement in machineries and how technology progress. After the development of factories during the Industrial Revolution, factories remained as an essential job for most workers. Steam power, as invented by James Watt at the development of steam engines accelerated the mechanization of societies during the Industrial Revolution. Together with the onset of Industrial Revolution, the industrialization of society also advanced. Division of labor, specialization, and mechanization were the terms used to describe the changes seen during the industrialization period. These concepts helped create the modern industrial society driven by the value on mass production and assembly line. It has swept in England to the United States by the early 1850s, greatly known as the American system of manufacturing.

In the United States, Waltham and Lowell in the 1810s and 1820s started the first factory system in their textile industry. It then spread into the chemical and metallurgical industries by 1840s and other market-oriented and driven industries by the 1860s and 1870. This event started the American model of manufacturing which is mass produced and has power-driven machines and various mechanical processes. Machines were vital in the production of various goods. The mechanization movement had a tremendous impact on the Industrial Revolution which has significant impact on the lives of the people and the society. The development of work organized with machines as the central and integral part of the system made it even evident to advanced and even caused several problems in the welfare of the people .

The new industrial order included increase in production out of agricultural and non agricultural goods and services. In 1800, there were three out of four American male workers who worked full time in the agriculture sector by 1900 more than two-thirds were already employed in the manufacturing and service sectors. All Americans during the 1800s were working in family-sized units of production, either working long-term or on a permanent basis, as a slave, a spouse, and a form of moral rules observe while working for family-owned factories . Wages became a means to value the morals of the workers, thus bringing prosperity in the supply and demand of labor. However, a century later, wages became governing in the labor market, it became a norm, thus moral imperatives on the custom or morals of the workers were greatly ignored, including the concept of fair wages. Employers and employees lived somehow disconnected from each other as the industrialization brought significant changes in their lives socially and spatially. Thus, at the end of the century, the shift now focused on a re-evaluation of womens work, workers welfare, and so forth. This event in history brought much social and political impact in the industrial revolution.

Significant was the development of the textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. By 1840, 26 mills were already built, employing some 7,000 workers. Almost all these mils produce a low grade cotton cloth. The machines were powered by water wheels. Most workers employed were almost young, unmarried women who would work there for years with specialized skills on the machines they operate. The Lowell industry was significant because it raised key concepts in the nature of the American industrialization. The increase in workforce employed in Lowell influenced to a certain degree the change in New England during 1840 as 50,000 people worked in the cotton textile industry. The significant contribution in the organization and management during the industrialization period was described at Lowell. Young women were employed in the textile mills. Millgirls were expected to abide by a set of rules that outlined the organization they were about to enter, they called it general regulations. The rules were partly moral, a guide to their duties and the duties of their managers who they work for, and the creation of a legal contract as an obligation to their employee . Several rules were to work efficiently, attend public service during the Sabbath, not drink or gamble.

However, 1860 witnessed the turn of the golden age of Lowell. New England was also not enthusiastic in copying the management style of textile mills in the United States, including the millgirls and moral boarding houses done at Lowell. The golden age at Lowell witnessed a significant development in terms of industrialization, but also a backward in the welfare of the workers. An English immigrant, Jabez Hollingworth stated, Management breeds lords and Aristocrats, poor men and slaves. This was an assessment of the American mills situation during those times, one which was oppressive. Industrial workers then conceived the idea of management with slavery. Factory workers, like slaves, were treated to some extent as machines which characterized the industrial revolution. The system became too rigid and demanded great labor and strict adherence to the rules given by those in charge.

The system of rules, new machines, and new products were the legacy of the industrial revolution. However, this has caused a dramatic shift in which labor was seen. As Harriet Robinsons relates in her autobiography that was part of the Lowell industry, at the start of the industry, wage was high and offered to different classes of people. Most workers, who are women, left their family in New England and Canada, to work at Lowell. Given the rigid rules at Lowell, millgirls has the lowest caste in the system. Most mills in England and in France had great injustices to women however they choose to stay because of the high wages offered to them. Young girls called doffers were working early fourteen hours a day operating cotton machines . Their managers, if under a kind supervisor, would allow them to read, knit, or play during their breaks. They were paid well, thus generally, from 8 to 10 months of their employment, they were satisfied. Some male members of the millgirls were able to go to school because of labor incentives from the industry. Women worked hard to provide education for their male relatives, as men were the only ones allowed to go to school during those times . The social injustices on women, deprived of their rights, were also very apparent during those times. Women worked to earn money, but they can never be free to spend those on what they need, or would like to invest, such as a piece of property.

In 1836, wages were announced to be cut down, which prompted millgirls to protest. The strike did not end in results rather, the women were prompted to go back to their work with reduced rate of wages. Several strikes then followed, to which women workers protested for oppressive behavior of the management due to some women workers being discharged for cases such as disobedience to orders, dissatisfaction over wages, or mutiny (Harriet, 1933). The strikes intensified during the 1940s. More women felt oppressed and conditions in factory had deteriorated. In 1834 and 1836, wage cuts, increased rents in company housing, sent women in outbursts. The series of strikes and several opportunities for the women and their rhetoric served as the language and intentions of the US Declaration of Independence .

But between the events in 1834 and 1836 protests, the first was a result of the slump on textiles sales. By 1836, there was an increase in workers numbers, from 1500 to 2000. But the depression in 1837 ended the first phase of the labor struggle at Lowell. The events in Lowell repeated in several areas in New England mill towns and had influenced the new consciousness among working women.

The situation of women working during the industrial revolution showed the great effort of women to fight for their rights. Socially, womens rights were not yet realized during those times, but because of the series of struggles and protests, they became a significant part of the struggle of women around the world.