Lowell system

The Lowell System or Waltham-Lowell System, named after Francis Cabot Lowell, was a paternalistic textile factory system of the early 19th century that employed mainly young women [age 15-35] from New England farms to increase efficiency, productivity and profits in ways different from other methods. Emphasis was placed on mechanization and standardization; the entire textile industry used this as a model, and machines using this system were sold to other mills.

To successfully recruit female workers, it was in the best interest of the investors and mangers to keep Lowell free of the filth, poverty, and social disorder prevalent in English factory towns. Lowell's textile workers were supervised on the job and at home with a formal set of rules and regulations. [Faragher, John Mack, et al. "Out Of Many". Upper Saddle River: Prentice Pearson Hall, 2006. Pg 328] The rules and regulations emphasized the maintenance of a proper environment: enforced curfews, encouraged church attendance, and maintained a high degree of cleanliness. Compared to many of the textile mills in England and France, Lowell's Mills were considered clean, and the workers lived and ate in well-kept company owned boardinghouses. Wages were good compared to the standards of the day.

The innovative system and the enthusiasm it incited in its employees drew international acclaim. The women wrote and published several literary magazines including the "Lowell Offering", starting in 1840. Charles Dickens, who visited Lowell during part of his four-month tour of the United States, said of the place, "I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, would have removed from those works if I had had the power." [http://www.uk-t.org] The system's success was one of the factors that propelled the new England textile investors to great success.

The women, most of whom were recruited from the surrounding countryside, found transition to factory life and the tediousness of repetitive tasks difficult, and the competitiveness of the textile industry made the high standards of living and working conditions difficult to maintain. Company boardinghouses were built near the mill providing rooms and meals to the textile workers. The Lowell textile workers became involved in labor reform to improve working conditions in the mills which were often were poorly lit, badly ventilated, hot in the summertime, and cold and damp in the wintertime. [Zinn, Howard. "A Peoples History of the United States". New York:The New Press, 2003. Pg 169-170] An economic downturn in 1834 led to a 25% wage cut, and the female textile workers responded by organizing (the Factory Girls' Association) and immediately going on strike. A rent hike in 1836 led to more protests. [Faragher, John Mack, et al. "Out Of Many". Upper Saddle River: Prentice Pearson Hall, 2006. Pg 346] . The protracted "turn-out" gained wide community support and ended in success when the textile companies rescinded the rent hike. The depression of 1837 three years later placed severe pressure of the Lowell system, but it continued. A growing interest in labor reform generated more agitation by Lowell textile workers like and her Female Labor Reform Association. They workers pressured the corporations to improve conditions throughout the 1840s, resulting in new technology, new construction, and shorter workdays. The expansion of the textile industry in Massachusetts forced managers to recruit female Irish immigrants. Although Yankee women dominated Lowell's textile workforce until the 1880s, by the 1850s, many aspects of the Lowell System had changed.

ee also

* Industrial revolution
* Lowell, Massachusetts

References