Life in the Factories

The Factory System

• By the 1830’s, steam engines were used to power machines.
• With steam engines, factories could be built anywhere, not just along rivers
• New inventions and manufacturing shifted work from skilled craftspeople to less skilled laborers

Factory System

• The factory system had many workers under one roof working at machines.
• Many people left farms and moved to the city to work in factories.
• People began to work based on the clock not the sun

Workers and “Wage Slaves”

• Factory system created “wage slaves”
• Wages were low, hours were long, meals were skimpy, conditions were dangerous and unionization was next to impossible.
• Child labor common
• Factory owners held all the power.
• President Martin Van Buren established the ten-hour day for federal employees

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Factory Conditions

• Factory work was loud, hot, dirty, and dangerous.
• Machines created constant noise, making it hard to talk or think.
• Many factories reached 100 to 120 degrees or more, especially in summer.
• Workers usually labored 12 to 16 hours a day, 6 days a week.
• Some workers earned only about $1 to $2 a day, while women and children were often paid less.
• Children could earn just a few cents a day for long hours of work.
• Fast moving machines caused cuts, crushed fingers, lost limbs, and death.
• If workers complained or got hurt, they could be fired and replaced quickly.

The Lowell Mills Hire Women

• In 1813, Francis Cabot Lowell built a factory in eastern Massachusetts, near the Concord River.
• The factory spun cotton into yarn and wove the cotton into cloth.
• Something was different about this factory, they hired women.
• The “Lowell girls” lived in company-owned boardinghouses.
• The girls worked over 12 hours a day in deafening noise.

The Lowell Girls

• Young women came to Lowell in spite of the noise.
• They came for the good wages: between two and four dollars a week.
• The girls usually only worked for a few years until they married.

Women and the Economy�

• Many factories preferred to hire women because they could pay them less.
• The majority of working women were single.
• In the home women were enshrined in a “cult of domesticity,” a widespread cultural creed that glorified the customary functions of the homemaker.
• Arranged marriage died down; marriage because of love made family closer.
• Families grew smaller and more child-centered

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Society of the North

• Most northerners were neither wealthy nor powerful.
• They believed that by hard work, ordinary people could acquire wealth and influence.
• By 1860, about 7 out of 10 northerners still lived on farms, but more people were moving to towns and cities.
• African Americans living in the north were free, but they were not treated equally to whites.
• African Americans could not vote, hold office, serve on juries, or attend white churches or schools.

Urban Cities

• The poor lived close to factories (walking distance)
• This led to the development of modern cities
• Cities were overcrowded with poor living conditions
• These cities lacked sewers and paved streets, and diseases spread quickly.
• Fires were a constant threat

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Rise of Social Classes

• Commercial and Industrial growth increased American incomes
• Significant number of wealthy merchants and industrialists moved away from urban areas where factories were located.
• Began to show off wealth
• Mansions
• Flashy carriages
• clothing
• household items
• Social clubs

Culture of Industrial Society

• The Middle Class was the fastest growing economic group of the period
• New household inventions made life easier
• Cast iron stove
• More food choices
• Middle class homes were elaborately decorated

New Technologies Help the Nation Grow

• With new farm equipment, Midwestern farmers grew food to feed Northeastern factory workers.
• Midwestern farmers became a market for Northeastern manufactured goods.
• The growth of the textile factories increased the demand for Southern cotton.
• This led to the expansion of slavery.

The Reaper

• In 1831, Cyrus McCormick invented the “Reaper.”
• A Reaper could cut 28 times more grain than a single man using a sickle.
• This allowed farmers to plant much more seed because they could harvest it easier.

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The Threshing Machine

• The threshing machine separated the kernels of wheat from the husks, which was a far faster way of getting wheat than picking it by hand.
• The threshing machine increased the growing of wheat.
• By making it easier to harvest large quantities of grain, inventions like the reaper helped transform the Central Plains into America’s “Bread basket.”

Steamboat

• Robert Fulton designed a steam engine for a steamboat that could move against the current of a river or against the wind.
• The steamboat created more opportunities for trade and transportation on rivers.

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Transportation Revolution

• Between 1800 and 1840, the building of roads and canals, and the steamboat stimulated the transportation revolution that:
• encouraged growth;
• promoted the mobility of people and goods; and
• fostered the growing commercial spirit.
• Roads built to connect cities
• Steamboat - A new age of river travel
• Canals built for trade

Roads

• Factory owners needed fast, inexpensive ways to deliver their goods to distant customers.
• In 1806 Congress funded the construction of a National Road
• Made of smooth gravel across the Appalachian Mountains to tie the new western states with the East coast.
• The National Road tied the East and West together providing strong evidence of the nation’s commitment to expansion

Cumberland Road (1811)

• 591 miles connected Cumberland, Maryland to Vandalia, Illinois
• Freight transportation became cheaper
• Became vital highway to the west
• Population centers boomed in the west
• Land values along road enhanced

Erie Canal

• New York dug a 363-mile canal linking the Hudson River to Great Lakes
• Connected Eastern manufacturing and western agriculture
• Shipping a ton of grain from Buffalo to NYC fell from $100 to $5
• Time fell from 20 to 6 days
• Land value skyrocketed and new cities emerged along canal
• Great Lake towns exploded Cleveland, Detroit, Chicago
• Immigrants traveled west using canal

Transportation in the North

• Robert Fulton’s invention of the steamboat in 1807 allowed for more efficient travel on rivers because they could travel upstream easily.
• By the 1820s, steamboats were used on all major rivers and across the Great Lakes.
• The Erie Canal was built to connect the Hudson River to Lake Erie and became the first all-water link between farms on the Central Plains and East Coast cities.

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Railroads and Locomotives

• Steam locomotives were pioneered in England in 1820
• Allowed people and products to be shipped great distances
• Fast, reliable, and cheaper than canals to construct
• Not frozen in winter
• Able to go almost anywhere

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Railroads

• First railroad appeared in the U.S. in 1828
• 20,000 miles of railroad will be built to connect northern factories to cities hundreds of miles away.
• Funding will come from private investors and states
• Cornelius Vanderbilt made a fortune with NY Central Railroad
• Railroads will be built by immigrants in the North and Slaves in the Routh

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