Question

1. Describe working conditions in early American factories. Compare factories in New York and Philadelphia with the Lowell and Waltham mills. How did workers react to the new factory system?

Answer 1

As in Victorian England, the conditions of workers in American factories were simply horrendous. Children were made to work from the age of 7 years old. They were made to work 14 hours a day six days a week for very low salaries in cramped spaces, soiled with the soot of machines and sickened by the lack of sunlight. Skilled workers earned a little more but most workers were paid starvation wages and women were paid less than men. They had no breaks. Safety hazards were everywhere and in the event of work-related injuries there was no compensation, no medical coverage and no job because the person would be fired on the spot and left to his/her own devices. The new system sought to primarily increase efficiency and output since the vertical integration allowed a company to control all the manufacturing processes. It also sought to somewhat alleviate the inhuman conditions of most factories. Here, the employees were mostly young women from the countryside who had to adhere to a strict set of rules and a a moral code. They lived in all-female dormitories that were owned by the company. They worked 80 hours per week but did have a day off and two breaks during the workday, one for breakfast at 7am and another one for lunch at noon. Of course, for workers the new system was comparatively better than the current system by the standards of the era.