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Used the book

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These events throughout the history have changed the work conditions, pay, and style of how we work in modern day.

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-the first national association of trade unions, formed in 1834

In the earliest attempts to organize, journeymen formed trade unions specific to each trade.

During the 1830s, the trade unions in different towns began to join together to establish unions for such trades as carpentry, shoemaking, weaving, printing, and comb making.

By means of these unions, the workers sought to standardize wages and conditions throughout each industry.

The trade-union movement faced fierce opposition from bankers and owners, who threatened the unions by forming associations of their own.

In addition, workers’ efforts to organize were at first hampered by court decisions declaring strikes illegal.

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In 1842 the Massachusetts Supreme Court supported the workers’ right to strike in the case, Commonwealth v. Hunt.

Chief Justice Lemuel Shaw said that Boston’s journeymen bootmakers could act “in such a manner as best to subserve their own interests.”

A prominent American court finally had upheld the rights of labor.

People still went on strikes for improved wages and working conditions.

Some Americans put all their effort into economic growth and expansion.

Many Americans decided to migrate west as the market economy emerged.

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By: Katie, Alex, Angela, Nick

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The workday at Lowell was the same routine everyday to wake up, work, and eat dinner at certain times.

Work was difficult because of the heat, darkness, and poor ventilation in the factories, which lead to discomfort and illness.

In the 1830s the conditions continued to worsen. Managers forced the workers to increase the pace of production.

In 1834 Lowell mills announced a 15% wage cut, 800 mill girls started to boycott and started a strike, that led them to stop working for them.

Strikes

The mill girls issued a proclamation declaring to not return to work until wages increase back.

Lowell press and clergy criticized the workers who resisted to work.

They eventually came back to work with reduced wages.

The mill owners fired the strike leaders.

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Until the 1820s, only the first step in the manufacture of clothing, the spinning of cotton into thread, had been mechanized widely in America.

Cottage industry- a system of production in which manufacturers provide the materials to be produced in the home

Women did most of the work, but men and children sometimes helped too.

When entrepreneurs like Patrick Jackson, Nathan Appleton, and Francis Cabot Lowell opened their weaving factories in Waltham and later Lowell, Massachusetts, their power looms replaced the cottage industries.

Mechananizing cut production time and cost of the textile manufacturing.

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for many young girls this offered more pay than other jobs geared forwards females such as sewing, teaching, or other domestic work.

girls typically stayed for just a few years and would go back to their typical life after but with new “fashions, books, and as well as new ideas”.

they would work long hours and would break for lunch and dinner but then would go back to work after they were unsanitary conditions and the girls would get ill often

eventually the conditions got so bad they had all came together and went on strike until the wages were improved as well as the environment

the mill owners were very angry and fired all of the strike leaders and settled the strike.

two years later they went on strike again and this time they were given their pay increase.

becasue of their strikes and uproar, a petition called the Lowell Female Labor Reform was formed and passed by the local legislature.

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Artisans mostly worked in shops that were attached to their homes.

Artisans included:

Master- handcrafted the products until 1820s

journeyman- helps the master

skilled worker- employed by a master

apprentice- young worker, learning a craft; assists skilled worker

In the 1820s interchangeable parts changed manufacturing.

Manufacturers began using production processes.

This increased the rate of factory production.

This revolutionized industry.

The cost of making household items and clothing decreased.

Machines allowed workers to perform tasks without being “skilled” or trained.

Unskilled artisans went from working on a farm to working in a factory doing boring and repetitive work.

Working in a factory came with tight restrictions imposed by factory managers.

One example of very harsh restrictions is in the factory town of Lowell, Massachusetts.