What was life like in a mill village?

Most millhands went to work early in the day and labored for ten to twelve hours straight, amid deafening noise, choking dust and lint, and overwhelming heat and humidity. Families usually began mill work together, since employers paid adults poor wages and offered jobs to children to help make ends meet.

They would work 12 -14 hours a day, as well as being exposed to brutal discipline if they made mistakes, were late work or – through sheer exhaustion – were caught falling asleep at their machines. Punishments included beatings, having heavy weights tied around their necks or even having their ears nailed to tables.

A mill town, also known as factory town or mill village, is typically A settlement that developed around one or more mills or factories, usually cotton mills or factories producing textiles.

In addition to housing, mills usually built churches and schools, and they sometimes provided electric lights and other amenities. Many mills retained company stores that sold on credit, and workers were sometimes paid in credits redeemable only at the company stores.

On average, the Lowell mill girls earned Between three and four dollars per week. The cost of boarding ranged between seventy-five cents and $1.25, giving them the ability to acquire good clothes, books, and savings.

Mills were commonly used for Grinding grain into flour (attested by Pliny the Elder), but industrial uses as fulling and sawing marble were also applied. The Romans used both fixed and floating water wheels and introduced water power to other provinces of the Roman Empire.

The air in the cotton mills had to be kept hot and humid (65 to 80 degrees) to prevent the thread breaking. In such conditions it is not surprising that workers suffered from many illnesses. The air in the mill was thick with cotton dust which could lead to byssinosis – a lung disease.

Mill owners improved living conditions in the mill villages by Adding electricity and running water.

In his economics book, Mill criticized the Selfish pursuit of money. Mill argued that wealth should only be a means to achieve the higher goal of individual self-development, what he called individuality. Mill wanted as many as possible to participate as business owners in a free-market economy.

Early mills had run successfully with water power, but by using a Steam engine A factory could be located anywhere, not just close to a water source. Water power varied with the seasons and was not always available. In 1776 Watt formed an engine-building and engineering partnership with manufacturer Matthew Boulton.

The mills completely changed how people dressed and the way they decorated their homes. By the 1830s, Ordinary people could afford more clothing and poorer people began to copy the fashions of the well to do. Curtains and other decorative textiles appeared in houses.

The Industrial Revolution saw the rise of factories in need of workers. Children were ideal employees Because they could be paid less, were often of smaller stature so could attend to more minute tasks and were less likely to organize and strike against their pitiable working conditions.

Between Poor building structures, dangerous machinery, crowded boardinghouses, and a variety of frequent accidents, these women worked at their own risk. Work hazards were compounded by exhaustion, a frequent topic of reporting from inside and outside the mill.

Lower Wages and Poor Working Conditions

One reason that the factory owners liked to hire women was because They could pay them less. At the time, women made around half of what men made for doing the same job.

The one piece of clothing which was clearly in evidence in all three sources was A smock-like garment known as a “house apron,” which the women in the Queen City Cotton Mill clearly wore to protect their clothing from getting dirty while on the job.

In the 1830s, half a century before the better-known mass movements for workers’ rights in the United States, the Lowell mill women organized, went on strike and mobilized in politics when women couldn’t even vote—and Created the first union of working women in American history.

Low pay. Pay was extremely low for Common workers During the industrial revolution. $1.00 to $1.50 was the typical pay for men workers while women were paid less and children the least. It was hardly enough to make a living and nearly impossible to support a family.

Most millhands went to work early in the day and labored for ten to twelve hours straight, amid Deafening noise, choking dust and lint, and overwhelming heat and humidity. Families usually began mill work together, since employers paid adults poor wages and offered jobs to children to help make ends meet.

In the textile industry, factories set hours of work and the machinery within them shaped the pace of work. Factories brought workers together within one building and Increased the division of labor, narrowing the number and scope of tasks and including children and women within a common production process.

The Lowell System was a labor production model invented by Francis Cabot Lowell in Massachusetts in the 19th century. The system was designed so that Every step of the manufacturing process was done under one roof and the work was performed by young adult women instead of children or young men.