ABSTRACT

Look at a picture of women working in a Massachusetts textile mill in the 1820s and you see the first wave of America's industrial revolution. England's manufacturing cities were already famous for their ugliness and brutality, but many believed America could escape that fate by building "factories in the forest" that blended harmoniously with rural life. In fact, mill towns like Lowell, Massachusetts, grew quickly into cities; but during the early years of industrialization conditions in the New England factories were relatively benign. Instead of a permanent proletariat, the workers consisted mainly of farmers' daughters earning a few years' wages before they married. The factory regime was rigid but not unduly harsh, and many of the young women appear to have enjoyed their economic independence and the sociability of life in the big company-run boardinghouses.