Before the Industrial Revolution landed in the United States, products were made and manufactured by hand. People relied on hand tools and individual skills to get what they needed, which was time consuming and not economically efficient. Friedrich Engels describes his thoughts on automatic machinery, stating that it did nothing more than limit the freedom of workers. Despite Engels perspective, having automated machinery in this country not only advanced the standard of living; it also employed thousands, including women and children.
Before machines such as the spinning jenny, power loom, and the carding machine were introduced into a cotton mill, cotton seeds would have to be picked and processed solely by hand. With automated machinery becoming an integrated part of American society, the process of good making became more resourceful and profitable. Statistical data includes that these establishments produced “almost $2 billion worth of …show more content…
Being that factories usually employed men, the advancement of technology in machinery gave woman their chance to shine. The Lowell Mill is a prime example of this. They employed what was said to be a “new industrial work force” (Hindle, Lubar 199), which in this case were women. Women who worked in the mill were not only given an hourly wage, but a place to live and food to eat. Families were also hired as a group. “About 40 percent of the workers were adult women: they ran spinning machines and, when they were introduced, power looms… about one quarter of the work force was children, mostly children of adults who worked in the mills” (Hindle, Lubar 192). To put into perspective how many people the factories around New England and the Middle Atlantic states provided jobs for, Hindle and Lubar point out “some 900,000 men and women worked – almost two-thirds of America’s industrial work force”
Before machines such as the spinning jenny, power loom, and the carding machine were introduced into a cotton mill, cotton seeds would have to be picked and processed solely by hand. With automated machinery becoming an integrated part of American society, the process of good making became more resourceful and profitable. Statistical data includes that these establishments produced “almost $2 billion worth of …show more content…
Being that factories usually employed men, the advancement of technology in machinery gave woman their chance to shine. The Lowell Mill is a prime example of this. They employed what was said to be a “new industrial work force” (Hindle, Lubar 199), which in this case were women. Women who worked in the mill were not only given an hourly wage, but a place to live and food to eat. Families were also hired as a group. “About 40 percent of the workers were adult women: they ran spinning machines and, when they were introduced, power looms… about one quarter of the work force was children, mostly children of adults who worked in the mills” (Hindle, Lubar 192). To put into perspective how many people the factories around New England and the Middle Atlantic states provided jobs for, Hindle and Lubar point out “some 900,000 men and women worked – almost two-thirds of America’s industrial work force”