How Lowell Changed America

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The boom of the Industrial Revolution thanks to Samuel Slater, not only changed America’s economic, but also changed America’s social life as women entered the workforce outside their homes for the first time. Francis Cabot Lowell was able to propel this change with the rise of his Lowell System where women were provided with meals, housing, and education oppuritions as women worked for a lower paycheck compared to that of a male paycheck. However, with time, these benefits to the women that were provided to them began to deteriorate with their employers became richer and richer. Soon the greed of these employers spilled over not only to providing lower quality of the Lowell System but also to cutting the wages of their workers. Instantly …show more content…
The women seemed to form the powerful union overnight, stopping all production in the cotton mills. The women within the union were committed their choice of joining as to ensure that none of their members would desert the union they all signed a petition and thereby signing their loyalty to the union, “We circulate this paper, wishing to obtain the names of all who imbibe the spirit of our patriotic ancestors, who preferred privation to bondage, and parted with all that renders life desirable-and even life itself-to procure independence for their children” (Letter). The girls also declared that their actions were final and that they were, “That we will not go back into the mills to work unless our wages are continued to us as they have been.” (Letter). By stating their demand with such a threat made their voices to known to their employers as they realized that the women union would not go away with time as they were willing to give up their jobs in order to obtain their demands. These headstrong women began to go against social normalities with time as they began to openly speak of their desires, “This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience” (Robinson). With the rise of the wage cuts to the women and the rise of the strike, the union provided the women with a voice that people listened to for the first time in
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