Textile Factories Come to the U.S.

American conditions:

different resources: wood is plentiful, resources like ores are very spread out
labor: most people wanted to farm, might work a few years to earn money
people are very spread apart, distances are very large
shortage of skilled workers
people who came to the U.S. were more ambitious, open to new things
capital was scarce and tended to be invested in plantations or overseas trade

The industrial revolution was slow to get started in the U.S. because the U.S. was a third world country and England was determined to protect its advantage

England passed a law in 1765 (repealed 1824-25) prohibiting export of textile machinery and emigration of skilled mechanics.
E. I. duPont said in 1802: "The greatest danger to my business is that of attracting the attention of the English... They employ all possible means to prevent the establishment of manufactures here. They burned my predecessor's cotton mill, and might easily try to do the same to my mills."
Thomas Jefferson: fear of the misery of industrial cities in England and belief that an agricultural nation was essential for democracy. Felt that farmers were by nature virtuous. He wasn't against technology--he had a lot of machines on his plantation, but he was against industrialization until the blockades starting in 1807 that lead to the war of 1812 convinced him that the U.S. couldn't afford to be dependent on other countries for manufactured goods.
Early efforts to smuggle in machines weren't very successful, eg. disassembled mule that arrived in Philadelphia in 1783 was never successfully assembled. The first useful drawings of textile equipment were not available until 1812, published description of how to run machinery not until 1832
shortage of labor, shortage of capital, shortage of skills

Slater Mill First successful mill--Slater Mill

Samuel Slater had served a 7 year mill apprenticeship in England. Came to the United States to make his fortune and made a partnership with a hardware merchant--Moses Brown--in Pawtucket, RI
Slater put up his expertise and his partners put up the money, and Slater got half ownership
set up in an old fulling mill in 1790, then build a new mill in 1793. 100 spindles, spinning only, Arkwright water frames, little innovation. Metal parts made by local blacksmiths, relying on Slater's knowledge of critical dimensions, gearing, settings, surfaces.
At first used almost entirely child labor--hired 7 boys and 2 girls between the ages of 7 and 12 in 1790. By 1800 he had more than 100 employees, and he relied on recruiting families and providing housing for them around the mill (fathers often worked as hand loom weavers, not in the mill).
Slater owned or had an interest in 13 textile mills, and left an estate of $690,000 when he died in 1835.
By 1810 there were 54 mills in Massachusetts, 26 in Rhode Island, 14 in Connecticut--all small mills without integration
British immigrants made up about half the managers and machine-makers before 1830.

map from National Atlas of the United States Origins of Lowell :

Boston merchants became interested in textile factories after the War of 1812 showed the advantages of diversification. Boston Manufacturing Co.: Nathan Appleton, Patrick Tracy Jackson, Francis Cabot Lowell
hired an English mechanic named Paul Moody to build a power loom and set up a factory on the Charles river in Waltham. Opened in 1815--first complete cotton factory in the US. Capitalized at $400,000 (10x Slater).
Needed more water power in order to expand, and wanted to build a new town to avoid the corrupt city.
Lowell, Mass, at the beginning of the Middlesex canal. First mill opened in 1822--built by more than 500 Irish laborers who were subject to such discrimination that they were not allowed to work in the mill. They lived in a shanty town called The Acre

Boots Mill, Lowell

spinning

The Lowell labor system:

land was cheap in the United States and people wanted to own their own farms, not work in mills. Where to find a workforce for a large mill?
hire young women from the countryside to work for a few years before they get married. Women lived in heavily supervised dormitories, were required to attend church, followed many factory rules, and made good wages for women at the time.
The women averaged $3.60 a week in 1836, at which point they were paying $1.50 a week for room and board. This compared favorably to $1 a week for domestic work.
until the mid 1840s the work was not stressful, although they worked 73 hours hours a week (a 12 to 14 hour day, six days a week, 309 days a year, with only three holidays). Intermittent labor, mostly fetching and carrying.

image from Hine Collection, National Archives Lowell changes:

Lowell population

1820--200
1830--6,000
1850--33,000

The Boston Manufacturing company returned an average annual dividend of 19% from 1816 to 1826. Even in the more competitive 1850s the Merrimack Company (which operated some of the Lowell mills) averaged 12% annual return for most of the decade.
Competition began to result in a worse deal for the workers as early as the 1830s--in 1836 there was a strike in reaction to a cut in wages of $1 a week. Speed-up made the work damaging to health
immigrant workers began to be hired in the 1840s: immigrant workers in mills: 1845--8%, 1850--33%, 1860--60% (of those 47% were Irish--potato famine started in 1845).

this page written and copyright Pamela E. Mack
last updated 9/28/05