The Belles of New England
Jan. 10th, 2005 01:21 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
dancerjodiI've been reading http://nhpr.org/view_content/7178/ lately, since I needed a break from the fluffy autobiographies that I was into right at the end of the semester. I heard about this on NPR a while ago and picked up a copy finally when I saw it the gift store at http://www.newportmansions.org/page3544.cfm (Tiggerette and I went with her Mom right after Thanksgiving).
Its a very easy read, though it jumps all over the place in terms of chronology. I'm only about 80 pages into it but have learned some interesting things.
For those that haven't caught my rambling about it, the American Industrial Revolution has been attributed to have started in Waltham on the Charles River - not far from where I live now. I didn't know that Francis Cabot Lowell was so focused on good treatment of employees (versus what he had seen going on in the large Mills in England where the first industrial revolution took place). I also never knew that he actually *stole* his design ideas from his visits to mills in England! He committed the designs to memory and working with a local mechanic (Moody - hence where "Moody Street" came from) built the first major factory machines involved in spinning wool to make cloth. For the first time in US history, cotton cloth would be produced with all steps occurring under one roof, starting with the raw plant materials. Later, Lowell would go on to found the city of Lowell and its associated mills and colleagues of his would do the same in other surrounding river towns.
I never thought much about where they got that cotton which fueled the efforts of the workers at that Boston Manufacturing Company on what is now Moody Street (and now houses artist's lofts and overpriced senior citizen apartments). Cosmopolitan women from local farms worked in the mills at first and were excited about being a part of a massive entrepreneurial movement. They lived in comfortable company provided boarding houses (my ex Pete lives in a building that was once one) and took advantage of company provided educational and artistic opportunities. All good things can never last, though. Conditions got tougher, hours got longer, and people soon learned of where the cotton actually came from - slaves. Many think of the Boston area being very anti-slavery, but the slave industry in the south was what fueled the early huge industrial booms of early Massachusetts. I can't believe I had never thought of that before!
The author suggests that factory life changed dramatically after the civil war. Early humanitarian owners like Lowell had moved on and the new guys in charge concerned themselves more with profit and less with providing a decent job for local workers, or for enriching the community. Thus began poorer conditions, overcrowding, etc. Welcome the birth of the labor union and its actions! Women were active at this time as well as men, demanding equal pay and benefits (most often when salary would be cut, hours increased, or boarding house fees raised it would only apply to women). Also, immigration brought in new pools of workers willing to take the crap conditions that the early farm residents wouldn't. Welcome racial tension to Boston and its surrounding areas. Waltham has always been home to a diverse group of cultures given its large concentration of places to work. In the early 1800s it was the mills and later route 128 would bring in the masses looking for work in the tech industry.
I'm always fascinated with the sociological impact of the American Industrial Revolution and how its touched infinite areas (working, healthcare, education, urban planning, etc). Its very neat to live in such a historically rich area where I'm in a house on a street parallel with both Lowell and Moody Streets. Also, having had relatives that worked in these historic mills and factories, (some of which still stand today, albeit their walls house other operations now) has taught me about how easy many of us have it now, despite our gripes about work from day to day. So despite its jumping around-ness, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in that period of history.
Its a very easy read, though it jumps all over the place in terms of chronology. I'm only about 80 pages into it but have learned some interesting things.
For those that haven't caught my rambling about it, the American Industrial Revolution has been attributed to have started in Waltham on the Charles River - not far from where I live now. I didn't know that Francis Cabot Lowell was so focused on good treatment of employees (versus what he had seen going on in the large Mills in England where the first industrial revolution took place). I also never knew that he actually *stole* his design ideas from his visits to mills in England! He committed the designs to memory and working with a local mechanic (Moody - hence where "Moody Street" came from) built the first major factory machines involved in spinning wool to make cloth. For the first time in US history, cotton cloth would be produced with all steps occurring under one roof, starting with the raw plant materials. Later, Lowell would go on to found the city of Lowell and its associated mills and colleagues of his would do the same in other surrounding river towns.
I never thought much about where they got that cotton which fueled the efforts of the workers at that Boston Manufacturing Company on what is now Moody Street (and now houses artist's lofts and overpriced senior citizen apartments). Cosmopolitan women from local farms worked in the mills at first and were excited about being a part of a massive entrepreneurial movement. They lived in comfortable company provided boarding houses (my ex Pete lives in a building that was once one) and took advantage of company provided educational and artistic opportunities. All good things can never last, though. Conditions got tougher, hours got longer, and people soon learned of where the cotton actually came from - slaves. Many think of the Boston area being very anti-slavery, but the slave industry in the south was what fueled the early huge industrial booms of early Massachusetts. I can't believe I had never thought of that before!
The author suggests that factory life changed dramatically after the civil war. Early humanitarian owners like Lowell had moved on and the new guys in charge concerned themselves more with profit and less with providing a decent job for local workers, or for enriching the community. Thus began poorer conditions, overcrowding, etc. Welcome the birth of the labor union and its actions! Women were active at this time as well as men, demanding equal pay and benefits (most often when salary would be cut, hours increased, or boarding house fees raised it would only apply to women). Also, immigration brought in new pools of workers willing to take the crap conditions that the early farm residents wouldn't. Welcome racial tension to Boston and its surrounding areas. Waltham has always been home to a diverse group of cultures given its large concentration of places to work. In the early 1800s it was the mills and later route 128 would bring in the masses looking for work in the tech industry.
I'm always fascinated with the sociological impact of the American Industrial Revolution and how its touched infinite areas (working, healthcare, education, urban planning, etc). Its very neat to live in such a historically rich area where I'm in a house on a street parallel with both Lowell and Moody Streets. Also, having had relatives that worked in these historic mills and factories, (some of which still stand today, albeit their walls house other operations now) has taught me about how easy many of us have it now, despite our gripes about work from day to day. So despite its jumping around-ness, I'd recommend this book to anyone interested in that period of history.
