Lyddie

In the 1820s, the first major textile manufacturing companies built and began operating their mills along the Merrimack River in Lowell. The city, barely incorporated, need to source employees to staff these new corporations, and there were hundreds of positions to offer children and young adults. The mills began recruiting young people from farm communities throughout New England; many farms were failing just like Lyddie’s, and there were children and families in need of money. The mill owners were aware that many of the young people coming to work would have no connections in town and nowhere to stay, so they built boardinghouses, which they owned and ran, providing a place for their laborers to live that was safe and provided all the necessary amenities. At the same time, the boardinghouses gave them control over the personal lives of their employees through mandates like church attendance, curfews, and rigid parameters for expected behavior. Employees also paid the boardinghouses for the privilege of staying there, which was reflected in their wages. Lowell became the largest producer of cotton textiles in the United States, holding that position for several decades.

Increasing demands on laborers and falling wages inspired many employees to join labor associations to effect change, but they faced difficulty in an economic climate that allowed the factories to employ workers at will and dismiss them for any reason. This led to the formation of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. Increasingly, workers from farm communities returned home when the grueling 13-hour workdays, increasing expectations for work output, ongoing health hazards associated with the work environment, and inappropriate compensation made the jobs not worthwhile.

Newly arrived immigrant girls from Ireland, France, Greece, Italy, and other regions of Europe began to take the place of these farm girls after the mass exodus back to rural areas. Immigrants were cheaper to hire because they did not have the benefit of knowing beforehand what they should be paid, and because many immigrant children were already living with their families in the cities, the mills did not have to provide for their room and board or pay them enough to live in the boardinghouses. Gradually, beginning at the turn of the 20th century, more men and boys entered the workforce in the textile mills, and the average age of workers increased somewhat.

The advent of steam power placed Lowell and other cities like it in a less competitive position. Initially, the flow of the Merrimack River allowed the factories built beside it to harness the power of the moving water to run the machinery inside the factories. Without the need to build factories in geographically strategic locations, Lowell lost its edge. The cotton processing and textile production industry spread out throughout the United States, particularly increasing in the South after the Civil War.