Lowell: The Conflict of Industrialization and Its Effects on
In the late Eighteenth Century there existed a great debate between the most prominent philosophic and political thinkers of the age. The topic of the debate would ultimately change the face of the United States of America into the country that we live in today. The landscape of the nation was very different from what it is now. Farmland and dusty roads took up most of the land. People were content with living unsophisticated lives under a newly formed democracy. Causing change in the lifestyles of people was not the priority of the leaders of the country, however, the need to become a more modern and self-sufficient nation was. The participants of this great debate were split among two sides, those that held to the traditional times with the belief that the country was fine as it was and it would not be necessary to industrialize, and those that believed that society would benefit greatly from this industrialization. The fear that human life would become devalued in light of what happened in previous republics was the main reason of this holding back. In the end however, the benefits that industrialization and manufacture brought to the country far outweighed the downsides, and brought the United States into a whole new
The fears of Jefferson and the others that were against the manufacture movement were confirmed by the textile town of Lowell, Massachusetts. Initially, all went according to plan. These rural influences were so great that they dictated life within the cities. One of the first industries to develop within the United States was the textile industry. Eventually, the dramatically worsening conditions at the mills, and that of Lowell, would lead to multiple protests by the workers. Kailua, Hawaii: Press Pacifica, 1976. However, these protests were not effective because the workers would have nowhere else to work; yet it was essential that they work for their survival. The most notable of these was the "Turn-out" of 1834 that was sparked by a 15% wage cut. The value of the worker went down significantly as they were, in effect, "forced" to continue working. "Only 6 percent of its 5 million people lived in towns of 2500 or more, and just two cities (Philadelphia and New York) had populations larger than 50,000" (Fehrenbacher, 53). The beliefs of those could be summarized into this following statement. The workers at first enjoyed working there, however, as competition was introduced the only way to keep the same profits was at the expense of the workers. The image quickly changed as the offerings made by the factory to attract workers were increased.
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