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How much a week did a woman working at a mill make in the mid 1800s?
Typical wages in the mid-1800s for a woman working at a mill was between $3.00 and $3.50 a week.
What is a Lowell girl how old were the workers how much were they paid?
The Lowell system was based on water-powered textile mills that employed young, unmarried women from local farms. The young millworkers soon became known as Lowell girls. The mills paid them $2-4 each week, and the workers paid $1.25 for room and board.
What jobs did the Lowell mill girls do?
Most of the women who came to Lowell were from farms and small villages. Some had labored in small textile mills. Others had produced cotton or woolen goods or shoes for merchants who employed men and women in their homes and paid them by the pieces they produced.
How many days a week did mill girls work?
Many of the mill girls lived in boardinghouses near the factories, where they slept and ate their meals. Their days were structured around work. For the first time in history, people worked by the clock. Most mill employees worked 12–14 hours, five days a week and a half day on Saturday.
What time did mill girls wake up?
The Mill Girls started their day early in the morning. At 4:30AM, the first morning bell would chime, interrupting them from their sleep and signaling that it’s time to work. The second bell would go off at approximately 5:20AM. Then, forty minutes later, at 6AM, they’d rush off to breakfast.
Why were Lowell Mills so profitable?
Lowell believed his system alleviated the deplorable working conditions he witnessed in England and helped him to keep a tight rein on his employees. By doing so, he cultivated employee loyalty, kept wages low, and assured his stockholders accelerating profits.
Why did factory owners replace mill girls with immigrants?
Immigration Ended Lowell System Instead of hiring local New England girls to work in the mills, the factory owners discovered they could hire newly arrived immigrants. The immigrants, many of whom had come from Ireland, fleeing the Great Famine, were content to find any work at all — even for relatively low wages.
Why did the mill girls go on strike?
Mill owners reduced wages and speeded up the pace of work. The young female operatives organized to protest these wage cuts in 1834 and 1836. When it was announced that the wages were to be cut down, great indignation was felt, and it was decided to strike, en masse.