Day 72: The ripple effect

 Lowell National Historical Park, northwest of Boston, highlights the bygone time of the Industrial Revolution, when factories made easy work of tasks previously done by hand. Output was increased exponentially, which grew the market and increased its range of goods; and machines were developed and improved in a huge swell of mechanical development. But the real story is in the people of the day. The textile mills of Lowell were operated by a new workforce: unskilled young women who arrived in droves from New England farms. The mills included boarding houses, and the community created in them was considered strict and safe for girls...behavior was tightly managed, church attendance was mandatory, and the pay was much better than what they could earn on or near the family farms. But that was the early days of the mills.

As the textile industry grew, and more mills came online, the market was glutted with fabrics. Rather than decrease the payouts to investors, mill owners cut wages, lengthened the work day to 14 hours and demanded greater output in increasingly dangerous conditions. When the women began to rally and the concept of a strike was born, tensions deepened. The mill owners, rather than give in to the demands of these young women, hired children and impoverished immigrants to work the looms. Master craftsmen who once ran their own small businesses in Europe were treated as second-class citizens, with no specialty or ownership of their work. The mill owners were focused on the bottom line instead of artistry. All of these facts collided in Lowell, and it became a tenement-ridden, economically devastated city. And while the Industrial Revolution can be credited with setting America on a course of independence as far as goods and technological advancement, its failures carry forward to today. Unions can trace their roots to it, and child labor laws and fair-pay measures were created in reaction to it.

In spite of all that we learned, our time in Lowell wasn't gloom and doom. We really enjoyed seeing a working mill room; the factory floor, which held 100 power looms (about 20 were operating today), was unbelievably loud--even with earplugs! In its years of peak production, it ran 3,500 looms simultaneously. We can't imagine the sound, heat, humidity and mess they must have created. A ride on the mill's trolley system was a real treat...two restored trolleys from 1901 run the circuit of tracks that carried the thousands of mill workers between the factory and boarding houses. It also was great to see many of the giant mill buildings, once derelict, now reborn as community colleges, loft living, office space and a couple of tech firms.

My mom arrived without a hitch late this afternoon, and none of us was even aware of the earthquake until a friend called to check on us. Now we have our eyes fixed on Hurricane Irene, hopeful that it will weaken and/or shift its path to avoid us (and the rest of the eastern seaboard). We'll play hard regardless...a full week of exploring the many historic places in Boston. :-)