The Industrial Revolution did not start simultaneously around the world, but began in the most highly civilized and educated country in Western Europe – England. An empire like Great Britain was able to prevent the flow of new technology and experienced technicians to its colonies even while new machinery, like the spinning shuttle and the spinning jenny, was being used to develop textile manufacturing at home in England. The British Parliament was able to control its territories through laws and other restrictions. However, Britain’s futile attempts to block the development of new technologies in the American colonies led directly to the rise of the textile industry and the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in the United States. From the first Navigation Act in 1651 to the “Intolerable Acts” and Trade Acts, the British Parliament attempted to dominate the world’s textile industry by passing increasingly strict taxes and acts designed to prevent the establishment of textile manufacturing in the American colonies. Concurrently, American textile companies began to offer rewards and bounties to mill workers who would emigrate from England bringing their knowledge of textile technology (World of Invention). At the same time, English-born, textile mill-trained, Samuel Slater illegally emigrated to the new country of America with secrets and memories of English textile technology. Within a year, Slater had established the first spinning mill in America, thus beginning the American Industrial Revolution. In order to continue controlling the economy of its colonies in America, the British Parliament passed acts and levied taxes against the colonists from the first Navigation Act as early as 1651. The British passed this series of ... ... middle of paper ... ... 19th Century." Daily Life Through History. ABC-CLIO, 2011. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. . The author discusses the rise of textile mills in 19th century America and how technology changed the lives of mill employees. Tucker, Barbara M. Samuel Slater and the Origins of the American Textile Industry: 1790-1860. Ithaca: N.Y., 1984. Print. This bibliography about Samuel Slater describes his origins and how he ultimately became known as “the Father of the American textile industry.” Wagner, Heather. "Intolerable Acts." Ameican History Online. 2006. Web. 16 Feb. 2011. . The author discusses the impact that “the Intolerable Acts,” including the Stamp Act and the Townshend Acts, had on the American colonists.
This was the first-time people had seen factories like this is America. Many famous, affluent, and powerful men visited these textile mills only long enough to admire the engineering advancements Lowell had made, and completely missed the inhumane treatment of the workers inside.
Summary The PBS special, “Mill Times”, hosted by David Macaulay, gives a viewer insight into what aided in igniting the Industrial Revolution and changing how textiles are produced. Through documentary snippets and an animated storyline the viewer is able to imagine life before technological changes. Viewers are shown how clothing was produced prior to the mill, the benefits of the mill, the Lowe girls and their working environment, and further technological advancements which aided in making production more mobile and independent of waterways. The beginning of the program shows how laborious and strenuous it was to manufacture any cloth before the waterwheel invention.
Parliamentary taxes on the colonial peoples started with the Navigation Acts in 1660, but they were not an issue to the colonial people because they were too difficult to enforce. Then in 1764 the Stamp Act was passed, this was the first direct tax on the colonists. The Navigations Acts and the Sugar Acts of 1764, which was a tax placed on imported molasses and sugar, had not directly affected colonists, it affected the merchants. The merchants in hand would just raise prices. The stamp act was completely different. It said that any document or printed item would need to have a stamp placed on it purchased from the British government. The Stamp Act upset the colonist...
In order to obtain some of the colonists’ finances, Britain began to pass a series of taxes. The Stamp Act was passed in 1765, and placed a tax on any paper goods that were going into the colonies from Britain. This included newspapers, pamphlets, and playing cards, just to name a few (Stamp Act).The colonists had been so accustomed to their freedom from the crown at this point, that they were enraged. The relationship between the Mother country and the colonies did not get much better with the instatement of the Townshend Acts of 1767. These acts passed taxes on every day goods that the colonists needed, such as lead, tea, glass and paint (Townshend Acts).
The demand for no taxation without representation was the primary force motivating the American revolutionary movement, and for many it became a symbol for democracy. Throughout the late 18th century, the British colony of America was oppressed by Parliament from "across the pond". This oppression included unequal rights compared to English citizens that lived on the mainland, unneeded taxation, and no representation in Parliament, which resulted in many laws that were unfavorable to the American colonists. It was this "taxation without representation" that was a powerful catalyst in firing up the American revolutionary movement. America was "all grown up", and no longer needed to be monitored on by Britain.
...ustrial manufacture. Others created industries ancillary to ongoing textile industrialization, such as bobbin mills and foundries.
Stanley, George E. "The Rise Of Manufacturing." The Era of Reconstruction and Expansion (1865-1900. N.p.: World Almanac Library, 2005. 20-21. Google Books. World Almanac Library. Web. 29 Sept. 2013.
The Lowell textile mills were a new transition in American history that explored working and labor conditions in the new industrial factories in American. To describe the Lowell Textile mills it requires a look back in history to study, discover and gain knowledge of the industrial labor and factory systems of industrial America. These mass production mills looked pretty promising at their beginning but after years of being in business showed multiple problems and setbacks to the people involved in them.
After the Seven Years Way England was broke for she had spent more money needed to win the war. Also winning the war gave the colonist a “we can do it spirit”. However because England now was facing debt she decided to tax the colonies. One the first acts passed was the sugar act passed in 1764. This Act was the raise revenue in American colonies. What it did was lowered the tax from six penses to three penses per gallon on foreign molasses. Molasses is a product made by refining sugarcane, grapes or sugar beets into sugar. This upset the colonist because before the sugar act they didn’t have to pay the tax so even if it was lowered that meant nothing for they now had to pay for it. A year later, in 1765, the Britain’s passed another act known as the Stamp Act. The Stamp Act put a tax on stamped paper, publications, playing cards, etc. Because it was on all paper products in a way it affected everyone; from the papers for the upper class such as lawyers, publications such as newspapers for the middle class, and playing cards for the lower class for entertainment. Next, the Townshend Act passed by Charles Townshend. This came in 1767, which imposed taxes on colonial tea, lead, paint, paper, and glass which just like the Stamp Act affected all of the classes in the colonist in the Americas. Though this act was removed three years later in 1770, it still left colonists with a warning that conditions may become worse. Around 1773, parliament passed the Intolerable Acts one of those acts which affected taxation was the Bost...
The Industrial Revolution in America began to develop in the mid-eighteen hundreds after the Civil War. Prior to this industrial growth the work force was mainly based in agriculture, especially in the South (“Industrial Revolution”). The advancement in machinery and manufacturing on a large scale changed the structure of the work force. Families began to leave the farm and relocate to larger settings to work in the ever-growing industries. One area that saw a major change in the work force was textile manufacturing. Towns in the early nineteen hundreds were established around mills, and workers were subjected to strenuous working conditions. It would take decades before these issues were addressed. Until then, people worked and struggled for a life for themselves and their families. While conditions were harsh in the textile industry, it was the sense of community that sustained life in the mill villages.
In the 1800's the construction of cotton mills brought about a new phenomenon in American labor. The owners needed a new source of labor to tend these water powered machines and looked to women. Since these jobs didn't need strength or special skills th...
Back in the seventeen and eighteen hundredths, cotton was America’s greatest exports. “the southern states were producing two thirds of the world's cotton.”(Ciment 6) It was an ideal crop that could easily be grown. “His cotton gin enabled a laborer to separate a lot of cotton from the seeds with little effort. A laborer working by hand could once expect to produce only one pound of cleaned cotton per day. With the help of a cotton gin, fifty pounds could be cleaned in a day.” (Benson 399, 400) After the invention of the cotton gin, the profit of cotton has double every year. The affects of the cotton gin gave America the opportunity to grow three-quarters of the world’s supply of cotton. This led America to enter a “cotton boom” era. “By 1800, seven years after Whitney’s invention, cotton production in the United States had increased 2300 % and continued to increase rather steadily… until production controls were imposed during the 1930s.” (Smith 8)
Believing that textile industry in England had reached its peak; Slater immigrated secretly to America in 1789 in hopes of making his fortune in America's infant textile industry. While others with textile manufacturing experience had emigrated before him, Slater was the first who knew how to build as well as operate textile machines. Slater, with funding from Providence investors and assistance from skilled local artisans, built the first successful water powered textile mill in Pawtucket in 1793.
The first key player in the American industrial revolution was Francis Cabot Lowell. In 1810, in Waltham, Massachusetts, Lowell was responsible for building the first American factory for converting raw cotton into finished cloth. Large factories were built along the river to house the new water driven power looms for weaving textiles. At the same time that more factories were built to keep up with the growing demands of the consumer, the numbers of immigrants to the United States grew (Kellogg). This new labor force could be employed with even less pay and provided with a much lower standard of housing. This in turn increased the profit margi...
Aldrich, Winifred. "The Impact Of Fashion On The Cutting Practices For The Woman's Tailored Jacket 1800-1927." Textile History 34.2 (2003): 134-170. Art Full Text (H.W. Wilson). Web. 10 Nov. 2013.