WORKERS AND OWNERS IN
THE FACTORY SYSTEM
Unit 5 Day 3
Workers and Owners – Contemporary Views
Illustration of Workers in a Textile Mill
The Luddite Movement
Beginning in 1811 the Luddite
Movement protested perceived
injustices of factory owners by
storming factories and breaking up the
expensive machinery kept there.
Named for the (possibly fictional) Ned
Ludd, the Luddites responded to the
particularly poor working conditions
during the Napoleonic Wars (17921815) and specifically to wage
reductions and the use of young
unapprenticed labor.
Luddites smash a power loom (1812)
The Luddite Movement
The response to the Luddites was severe. In
1812 Machine Breaking was made a capital
crime by the “Frame Breaking Act.”
Luddites clashed with the British Army on a
few occasions.
In 1813 suspected Luddites were rounded up
in the city of York and subjected to a mass trial
during which 17 men were executed. Many
others were sent to the penal colony of
Australia.
1812 Engraving – “The Leader of the Luddites:
Drawn from Life from a [British Army] Officer”
English Labor Legislation in the Industrial Revolution
The Factories Act of1802
All factory rooms must be well ventilated and lime-washed twice a year.
Children must be supplied with two complete outfits of clothing.
Children between the ages of 9 and 13 can work maximum 8 hours.
Adolescents between 14 and 18 years old can work maximum 12 hours.
Children under 9 years old are not allowed to work but they must be enrolled in the
elementary schools that factory owners are required to establish.
The work hours of children must begin after 6 a.m., end before 9 p.m., and not
exceed 12 hours a day.
Children must be instructed in reading, writing and arithmetic for the first four years
of work.
Male and Female children must be housed in different sleeping quarters.
Children may not sleep more than two per bed.
On Sundays children are to have an hour's instruction in the Christian Religion.
Mill owners are also required to tend to any infectious diseases.
The Mines Act of 1842
Forbade women and children from working in mines.
Factory Act of 1844
Applied standards for children set in 1833 to women.
Required ages to be verified by doctors.
Required machinery to be fenced in.
The Factory Act of 1833
Children (ages 14-18) must not work more than 12 hours a day with an hour lunch
break.
Children (ages 9-13) must not work more than 8 hours with an hour lunch break.
Children (ages 9-13) must have two hours of education per day.
Outlawed the employment of children under 9 in the textile industry.
Children under 18 must not work at night.
Provided for routine inspections of factories.
The Factory Act of 1847 (Ten Hour Act)
Limited the workday for women and children to 10 hours a day.
Lowell, Mass.
Like Manchester in England, Lowell was a major
center for the cotton textile industry in the United
States, though the scale was much smaller. In
1850 only about 30,000 people lived in Lowell.
Compare this with the 400,000 who lived in
Manchester. The town was named for Francis
Cabot Lowell, an entrepreneur who took
advantage of the War of 1812 to develop the
domestic textile industry by building cotton
factories in Massachusetts.
In 1813, the Boston Manufacturing Company was
founded in Waltham Mass. and between 1822 and
1825 the company, calling itself the Merrimack
Manufacturing Company, expanded into the town
of East Chelmsford (renamed Lowell) which it recreated as a planned factory community.
Lowell, Mass.
The planned community at Lowell was developed as a response to
widespread complaints about factory life in England. It also responded
to the new sociological fact that many of the workers in these factories
were women. Workers were organized into dormitories and were
expected to meet certain standards of morality and conduct.
Lowell, Mass.
Lowell, Mass.
Lowell, Mass.
Two Weavers (1860)