power loom

The power loom was brought overseas because the United States started their industrial revolution later than England. The power looms allowed the faster production of textiles but required mills to be built, especially near places of bodies of water. Therefore, mills were built and they employed young girls between the ages of 13-15. Lowell spinning mills were prevalent in the North and attracted girls living on farms. The Lowell mills were accompanied with boarding houses which provided a protected environment with substitute "mothers." The girls' pay from their hard labor provided money for the family and their own leisurely desires. It allowed them to receive a better education and experience a new, unknown freedom. The mill girls also married later in life, produced fewer children, and married merchants from the reust of entering the labor force. Unfortunately, the mills included long fourteen hour work days and the acquisition of diseases caused by poor health conditions. This spurred reform movements to improve working conditions. Also, girls began producing and turning to types of "escapist" literature such as romance stories to relieve them from their difficult working environment. The mill life was very hard and tedious which provided another type of labor for young women.