1. CHAPTER 12:
The North
Section 2:
Changes in Working Life

2. VOCABULARY
 Trade Union: Workers
organization that tries to improve
working conditions
 Strike: The refusal of workers to
perform their jobs until employers
meet their demands

3. THE RHODE ISLAND
SYSTEM
 Rhode Island System started by
Samuel Slater
 Bring unskilled workers to his
textile mills

4. THE RHODE ISLAND
SYSTEM
 They did simple tasks and were
paid cheaply

5. THE RHODE ISLAND
SYSTEM
 He hired entire families including
children

6. Children
Working

7. THE RHODE ISLAND
SYSTEM
 Built housing for his workers
 Ran a company store
 Paid workers in store credit

8. The Rhode
Island
System

9. THE LOWELL SYSTEM
 Started by Francis Cabot Lowell

10. THE LOWELL SYSTEM
 Hired only young unmarried
women from local farms
 Worked 12-14 hour days

11. THE LOWELL SYSTEM
 Lived in boarding houses

12. The Lowell System

13. The
Lowell
Girls

14. “Is anyone such a fool as to suppose that out of
six thousand factory girls in Lowell, sixty would be
there if they could help it? Whenever I raise the
point that it is immoral to shut us up in a closed room
twelve hours a day in the most monotonous and
tedious of employment I am told that we have come
to the mills voluntarily and we can leave when we
will. Voluntarily!.... The whip which brings us to
Lowell is necessity. We must have money; a father’s
debts are to be paid, and aged mother to be
supported, a brother’s ambition to be aided and so
the factories are supplied. Is this to act from free
will? Is this freedom? To my mind it is slavery.”
Sarah G. Bagley

15. THE BEGINNINGS
OF UNIONS
 Some workers organized
themselves into trade unions
 They wanted more pay
 Shorter working hours
 Would strike to get what they
wanted