What Motivated Women to Work in the Mills?

So what motivated women to work in the Lowell mills anyway? The working conditions were sub par, the pay was mostly consumed by housing and food. But still many women worked at these factories.  These factories were a way for the girls and women to contribute to the income of the family and help them pay the bills.  In addition they brought a sense of freedom and independence to the women who otherwise had very few rights in these times if not related to a man somehow be that by blood or marriage.  Working in the mills was one of the few ways a woman could be on her own.  Knowing she was contributing to her family and this feeling of independence must have been very appealing to these women because they put up with a lot of other downsides for that. the food was mediocre, the hours were long, and the working conditions were poor but the women kept on working day after day.

"A New Age is Looming Over the Horizon"

Our first task curating a museum exhibit was to select what images were to go into the exhibit. We then wrote short descriptions for each image describing them and explaining what they were and how they related to the industrial revolution. We then decorated our exhibit and thought of a clever title.  After we read through our exhibit and made sure it was free of errors we selected a spot for it to be displayed in the "Museum."

Weaving Slavery
Since there was such a high demand for cotton, it was traded worldwide. This increased wealth immensely for slave owners and other higher up people in the business.

Transportation
The creation of the steam engine helped transport by introducing trains and boats that were powered mechanically.  This made it easier to travel over terrains such as water or land faster and easier.

Changes to Life Conditions
During the industrial revolution, even though many people worked in poor conditions many peoples incomes increased because of the new job openings in big cities in Britain and the U.S.  On the downside, the factories created a lot of smoke in these big cities.

Unlawful Conditions
In the factories during the industrial revolution, many machines had small hard to reach parts that could only be reached by small children. This meant children would be put in very dangerous places to work. I addition, 49 percent of children working in the factories started under the age of ten.