Francis Cabot Lowell and the Boston Manufacturing Company- Part 3
Click here to return to Part 2
Return to Part 1
Protective Tariffs-1816
To ensure the success of his factory, Lowell pushed for the Protective Tariff of 1816, and was instrumental in its passage. This was a critical time for United States home manufacture. With the defeat of Napoleon, the English wanted to reassert its economic dominance in America and flooded our markets with cheaper textiles from India, and more expensive cotton products from England. The Peace of 1815 was ruinous for textile mills in New England, such as the Slater mills. Lowell and Nathan Appleton toured the nearly defunct mills in the area, and aggressively pushed for the Tariff of 1816.
Lowell had the support of the South, where industrialization was in its infancy and needed as much protection as possible. Also, Lowell could promise markets for Southern cotton as well. New England coastal areas that relied heavily on international trade were most opposed to the tariff. Lowell and his political supporters pushed for a reasonable 25% tariff on imported goods. Passed by Congress, this tariff was the first to concern itself with protecting American manufacture; whereas, earlier tariffs raised revenue to directly support the federal government.
Labor
Lowell relied on New England farm girls (between 16-24 years of age) for his labor force — young, unmarried, dispensable — not needed as farm labor. These women came from as far away as New Hampshire, Vermont, and outlying parts of Massachusetts. For many girls, the few years working at the mill, while difficult, were a taste of independence and freedom (before getting married) that they otherwise would never have had.
While mill girls often sent wages back home to put a brother through college, one cannot underestimate the impact of working away from home, and earning cash wages. Lowell paid a relatively high wage to induce girls to sign a one-year contract. Some stayed on for four years and some even achieved economic independence, the ability to buy fine clothes or put down money for a small house.
This iconoc landscape depicting the Boston Manufacturing Company in the early 19th century hangs in the foyer at Gore Place in Waltham. photograph by David Bohl
Having witnessed the degradation of labor in England, Francis Cabot Lowell wanted to establish a paternalistic system whereby laborers would not suffer under capitalism but receive a modicum of protection. His recruiters assured parents, for example, that their girls would live under the watchful eye of matrons preserving the decorum and moral uprightness of these young women. In addition, they were given access to libraries, schooling, and on-site dormitories. The curfew was 10 pm. And they forbade men access to the dorms. By modern standards, factory regimes exploited the female workers; but during the early nineteenth century, many girls felt fortunate to earn wages and live independently.
The “harmony” between labor and management and the maintaining of a “respectable” work force did not last long. Lowell, like his contemporaries began to place profits before people. First, during a downturn in the economy, he cut wages by 15%, without notice. Then came the speedups, making the machines run faster, creating more difficult and dangerous working conditions. But the women were not to be deterred. They broke free from the sphere of respectability, and took to the streets and the soapbox, boldly speaking out against these new practices (1821), but without enough worker solidarity to maintain a strike.[5]
Women who threw off the cloak of virtue for a stab at social justice enraged the public, mainly men. Other male workers sympathized, however. Isaac Markham commented on this wage strike in a letter to his brother. He complained that the management had “all the lordly and tyrannical feelings that were ever felt by the greatest despots of the world…” He continued to explain that men’s wages were cut without notice, and that the “same trick [was] played off the girls but they as one revolted and the works stopped 2 days in consequence.”[6]
