Lowell Mills vs. Foxconn

     In the early 1800's, Francis Cabot Lowell started a series of factories in Massachusetts. Factories before the Lowell Mill would obtain thread (cotton) from various places. However, Francis Cabot Lowell brought spinning and weaving thread together in one place. Like many other factories/mills, these places were built along moving rivers.
    These new factories provided a place for women to leave rural farms and obtain work. These women also had an opportunity to live at the mill and earn an education. Read the two accounts of people, Lowell workers and Charles Dickens, to make generalizations about factory life.

• Harriet described her life inside the Lowell Factory.
• Read these two letters from Mary Paul a Lowell Worker 

Questions:
1. From the readings, list 3 generalizations about factory life in the Lowell Mills.

• Charles Dickens' account of Lowell Mills 

Questions:
1. What was Charles' impression of the mills?
2. Why do you think his account is different than the workers account?


Now that you have an idea of factory life for the first american industrial revolution, do these same treatment and working conditions exist today? Watch the video and pay attention to:

1. What is this factory making?
2. Who works in this factory? Kids? Adults? 
3. How are these people treated?

• Watch this video.

1. Make 3 generalizations about factory life at Foxconn.
2. Come up with 3 trends that occur during Industrial Revolutions.
3. Construct 2 paragraphs comparing both life and working conditions at both factories.