Nationalism/Industrialization

• ​Eventually settling in London

• ​Through Engels, Marx became aware of the struggles of the working class

• ​He undertook a deep study of Economics

• ​He concluded that the Industrial Revolution had created a system of wage slavery

By Michael Vickery

One of the first factories in the United States to begin hiring women was the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts. By the 1840s, around seventy-five percent of the workforce at Lowell mills were women. These women became known as "Mill Girls" or "Lowell Girls."

Most of the "Mill Girls" were the daughters of farmers in the northeast. They took the opportunity to get away from the farm and make some money of their own. Sometimes girls took the jobs to help out their family or to save money for a future family. The women lived in large boarding houses with hundreds of other women. There were lots of rules that the girls had to live by. They typically shared a room with several other women, had to attend church on Sundays, and no men were allowed in the boarding houses.

Besides working in textile factories, women began to work all sorts of jobs including jobs as teachers, office clerks, nurses, and seamstresses.