"We the undersigned peaceable, industrious and hardworking women and children of Lowell... having toiled long for our present employers, our wages have been reduced... We the undersigned do solemnly pledge ourselves not to enter the mills under the proposed reduction of wages, but rather suffer ourselves to be locked out." — Lowell Mill Workers Petition / Turnout Pledge, 1836
The Lowell mill turnouts of the 1830s were a response to changes brought about by which broader phenomenon?
- A
The decline of cottage industry due to British imports
- B
The expansion of the putting-out system in New England
- Ccheck_circle
The Market Revolution and the rise of industrial wage labor
- D
Federal protective tariffs benefiting southern planters
Explanation
The Lowell mills exemplified the Market Revolution's transformation of work, drawing young women into wage labor under factory discipline; their protests reflected new tensions of industrial capitalism.