Engines of Change

A search in any school library will identify numerous resources on the 19th-century topics of slavery, Westward expansion, and the causes of the Civil War. However, a similar search about the American Industrial Revolution will often yield surprisingly little. This is an unfortunate omission, since it was the Industrial Revolution that gave rise to our modern society. Our lives are not governed by the agrarian rhythms of yeoman farms or large plantations but are instead based upon the highly organized, clock-driven rhythms of the industrial workplace.

Although the Industrial Revolution began in 18th-century Britain, Americans quickly adapted British innovations for their own use, beginning with the textile mills of New England. The largest and most famous of the mill towns was Lowell, MA, where the American system of large factories that combined numerous manufacturing processes was perfected. Thousands of Yankee farm girls flocked to Lowell in the 1830s to escape the drudgery of farmwork and earn payment for their labor. These mill girls, housed in company-owned boardinghouses, soon found that their employers expected 14-hour workdays and ever-increasing production to improve profitability. When the girls asserted their rights, petitioning the Massachusetts legislature for relief and “turning out” in some of the earliest strikes in the United States, employers responded by hiring more compliant immigrants.

The Industrial Revolution completely transformed American life, fueled the Union victory in the Civil War, and made the United States a 20th-century superpower. A disproportionate part of the labor in the mills, factories, and sweatshops of the early Industrial Revolution was done by women, teens, and small children, and their stories will resonate with young readers.

BADER, Bonnie. East Side Story. Silver Moon. 1993. RTE $14.95. ISBN 978-1-881889-22-9; pap. $5.95. ISBN 978-1-881889-71-7.

Gr 3-5-Rachel, a 10-year-old Jewish immigrant, works long hours at Manhattan’s Triangle Shirtwaist Factory to support her brothers’ education and her sister’s radical unionism. Her story ends before the tragic fire, and a postscript tells readers about the historic event and resulting reforms.

BEATTY, Patricia. Turn Homeward, Hannalee. HarperCollins. 1984. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-688-03871-7; pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-0-688-16676-2.

Gr 5-8-Union soldiers transport Georgia textile mill workers, including 12-year-old Hannalee and her younger brother, to Indiana, where they are separated and Hannalee is forced to work in a northern mill. This indomitable and engaging heroine escapes her cruel employer, rescues her brother, and crosses Union and Confederate army lines to return home.

GREENWOOD, Barbara. Factory Girl. Kids Can. 2007. Tr $18.95. ISBN 978-1-55337-648-4.

Gr 5-9-The loss of her absent father’s support forces 12-year-old Emily from school to work in a dangerous shirtwaist factory for low wages. The fictional story of her family’s increasing desperation is supplemented by nonfiction essays and archival photos that describe the conditions in tenements and factories in the early 20th century.

HADDIX, Margaret Peterson. Uprising. S & S. 2007. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-1-4169-1171-5.

Gr 6-9-Three young women, two immigrant factory workers and one wealthy socialite, become involved in the 1909 strike at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory, and two perish in the fateful fire. The survivor recounts their stories, and Haddix maintains suspense about her identity until the end of this moving story. Audio version available from Recorded Books.

MCCULLY, Emily Arnold. The Bobbin Girl. illus. by author. Dial. 1996. Tr $16.99. ISBN 978-0-8037-1827-2.

Gr 3-5-Ten-year-old Rebecca is a “bobbin girl,” working long hours under terrible conditions in an 1830s cotton mill in Lowell, MA. When mill owners reduce wages, she leads workers on a strike. Impressive watercolor paintings portray the very young children who labored in New England factories.

PATERSON, Katherine. Bread and Roses, Too. Clarion. 2006. Tr $16. ISBN 978-0-618-65479-6; pap. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-547-07651-5.

Gr 5-8–In this storybased upon the actual “Bread and Roses” strike in 1912 Lawrence, MA, Rosa, an Italian girl, and Jake, a teen mill worker, are part of a group of children sent to Vermont for protection during the strike. Paterson’s believable characters and historical accuracy give readers a glimpse into an underreported part of labor history. Audio version available from Listening Library.

PATERSON, Katherine. Lyddie. Dutton. 1991. Tr $18.99. ISBN 978-0-525-67338-5; pap. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-14-034981-8.

Gr 5-8-Thirteen-year-old Lyddie Worthen works at a Lowell, MA, mill to earn money to reclaim the family farm. She initially thrives there, but gradually understands the inhuman nature of factory work, encounters a runaway slave, realizes her potential for learning, and vows to continue her education. Audio version available from Recorded Books.

RINALDI, Ann. The Blue Door. Scholastic. 1996. Tr $15.95. ISBN 978-0-590-46051-4; pap. $5.99. ISBN 978-0-590-46052-1.

Gr 5-9–The daughter of South Carolina slaveholders travels to Massachusetts to meet her mill-owner great-grandfather. Along the way, she witnesses a crime, changes identities with another girl, and works in her grandfather’s factory, where she experiences “wage slavery” firsthand. The final book in a trilogy, this novel stands on its own.

WEBER, Judith Eichler. Forbidden Friendship. Silver Moon. 1993. RTE $14.95. ISBN 978-1-881889-42-7; pap. $5.95. ISBN 978-1-893110-42-7.

Gr 3-5-During a shoe-factory strike in North Adams, MA, in the 1870s, Molly, the owner’s daughter, and Chen Li, a young Chinese strikebreaker, begin an unlikely friendship. Molly’s parents object but relent when Chen saves the factory from fire. The story illustrates how employers used immigrants to replace American workers.

WINTHROP, Elizabeth. Counting on Grace. Random. 2006. Tr $15.95. ISBN 978-0-385-74644-1; PLB $17.99. ISBN 978-0-385-90878-8; pap. $6.99. ISBN 978-0-553-48783-1.

Gr 6-8-In this story inspired by a Lewis Hine photograph, 12-year-old Grace, a French Canadian immigrant, is forced to leave school to help tend her mother’s machines in a New England cotton mill. Winthrop’s characters valiantly try to retain their individuality and dignity in a world of mind-numbing and dangerous work. Audio version available from Listening Library.

BAGLEY, Katie. The Early Industrial American Revolution, 1793-1850. Capstone/Bridgestone. 2003. PLB $23.93. ISBN 978-0-7368-1557-4.

Gr 4-6-Bagley’s overview describes how the American adaptation of British industrial innovations created the “American System” of large, integrated factories that became the worldwide model for production. She discusses how industrialization revolutionized transportation and communication and exacerbated sectional differences between the industrial North and agrarian South. High-quality photos and reproductions supplement the text.

BARTOLETTI, Susan Campbell. Kids on Strike! Houghton. 1999. Tr $20. ISBN 978-0-395-88892-6; pap. $9.95. ISBN 978-0-618-36923-2.

Gr 5-8-Reproductions of archival photos and excerpts from period news stories enhance Bartoletti’s well-written account of the courageous and idealistic children whose strikes against the dangerous and inhuman conditions they endured as street “newsies” and industrial workers exposed their plight and encouraged reform efforts.

BREZINA, Corona. The Industrial Revolution in America: A Primary Source History of America’s Transformation into an Industrial Society. Rosen. 2005. PLB $29.25. ISBN 978-1-4042-0179-8.

Gr 4-6-Brezina describes how the synergy of inventions, workplace innovation, and immigration propelled American industrialization and transformed the agrarian America of 1790 into an urban, industrial power by 1900. She also discusses workplace exploitation and environmental pollution. Reproductions of the Lowell mill timetables, government reports, period illustrations, and photos of inventions supplement the text.

CONNOLLY, Sean. The Industrial Revolution. Heinemann Library. 2003. PLB $27.07. ISBN 978-1-4034-0974-4.

Gr 4-6-This introduction provides discussion and brief primary-source readings. Topics include the British origins of industrialization, child labor, and the transformation of the American economy and social structure. Analysis is limited, but the readings do reflect the voices of the workers and inventors of the era.

FLANAGAN, Alice K. The Lowell Mill Girls. Compass Point. 2005. PLB $26.60. ISBN 978-0-7565-1262-0; pap. $7.95. ISBN 978-0-7565-1731-1.

Gr 4-6-This well-written and nicely illustrated introduction discusses mill development, the motivations that sent girls from farm to factory work, working conditions and efforts to improve them, boardinghouse life, and the positive and negative changes that occurred in the girls’ lives.

FREEDMAN, Russell. Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. photos by Lewis W. Hine. Clarion. 1994. Tr $21. ISBN 978-0-395-58703-4.

Gr 5-8-Freedman combines a biography of Lewis Hine, a teacher who left the classroom to combat child labor, with reproductions of Hine’s legendary photographs of working children. Readers will learn about the man, his work, and the plight of child workers of the early industrial era of the United States.

HOPKINSON, Deborah. Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America. Scholastic. 2006. Tr $18.99. ISBN 978-0-439-63901-9.

Gr 4 Up-Hopkinson documents the human cost of cotton-cloth production, describing antebellum plantation slavery, New England cotton mills, and the evolution of post-Civil War sharecropping and Southern mills. Primary-source excerpts and period photos bring the subject alive.

HUFF, Regan A. Eli Whitney: The Cotton Gin and American Manufacturing. Rosen. 2005. PLB $34.60. ISBN 978-0-8239-6628-8.

Gr 6 Up-Whitney is best known for his invention of the cotton gin, but he also revolutionized American manufacturing by developing the interchangeable parts that made it possible to mass produce machines. Huff includes biographical information about Whitney and analyzes how his inventions contributed to industrial growth and antebellum sectionalism in the United States.

ISAACS, Sally Senzell. Life in a New England Mill Town. Heinemann Library. 2002. Tr $15.95. ISBN 978-1-58810-693-3; pap. $6.95. ISBN 978-1-4034-0525-8.

Gr 3-5-Isaacs takes readers to mill towns of New England, focusing on the daily lives of the mill girls. She examines their work, life in company-owned boardinghouses, opportunities for economic self-sufficiency and education, and labor-organization efforts. A readable, well-illustrated introduction.

MACAULAY, David. Mill. illus. by author. Houghton/Walter Lorraine. 1983. Tr $19. ISBN 978-0-395-34830-7; pap. $9.95. ISBN 978-0-395-52019-2.

Gr 3-8–Macaulay’s beautifully illustrated book traces the evolution of a Rhode Island mill town. Drawings of the construction and operation of the town’s four successive mills, each larger and more complex than its predecessor, show readers how technology changed the textile industry and altered relationships between workers and employers.

MCCULLY, Emily Arnold. Marvelous Mattie: How Margaret E. Knight Became an Inventor. illus. by author. Farrar. 2006. Tr $16. ISBN 978-0-374-34810-6.

Gr 2-4-Mattie Knight, who began work in a 19th-century New Hampshire cotton mill at age 12, invented a shuttle guard for mechanical looms and devised a still-used process to produce square-bottom paper bags. McCully’s well-written prose and colorful watercolor-and-ink illustrations are supplemented with original drawings from Knight’s notebooks.

MALAM, John. You Wouldn’t Want to Be a Victorian Mill Worker!: A Grueling Job You’d Rather Not Have. illus. by David Antram. Watts. 2007. PLB $29. ISBN 978-0-531-18747-0; pap. $9.95. ISBN 978-0-531-13928-8.

Gr 3-5–Large cartoon illustrations with dialogue bubbles tell of an 11-year-old boy sent from a workhouse to a British cotton mill in 1842. Vivid descriptions of backbreaking labor and squalid conditions make this a much more negative picture than Isaacs’s view of a New England mill town.

PRICE, Sean. Smokestacks and Spinning Jennys: Industrial Revolution. Raintree. 2006. PLB $28.21. ISBN 978-1-4109-2413-1; pap. $7.99. ISBN 978-1-4109-2424-7.

Gr 4-6-Price describes some of the inventions of the Industrial Revolution, including the spinning jenny, steam engine, interchangeable parts, railroads, and steelmaking. He explains how innovation made factories more profitable and dependent on the labor of women, children, and immigrants. Reproductions of period photos and illustrations depict working conditions during the era.

STEIN, R. Conrad.The Industrial Revolution: Manufacturing a Better America. Enslow. 2006. PLB $31.93. ISBN 978-0-7660-2571-4.

Gr 7-9-This overview explains how the American adaptation of British industrial innovations and practices transformed our agrarian society into an urban powerhouse by the 20th century. Stein concludes with the surge in prosperity after World War II and the development of our postindustrial economy. A good introduction for researchers.

BENSON, Sonia G. Development of the Industrial U.S.: Almanac. ISBN 978-1-4144-0175-1.

____. Development of the Industrial U.S.: Biographies. ISBN 978-1-4144-0176-8.

____.Development of the Industrial U.S.: Primary Sources. ISBN 978-1-4144-0179-9.

ea vol: Gale/UXL. 2005. Tr $70.

Gr 9 Up-This set combines history, biography, and primary-source readings in a comprehensive overview of American industrial development with a key focus on the rapid industrialization of the 19th century. Themes include technological and financial innovation, changes in the nature of work, and social and political reactions to industrialization.

DUBLIN, Thomas, ed. Farm to Factory: Women’s Letters, 1830-1860. 2nd ed. Columbia Univ. 1993. Tr $57.50. ISBN 978-0-231-08156-6; pap. $29. ISBN 978-0-231-08157-3.

Adult/High School-This collection reproduces the correspondence of young women who labored in New England textile mills. The letters they wrote and received offer advanced readers a fascinating glimpse into how employment changed the prospects and outlook of girls who left their rural homes to earn an income and gain independence.

FRADER, Laura A. The Industrial Revolution: A History in Documents. Oxford Univ. 2006. PLB $39.95. ISBN 978-0-19-512817-8.

Gr 9 Up-Using excerpts from primary sources and period illustrations, Frader provides context for the documents with introductions and analysis and explains how industrialization changed family relationships, institutionalized child labor, and fueled workers’ demands for more power in the workplace.

GOLOBOY, Jennifer Lee, ed. Industrial Revolution: People and Perspectives. ABC-CLIO. 2008. Tr $85. ISBN 978-1-59884-065-0.

Adult/High School-Nine chapters provide sociological analysis of how industrialization created social, political, and economic changes for segments of the American population. Profiled groups include white male artisans, women, slaves, manufacturers, consumers, readers and authors, the working and middle classes, and immigrants. A good choice for more advanced researchers.

HORN, Jeff. The Industrial Revolution.Greenwood. 2007. Tr $49.95. ISBN 978-0-313-33853-3.

Adult/High School-Horn’s high-level economic analysis of the Industrial Revolution explains how it raised standards of living, drove technological change, and altered the relationships between developed and undeveloped nations. The author emphasizes that the industrial gains came at enormous human and environmental costs.

OUTMAN, James L. Industrial Revolution: Almanac. ISBN 978-0-7876-6513-5.

____. Industrial Revolution: Biographies. ISBN 978-0-7876-6514-2.

____. Industrial Revolution: Primary Sources. ISBN 978-0-7876-6515-9.

ea vol: Gale/UXL. 2003. Tr $70.

Gr 8 Up-This set includes history, biography, and primary-source readings about the transformative effects of the Industrial Revolution in Britain and America, including origins and innovations of industrialization, capitalism and communism, workplace changes, and positive and negative consequences of industrialization. These major topics are addressed in all three volumes, giving researchers comprehensive coverage.