Constant Turmoil

Part narrative, part analysis, this book reconstructs the complex history of the southeastern New England textile industry during the nineteenth century. Mary H. Blewett takes a fresh look at the process of industrialization from the point of view of management as well as labor and reinterprets the struggle between the two in terms of class, culture, and power. Highlighting the role of contingency and human agency in the shaping of historical events, she traces the efforts of the legendary Borden family and their allies not only to build their own private empire but to dominate the national market in print cloth. At the same time, she examines the shifting fortunes of a labor force striving to accommodate newly arrived immigrants, adapt to new technologies, and contest the control of the mill owners.

Blewett has been a pioneer in analyzing the role of gender in industrialization, and this book carries that work forward. She shows how changing meanings of manhood and womanhood, nationality and race, altered the course of American labor politics, as immigrant w

Mary H. Blewett is a social historian at the University of Massachusetts Lowell.

Illustrations

ix

Prologue: Unlikely Acquaintances

1

(17)

The Fall River Patrimony: Those Legendary Bordens, 1799--1865

18

(27)

Gender Politics and Labor Reform in the Protest Heritages of Antebellum New England

45

(31)

British Immigrant Textile Workers and Their Class Conscious Legacies, 1820--1865

76

(26)

Wait, Agitate, Work, and Wait: Gender Politics and Ten-Hour Reform, 1865--1874

102

(39)

To Dominate the National Market, 1866--1878

141

(36)

They Have Brought Their Horns with Them: Deference and Defiance, 1868--1875

177

(48)

A New Lancashire for the Northeast, 1876--1878

225

(35)

Struggling over Amalgamations or Trade Unions, 1879--1884

260

(47)

Piecing Up the Fall River System, 1885--1897

307

(31)

The Ascendancy of Trade Unions and Combinations, 1898--1906

338

(75)

Epilogue: The Escape of Al Priddy, the Death of M. C. D. Borden, and the Burnley Reunion

388

(4)

Critical Assessment of Primary Sources

392

(11)

Appendix

Table 1 Personal taxable income in Fall River, 1867

403

(1)

Table 2 Cotton manufacturing data for Fall River, 1865 and 1875

404

(1)

Table 3 Comparative nativities of population, 1870

404

(1)

Table 4 United States cotton mills producing print cloth, 1880

404

(1)

Table 5 Characterists of 153 ``works in a cotton mill'' families, Fall River: Globe Village and Little Canada in Ward 1, 1870

405

(3)

Table 6 Fall River, Lowell, and Lawrence, 1875: Persons employed in cotton goods

408

(1)

Table 7 Total population: Percentages of foreign-born in leading Massachusetts manufacturing cities, 1875

408

(1)

Table 8 Comparative data on Fall River, Lowell, and Lawrence, 1870-1880

408

(2)

Table 9 Southern competition and the Massachusetts cotton textile industry

410

(1)

Table 10 British immigration to the United States, 1840-1905

410

(3)

Notes

413

(78)

Acknowledgments

491

(2)

Index

493

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Summary

Author Biography

Table of Contents

Supplemental Materials