Eli Whitney's Textile Industry

The textile industry in the US took off with Eli Whitney's invention of the cotton gin in 1793 (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu). This caused the expansion of the cotton economy (normally slave-based) that could provide raw materials to make the cloth, mechanical spinning frames and the development of techniques to catch water power, it also gave way to the growth of spinning mills (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu).
Over time and successful competition with British textiles the “Waltham-Lowell system” with its cheap cloth were able to expand to other locations in Massachusetts, including the first East Chelmsford (Lowell later on), and Lawrence (http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/mills.html). With this company a company town was built and it held schools,
They were paid once a month, only earning $12 to $14 dollars; though considering the times the pay was not all that bad (http://www.historyteacher.net, FactoryRules). After paying a fee of $5 for their room and board, the women had money to send of their own; the paying for the board is a little ridiculous but with the rest of that money to spend the ladies were probably happy to send what they could home (http://www.historyteacher.net, FactoryRules).
The conditions of the factories were normally bleak, gloomy, and hazardous to lives (Triangle shirtwaist coat fire for example) (document reader, 142). The discipline there (or depending on where they worked) could be very severe such as whipping. There are comparisons to the Lowell workers in regards to the Irish peasants, Russian serfs and English factory workers, mostly it is because the conditions for working, wages and others are either the same or worse (document reader,