GO HERE: http://www.woonsocket.org/slater.htm for your work today. Click on the link listed to answer the questions. The most specific your answers are, the more you are going to be able to refer back to when we reflect back on this activity.
Link #1: Samuel Slater
1. How did Slater solve his labor issue? In other words, who did he get to work in his factories?
2. Where did the people who worked in Slater’s Mills live, shop, go to school and church?
3. Why was the Blackstone River Valley a good place for these Mills and Mill Villages?
Link #2: Explore Rhode Island’s Early Mill Villages
1. Why did Slater build housing close to the mills, company stores, and churches?
2. Who was the only power controlling the work conditions for workers in the factory?
3.When did work conditions for workers tend to get better? When did they tend to get worse?
4. Describe the work hours and conditions.
Link #3: Learn about Child Labor
1. What percentage of the workforce were children by 1830?
2. How old were they on average, and what did they make per week?
3. Why was it considered OK for children to work in mills?
4. Why did owners want them rather than adults? ( you have to use some logic on this one)
5. What dangers did kids face in the Mills?
6. What educational opportunities existed for children?
7. Why do you think that children and families came to the mills if the conditions were so rough?
