Question

What led new england farm girls to resign from working in the mills and return to their family farms in the 1840s?

Answer 1

Switch to cheaper immigrant labor--with the potato famine in Ireland, Irish immigrants flooded into the US and provided a cheap labor source for factories.

The new source of labor allowed for factories to hire cheaper labor in immigrants and hire men which were the preferred worker. Women were then expected to go back to their families or to get married. The investment in programs like Lowell were more expensive and the education led to more challenges to the employers.

Answer 2

c. Working conditions became increasingly unbearable.

Step-by-step explanation:

According to a different source, these are the options that come with this question:

a. Their jobs were gradually taken over by men.

b. The advances in mechanization decreased the need for unskilled labor.

c. Working conditions became increasingly unbearable.

d. Too many years working in the mills made them undesirable marriage partners.

The main reason why these girls decided to resign from working in the mills and return to their family farms in the 1840s was that the working conditions at the mills became increasingly unbearable. As more immigrants arrived, and more workers moved to cities, competition for work became more intense. Factories were able to decrease wages, increase hours and be careless about safety standards and continue to get employees. Therefore, the conditions in factories and mills became worse, which forced many people to return to their farms.