the Whigs and Democrats in their party platforms declared
themselves in favor of the ten-hour day. When, in the summer of
1847, the British Parliament passed a ten-hour law, American
unions sent congratulatory messages to the British workmen.
Gradually the various States followed the example of New
Hampshire and Pennsylvania--New Jersey in 1851, Ohio in 1852, and
Rhode Island in 1853--and the "ten-hour system" was legally
established.

But it was one thing to write a statute and another to enforce
it. American laws were, after all, based upon the ancient
Anglo-Saxon principle of private contract. A man could agree to
work for as many hours as he chose, and each employer could drive
his own bargain. The cotton mill owners of Allegheny City, for
example, declared that they would be compelled to run their mills
twelve hours a day. They would not, of course, employ children
under twelve, although they felt deeply concerned for the widows
who would thereby lose the wages of their children. But they must
run on a twelve-hour schedule to meet competition from other
States. So they attempted to make special contracts with each
employee. The workmen objected to this and struck. Finally they
compromised on a ten-hour day and a sixteen per cent reduction in
wages. Such an arrangement became a common occurrence in the
industrial world of the middle of the century.

In the meantime the factory system was rapidly recruiting women
workers, especially in the New England textile mills. Indeed, as
early as 1825 "tailoresses" of New York and other cities had
formed protective societies. In 1829 the mill girls of Dover, New
Hampshire, caused a sensation by striking. Several hundred of