Lowell Mill Girls

“It is very hard indeed and sometimes I think I shall not be able to endure it. I never worked so hard in my life but perhaps I shall

get used to it.” Mary Paul, 1848

Town of Lowell, Mass.

The “Mill Girls”• In 1821, the Boston Association purchased land and rights to the

Pawtucket Canal.• Water power from the Merrimack River made Lowell, Mass. a

prime site for woolen and cotton mills. The first opening in 1823.• During the next 25 years, the textile industry grew, so that by 1848,

Lowell, was the largest industrial center in U.S. • Due to the relatively good pay, for females, young women came

from family farms to work in the mills, during the mid-1800s.• Most of them were 15-25, unmarried and from New England and

New York. • By the 1840s, nearly 10,000 women were working for Lowell’s ten

major textile corporations. • Their stay averaged one to four years, after which they returned to

the farms, married, went to work etc.

• Women held most of the machine-tending jobs in the mills.• They worked as “operatives” in carding, drawing, spinning,

weaving, warping and dressing.• Newcomers began as “sparehands,” learning and getting used

to the pace of the machines. • Men held the supervisory jobs and skilled positions such as

mechanic or loom fixer. • The corporations required the girls to work in the mills for a

least one year and to give two weeks notice before quitting, in order to receive an “honorable discharge.”

• These cotton mills fostered working class wage labor. • In 1836, the girls were paid 40-60 cents a day and 1842,

$14.50 for 4 weeks. • They worked for 12 hours a day, six days a week.

Reasons for Coming• The young women often asked their father’s to allow them to

work in the mills. For example,• Mary Paul (1845 letter excerpt) “I want you to consent to let me go to

Lowell if you can. I could earn more to begin with than I can any where about here. I am in need of clothes which I cannot get if I stay about here and for that reason I

want to go to Lowell or some other place.” • A daughter’s departure from the farm meant one less mouth

to feed and extra money coming in. • These unmarried women lived in boardinghouses and $1.25

was taken out of each week’s pay for room and board.• Their pay was comparable to the wages for a teacher or

seamstress. • They worked long days in the hot, humid mills.

• After a period of adjustment, most mill girls found life and factory work tolerable.

• They also enjoyed a degree of social and economic independence they would never have found on the farm.

• Their wages allowed them to have books, clothing and savings.

• The city offered new opportunities: lectures, libraries, theatre and religious activities.

• However, each textile corporation also had a printed set of regulations that controlled many aspects of the women’s lives: living in a boarding house, going to church and being in bed by 10 p.m.

• Their protests, in later years, led to the creation of labor organizations and the 10 hour workday.

• The “Lowell Girls” began to disappear from the labor force after the Civil War.

The Boardinghouse • As Harriet Robinson (1898) wrote “Each house was a village or community of

itself…When not at their work, by natural selection they sat in groups in their chambers, or in a corner of the large dining-room, busy at some agreeable employment: or they wrote letters, read, studied, or sewed, for as a rule, they were their own seamstresses and dressmakers.”

• Harriet worked in the Lowell Mills from age 10 until she married at 23. • She worked 14-hour days for six days each week and was paid $2 for her

labor.• In October of 1836, the mill girls were told that their wages were to be

cut, so, Harriet and other mill girls participated in a strike. • Because workers were recruited from a distance, the corporations

provided housing. • The corporations hired boardinghouse “keepers” to provide for the needs

of the girls.• These “keepers” were unmarried or widowed older women. • The boardinghouse usually consisted of eight units, housing 25-40

workers each.

• The first floor had a dining room, kitchen, and the keeper’s quarters; bedrooms were on the second floor.

• Each bedroom had two to three beds that four to six girls shared.

• Many who came to Lowell already knew someone working in the mills; this allowed them to adjust more easily.

• The women had very little privacy, but, they did develop close bonds with other women.

• Sarah Bagely was another early “mill girl.” • She began factory work in 1836, and by 1844 had

organized the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, to protect deteriorating working conditions.

• In 1845, she argued in favor of the ten-hour day, which by then was a full-fledged cause among workers.

The Mill Girl’s Day

Factory Conditions• As Mary Paul wrote, in 1848, “It is very hard indeed and sometimes I think

I shall not be able to endure it. I never worked so hard in my life but perhaps I shall get used to it.”

• While, at first the mill girls were satisfied, factory conditions soon began to take their toll.

• Mills had a hot and humid environment to prevent threads from breaking.

• Windows were nailed or painted shut, all outside ventilation was cut off.

• Cotton dust and lint filled the air in the mills and caused many workers to suffer from respiratory illnesses.

• The noise from the machines, caused many workers to experience hearing loss.

• In 1841, a mill girl wrote for the Lowell Offering: “Up before day, at the clang of the bell – and out of the mill by the clang of

the bell – into the mill, and at work, to the obedience of that ding dong bell – just as though we were so many living machines.”

• The mill girls also experienced frequent injuries - Hair and clothing got caught in the machinery.

• They were also bound by the rules of the factory. For example, “The company will not employ any one who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or known to be guilty of immorality.” • By the 1830s, the price of textiles was falling, so

corporations increased the speed and number of machines each girl worked; often without raising wages and even lowering them

• As conditions worsened, the mill girls responded with strikes and demands for labor reform.

Factory Rules from the Handbook to Lowell, 1848

REGULATIONS TO BE OBSERVED by all persons employed in the factories of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company. The overseers are to be always in their rooms at the starting of the mill, and not absent unnecessarily during working hours. They are to see that a ll those employed in their rooms, are in their places in due season, and keep a correct account of their time and work. They may grant leave of absence to those employed under them, when they have spare hands to supply their places, and not otherwise, except in cases of absolute necessity.

All persons in the employ of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, are to observe the regulations of the room where they are employed. They are not to be absent from their work without the consent of the over-seer, except in cases of sickness, and then t hey are to send him word of the cause of their absence. They are to board in one of the houses of the company and give information at the counting room, where they board, when they begin, or, whenever they change their boarding place; and are to observe t he regulations of their boarding-house.

Those intending to leave the employment of the company, are to give at least two weeks' notice thereof to their overseer.

All persons entering into the employment of the company, are considered as engaged for twelve months, and those who leave sooner, or do not comply with all these regulations, will not be entitled to a regular discharge.

The company will not employ any one who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or known to be guilty of immorality.

A physician will attend once in every month at the counting-room, to vaccinate all who may need it, free of expense.

Any one who shall take from the mills or the yard, any yarn, cloth or other article belonging to the company, will be considered guilty of stealing and be liable to prosecution.

Payment will be made monthly, including board and wages. The accounts will be made up to the last Saturday but one in every month, and paid in the course of the following week.

These regulations are considered part of the contract, with which all persons entering into the employment of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, engage to comply.

Songs and Poems of the Mill Girls

Poem that Concluded Lowell Women Workers’ 1834 Petition to Manufacturers

Let oppression shrug her shoulders, And a haughty tyrant frown,And little upstart Ignorance,

In mockery look down.Yet I value not the feeble threats

Of Tories in disguise,While the flag of Independence

O’re our noble nation flies.

1836 Song Lyrics Sung by Protesting Workers at Lowell

Oh! Isnt it a pity, such a pretty girl as IShould be sent to the factory to pine away and

die?Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a Slave,

For I’m so fond of liberty,That I cannot be a slave.

Lowell Factory Song, 1830sWritten by Irish immigrant, who worked in Lowell

When I set out for Lowell, Some factory for to find, I left my native countryAnd all my friends behind. But now I am in Lowell, And summon’d by the bell, I think less of the factory Than of my native dell.The factory bell begins to ringAnd we must obey And to our old employment go, Or else be turn away.Come all ye weary factory girls, I’ll have you understandI’m going to leave the factory And return to my native land.

Southern Mill Girls • North Carolina – the textile industry grew quickly during the late

1800s. • Children under 16 represented roughly 25% of all workers. • It was considered normal for children to begin working between

10 and 13 years of age, but children as young as 5 could be found working in mills.

• The social photographer Lewis Hine studied child labor in the Carolina mills.

• Gaston county was a center of textile manufacturing beginning with the opening of 3 mills in the 1850s.

• By 1901, the mills produced fine “combed yarn.”• The 1929 strike of the Loray Mills, is the best known event in

Gaston County’s history.

• Georgia – In the summer of 1864, Sherman created hundreds of refugees by ordering the arrest of civilian millworkers in Roswell, Ga.

• He charged them with treason for spinning yarn and weaving cloth.

• Sherman shipped them, and millworkers from Sweetwater Creek, Georgia, north up through Tennessee and on to Louisville, Kentucky.

• He directed these refugees to cross the Ohio river and either work in the northern mills, or find other ways to support themselves.

• After the Civil war, some returned home, while others made new lives “up north.”

Resources and References•Websites•www.nps.gov/lowe - Lowell National Historical Park •http://libweb.uml.edu/clh/mo.htm - Mill Life in Lowell 1820-1880•www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/ - Photographs by Lewis W. Hine•www.quiltersmuse.com/mill_girls_of_spindle_city.htm •http://massmoments.org/moment.cfm?mid=116 - “Mill Girl” Writer Lucy Larcom•www.sun-associates.com/mercer/handouts/millgirls.html - Lowell Mill Girls Webquest•www.lessonplanet.com/search?keywords=lowell+mill+girls&m... – Lesson Plans•http://historymatters.gmu.edu – primary and secondary sources•http://womenshistory.about.com/gi/dynamic - primary and secondary sources•North Carolina/Georgia mills:•www.ncatwork.org/childlabor/child_labor_in_north_carolina_co.htm - NC mill•www.ncatwork.org/childlabor/index.htm - NC textile industry and its workers•www.girl.lib.nc.us/lrgs/textile.htm - textile heritage in Gaston County, NC

• Books and Magazines• Moran, W. (2002) The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and

The Families Whose Wealth They Wove, Thomas Dunne Books.• OAH Magazine of History (March 2005). “Mill Girls” and Labor Movements:

Integrating Women’s History into Early Industrialization Studies, pp 42-46.• Holland, R (1970). Mill Child: The Story of Child Labor in America, Crowell-Collier.• Gourley, C. (1999) Good Girl Work: Factories, Sweatshops, and How Women

Changed Their Role in the American Workforce. Millbrook Press.• McCully, E. (1996). The Bobbin Girl. Dial Publishing.• Patterson, K. (1993) Lyddie. Puffin Books.• Anonymous, Lowell Offering (1845) A Week in the Mill, Vol. V• Byerly, V. (1986) Hard Times Cotton Mill Girls: Personal Histories of Womanhood

and Poverty in the South. ILR Press. Cornell University.• Ranta, J. (1999) Women and Children of the Mills: An Annotated Guide to

Nineteenth-Centry American Textile Factory Literature. Greenwood Press.• Searce, F.A. (2006) Cotton Mill Girl. Tate Publishing.• “The Lowell Offering”. The North American Review. (April 1841):537-541.• Cook, R.B. (1999) North Across the River. Crane Hill Publishers.