"Lowell Mill Girls" was the name used for female textile workers in
Lowell, MassachusettsLowell is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, USA. As of the 2000 census, the city had a total population of 105,167. It is the fifth largest city in the state...
, in the 19th century. The Lowell textile mills employed a workforce which was about three quarters female; this characteristic (unique at the time) caused two social effects: a close examination of the women's moral behavior, and a form of labor agitation.
The Lowell female textile workers wrote and published several literary magazines, including the
Lowell OfferingThe Lowell Offering was a monthly periodical collected contributed works of poetry and fiction by the female textile workers of the Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills of the early American industrial revolution. It began in 1840 and lasted until 1845...
, which featured essays, poetry and fiction written by female textile workers. They also actively participated in early labor reform through legislative petitions, forming labor organizations, contributing essays and articles to a pro-labor newspaper the
Voice of Industry and protesting through "turn-outs" or strikes.
Industrialization of Lowell
In 1814, businessman Francis Cabot Lowell formed a company, the
Boston Manufacturing CompanyThe Boston Manufacturing Company was organized in 1813 by Francis Cabot Lowell, a wealthy Boston merchant, in partnership a group of investors known as The Boston Associates, for the manufacture of cotton textiles. Boston Manufacturing Company gathered many of their trade secrets from the earlier...
and built a textile mill next to the
Charles RiverThe Charles River is a river in Massachusetts, USA. It travels through 22 cities and towns in eastern Massachusetts, from Hopkinton to Boston on the Atlantic Ocean.-Route:...
in
Waltham, MassachusettsWaltham is a city in Middlesex County, Massachusetts, United States, billed by the Chamber of Commerce as the "birthplace of the American industrial revolution", and an early center for the labor movement. The original home of the Boston Manufacturing Company, the city was a prototype for 19th...
. Differing from the earlier Rhode Island System, where only carding and spinning were done in a factory while the weaving was often put out to neighboring farms to be done by hand, the Waltham mill was the first integrated mill in the United States, transforming raw
cottonCotton is a soft, staple fiber that grows in a form known as a boll around the seeds of the cotton plant, a shrub native to tropical and subtropical regions around the world, including the Americas, India and Africa. The fiber most often is spun into yarn or thread and used to make a soft,...
into cotton cloth in one building. While Lowell died three years later, his operation was quite successful and his business partners looked to replicate their success on a larger scale.
In 1821, the investors organized the
Merrimack Manufacturing CompanyThe Merrimack Manufacturing Company was the first of the major textile manufacturing concerns to open in Lowell, Massachusetts, beginning operations in 1823.- History :...
and purchased land near Pawtucket Falls in East Chelmsford to expand its textile manufacturing operations. In 1826, the land was incorporated as a separate town, and being primarily concerned with and run by the textile interests, was named "Lowell" in honor of the late Francis Cabot. In less than 20 years, a sparse collection of family farms was transformed into the industrial city of Lowell, Massachusetts. In that time, ten textile corporations opened 32 mills in the city. Women were "collected" or recruited by men telling tales of high wages available to "all classes of people." In 1840, the factories employed almost 8,000 workers — mostly women between the ages of 16 and 35.
The city became world-renowned as a center of efficient industry. French economist
Michel ChevalierMichel Chevalier was a French engineer, statesman, economist and free market liberal.-Biography:Born in Limoges, Chevalier studied at the École Polytechnique, obtaining an engineering degree at the Paris École des mines in 1829.In 1830, after the July Revolution, he became a Saint-Simonian, and...
visited in 1834, and English novelist
Charles DickensCharles John Huffam Dickens FRSA , pen-name "Boz", was the most popular English novelist of the Victorian era and one of the most popular of all time. He created some of literature's most memorable characters. His novels and short stories have never gone out of print...
visited in 1842, remarking favorably on the conditions:: "I cannot recall or separate one young face that gave me a painful impression; not one young girl whom, assuming it to be matter of necessity that she should gain her daily bread by the labour of her hands, would have removed from those works if I had had the power."
The
Industrial RevolutionThe Industrial Revolution was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions in the United Kingdom. The changes subsequently spread throughout Europe, North...
was changing the face of commerce, and Lowell was central to this transformation in the United States.
Work and living environment
The social position of the factory girl had been degraded considerably in France and England. In her autobiography, Harriet Robinson (who worked in the Lowell mills from 1834-1848) suggests that "It was to overcome this prejudice that such high wages had been offered to women that they might be induced to become mill girls, in spite of the opprobrium that still clung to this degrading occupation.…"
Factory conditions
The Lowell System combined large-scale mechanization with an attempt to improve the stature of its female workforce. A few girls who came with their mothers or older sisters were as young as ten years old, some were middle-aged, but the average age was about 24. Usually hired for contracts of one year (the average stay was about four years), new employees were given assorted tasks as sparehands and paid a fixed daily wage while more experienced loom operators would be paid by the piece. They were paired with more experienced women, who trained them in the ways of the factory.
Conditions in the Lowell mills were severe by modern American standards. Employees worked from five am until seven pm, for an average 73 hours per week. Each room usually had 80 women working at machines, with two male overseers managing the operation. The noise of the machines was described by one worker as "something frightful and infernal", and although the rooms were hot, windows were often kept closed during the summer so that conditions for thread work remained optimal. The air, meanwhile, was filled with particles of thread and cloth.
Living quarters
The investors or factory owners built hundreds of boarding houses near the mills, where textile workers lived year-round. A curfew of 10 pm was common, and men were generally not allowed inside. About 25 women lived in each boardinghouse, with up to six sharing a bedroom. One worker described her quarters as "a small, comfortless, half-ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants". Trips away from the boardinghouse were uncommon; the Lowell girls worked and ate together. However, half-days and short paid vacations were possible due to the nature of the piece-work; one girl would work the machines of another in addition to her own such that no wages would be lost.
These close quarters fostered community as well as resentment. Newcomers were mentored by older women in areas such as dress, speech, behavior, and the general ways of the community. Workers often recruited their friends or relatives to the factories, creating a familial atmosphere among many of the rank and file. The Lowell girls were expected to attend church and demonstrate morals befitting proper society. The 1848
Handbook to Lowell proclaimed that "The company will not employ anyone who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath, or known to be guilty of immorality."
Women were also given opportunities to attend concerts and lectures, in addition to experiencing city life. Still, at least one observer reported that most women worked so that a male relative could obtain an education. "I have known more than one to give every cent of her wages," she writes, "month after month, to her brother, that he might get the education necessary to enter some profession."
The Lowell Offering
In October 1840, the Reverend Abel Charles Thomas of the First Universalist Church organized a monthly publication by and for the Lowell girls. As the magazine grew in popularity, women contributed poems, ballads, essays and fiction – often using their characters to report on conditions and situations in their lives.
The Offerings contents were by turns serious and farcical. A letter in the first issue, "A Letter about Old Maids," the author suggested that "sisters, spinsters, lay-nuns, & c" were an essential component of God's "wise design". Later issues – particularly in the wake of labor unrest in the factories – included an article about the value of organizing and an essay about suicide among the Lowell girls.
Strikes of 1834 and 1836
The initial effort of the investors and managers to recruit female textile workers brought generous wages for the time (three to five dollars per week), but with the economic depression of the early 1830s, the Board of Directors proposed a reduction in wages. This, in turn, led to organized "turn-outs" or
strikesStrike action, often simply called a strike, is a work stoppage caused by the mass refusal of employees to perform work. A strike usually takes place in response to employee grievances. Strikes became important during the industrial revolution, when mass labour became important in factories and mines...
.
In February 1834, the Board of Directors of Lowell's textile mills requested the managers or agents to impose a 15% reduction in wages, to go into effect on March 1. After a series of meetings, the female textile workers organized a "turn-out" or strike. The women involved in "turn-out" immediately withdrew their savings causing "a run" on two local banks.
The strike failed and within days the women had all returned to work at reduced pay or left town, but the "turn-out" or strike was an indication of the determination among the Lowell female textile workers to take labor action. This dismayed the agents of the factories, who portrayed the turnout as a betrayal of femininity. William Austin, agent of the Lawrence Manufacturing Company, wrote to his Board of Directors, "notwithstanding the friendly and disinterested advice which has been on all proper occassions [sic] communicated to the girls of the Lawrence mills a spirit of evil omen … has prevailed, and overcome the judgment and discretion of too many…."
Again, in response to a severe economic depression and the high costs of living, in January 1836, the Board of Directors of Lowell's textile mills absorbed an increase in the textile workers' rent to help in the crisis faced by the company boardinghouse keepers. As the economic calamity continued in October 1836, the Directors proposed an additional rent hike to be paid by the textile workers living in the company boardinghouses. The female textile workers responded immediately in protest by forming the Factory Girls' Association and organizing a "turn-out" or strike. Robinson recalled: "One of the girls stood on a pump and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.…" This "turn-out" or strike attracted over 1,500 workers – nearly twice the number two years previously - causing Lowell's textile mills to run far below capacity. Unlike the "turn-out" or strike in 1834, in 1836 there was enormous community support for the striking female textile workers. The proposed rent hike was seen as a violation of the written contract between the employers and the employees. The "turn-out" persisted for weeks and eventually the Board of Directors of Lowell's textile mills rescinded the rent hike. Although the "turn-out" was a success, the weakness of the system was evident, and worsened further in the
Panic of 1837The Panic of 1837 was a panic in the United States built on a speculative fever. The bubble burst on May 10, 1837 in New York City, when every bank stopped payment in specie...
.
Lowell Female Labor Reform Association
As the Ten Hours Movement made progress toward a less grueling workday in England, the Lowell female textile workers started an organization in 1845 called the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. One of its first actions was to send petitions signed by thousands of textile workers to the
Massachusetts General CourtThe Massachusetts General Court is the state legislature of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. The name "General Court" is a hold-over from the Colonial Era, when this body also sat in judgment of judicial appeals cases...
demanding a ten-hour work day. In response, the Massachusetts Legislature established a committee chaired by William Schouler, Representative from Lowell, to investigate and hold public hearings, during which workers testified about conditions in the factories and the physical demands of their twelve-hour days. These were the first investigations into labor conditions by a governmental body in the United States. The 1845 Legislative Committee determined that it was not state legislature's responsibility to control the hours of work. The FLRA called its chairman, William Schouler, a "tool" and worked to defeat him in his next campaign for the State Legisture. A complex election Schouler lost to another Whig candidate over the issue of Railroads. The impact of working men [Democrats] and working women [non-voting] was very limited. The next year Schouler was re-elected to the State Legislature.
The Lowell female textile workers continued to petition the Massachusetts Legislature and legislative committee hearings became an annual event. Although, the initial push for a ten-hour workday was unsuccessful, the FLRA continued to grow, affiliating with the New England Workingmen's Association and publishing articles in that organization's Voice of Industry, a pro-labor newspaper. This direct pressure forced the Board of Directors of Lowell's textile mills to reduce the workday by 30 minutes in 1847. The FLRA's organizing efforts spilled over into other nearby towns. In 1847, New Hampshire became the first state to pass a law for a ten-hour workday, although there was no enforcement and workers were often requested to work longer days. By 1848, the LFLRA disolved as an labor reform organization. Lowell textile workers continued to petition and pressure for improved working conditions nst, in 1853, the Lowell corporations reduced the workday to 11 hours.
The New England textile industry was rapidly expanding in the 1850s and 1860s, unable to recruite enough Yankee women to fill all the new jobs, textile managers turned to recent Irish famine immigrants to supplement the workforce. During the Civil War many of Lowell's cotton mills closed, unable to acquire bales of raw cotton from the South. After war, the textile mills reopened, recruiting French Canadian men and women. Although large numbers of Irish and French Canadian immigrants moved to Lowell to work in the textile mills, Yankee women still dominated the workforce until the mid-1880s.
Political character of labor activity
The Lowell girls' organizing efforts were notable not only for the "unfeminine" participation of women, but also for the political framework used to appeal to the public. Framing their struggle for shorter work days and better pay as a matter of rights and personal dignity, they sought to place themselves in the larger context of the American Revolution. During the 1834 "turn-out" or strike – they warned that "the oppressing hand of avarice would enslave us," the women included a poem which read:
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'er our noble nation flies.
In the 1836 strike, this theme returned in a protest song:
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should 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.
The most striking example of this political overtone can be found in a series of tracts published by the Female Labor Reform Association entitled Factory Tracts. In the first of these, subtitled "Factory Life As It Is", the author proclaims "that our rights cannot be trampled upon with impunity; that we WILL not longer submit to that arbitrary power which has for the last ten years been so abundantly exercised over us."
This conceptualization of labor activity as philosophically linked with the American project in democracy has been instrumental for other labor organizing campaigns, as noted frequently by MIT professor and social critic
Noam ChomskyAvram Noam Chomsky is an American linguist, philosopher, cognitive scientist, political activist, author, and lecturer. He is an Institute Professor and professor emeritus of linguistics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Chomsky is well known in the academic and scientific community as...
who has cited this extended quote from the Lowell Mill Girls on the topic of wage slavery:
"When you sell your product, you retain your person. But when you sell
your labour, you sell yourself, losing the rights of free men and becoming vassals of mammoth establishments of a monied aristocracy that threatens annihilation to anyone who questions their right to enslave and oppress.
"Those who work in the mills ought to own them, not have the status of machines ruled by private despots who are entrenching monarchic principles on democratic soil as they drive downwards freedom and rights, civilization, health, morals and intellectuality in the new commercial feudalism."
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