Farmers, to Mill Girls, to Activists

 

This past week in Honors History 10 we’ve brought our study of the Industrial Revolution back home, as we discussed the Lowell Mills, just a 20 minute drive away. Just like in England, these mills featured new machines and an up and coming textile industry, but that wasn't all that was revolutionary about them. For the first time ever, women began working outside of their homes, leaving their family’s farms, and making a salary. During the industrial revolution, thousands of young American girls were sent to the Lowell mills to earn money for their families, and make their own living.

When the Lowell mills took off in the 1800s, young girls were the perfect employees for two reasons. Number 1: women and girls were considered less valuable than men, so their labor would be cheaper. And number 2: women were used to taking orders from men, so they would do what they were told. The only problem, was convincing the girls to come and work.

To encourage girls to leave their family farms and work in Lowell, mill owners had to make the mills sound very enticing. In the video “Daughters of Free Men”, a man comes to Lucy Hall’s house and describes the mills as a great opportunity in an effort to recruit her. Hall ends up moving to Lowell and working there after he tells her how the mills are more of an “academy” than a workplace.

Young girl leaves farm to work in Lowell.
Family is sad to see her go, but she is hopeful for a better life.

Like Hall, many other girls moved to Lowell after hearing about things like its “paternal system”, and effort to maintain morality. But most of the girls were let down when they arrived. No boarding house keeper could comfort them when their wages got cut, and  as for morals, they all disappeared when the workers held loud, unladylike protests against their unfair treatment.

Although girls suffered tough living conditions, and had to give up living with their families at a young age, their work at the mills has gotten us women where we are today. For those original mill workers, there was little benefit to their employment. But that first taste of independence that girls got by working in the mills away from their families, and finally being able to earn their own pay, is what would later motivate many of them to later become womens rights activists. Yes pay was low, living was uncomfortable, and women were treated poorly as workers in the Lowell mills. But, if it weren't for the Lowell mills, we could still be living in a world with even more male dominance in the workforce.