Lowell Mill Factory Girls

Lowell Mill Factory Girls

Background Information

In Massachusetts, the Lowell family's textile mills worked to attract the unmarried daughters of ranch families, anticipating them to work a couple of years before marriage. These young women factory employees were termed “Lowell Mill Girls." Their mean extent of paid work was three years.

The manufacturer owners and managers endeavored to allay family fears of allowing daughters to reside away from home. The mills sponsored boarding dwellings and dormitories with firm rules, and sponsored heritage undertakings including a publication, Lowell Offering. But employed conditions were far from ideal. In 1826, an anonymous Lowell Mill worker wrote

In vain do I try to soar in adorned and imagination overhead the boring truth round me but after the top covering of the factory I will not raise? As early as the 1830s, some mill workers utilized literary outlets to write of their discontent. The working conditions were tough, and couple of girls stayed a long time, even if they did not leave to get wed.

In 1844, Lowell Mill manufacturer workers coordinated the Lowell Female work Reform Association (LFLRA) to press for better pay and employed conditions. Sarah Bagley became the first leader of the LFLRA. Bagley testified about the working situation before the Massachusetts house that identical year. When the LFLRA was unable to bargain with the owners, they connected with the New England Workingmen's Association. Despite its need of important effect, the LFLRA was the first association of employed women in the United States to try to cut-rate collectively for better conditions and higher pay.

In the 1850s, financial downturns commanded the factories to pay smaller salaries, add more hours and eliminate some of the amenities. Irish immigrant women replaced the American farm young women on the manufacturer floor.

The Lowell Mill young women were the more widespread title of the juvenile females who worked in the mills in Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1800's. The Lowell Mill opened its doors in 1823. (McCabe) These girls worked very long, and very hard, and numerous of them have conceived periodicals detailing their daily routines. Many people have asked why these girls would put themselves through such hardships. McCabe talks about how it was actually cooperative for the girls to depart the family ranch and proceed to work in the mills. It made things simpler on the families as they had one less individual to be inclined to. In a brochure made by the U.S. Lowell nationwide chronicled reserve, they also recount the causes girls left home. They would often use young girls from the diverse villages surrounding the factory. The ranchers were often very poor and the considered of extra cash approaching in made it seem much more appealing. The women obtained “monthly money salaries and room and board in a comfortable boarding dwelling” (Lowell National Historic Park). Most women seemed to relish this opening as it provided them flexibility from their families and suggested a life totally distinct then any thing they had skilled in their ...