Lowell+Girls+And+the+Early+Labor+Movement

"A Description of Factory Life by an Associationist in 1846
...We have lately visited the cities of Lowell and Manchester, and have had an opportunity of examining the factory system more closely than before. We had distrusted the accounts, which we had heard from persons engaged in the Labor Reform, now beginning to agitate New England; we could scarcely credit the statements made in relation to the exhausting nature of the labor in the mills, and to the manner in which the young women, the operatives, lived in their boarding-houses, six sleeping in a room, poorl y ventilated. We went through many of the mills, talked particularly to a large number of the operatives, and ate at their boarding-houses, on purpose to ascertain by personal inspection the facts of the case. We assure our readers that very little information is po ssessed, and no correct judgments formed, by the public at large, of our factory system, which is the first germ of the Industrial or Commercial Feudalism, that is to spread over our land. In Lowell live between seven and eight thousand young women, who are generally daughters of farmers of the different States of New England; Some of them are members of families that were rich the generation before. The operatives work thirteen hours a day in the summer time, and from daylight to dark in the winter. At half past four in the morning the factory bell rings, and at five the girls must be in the mills. A clerk, placed as a watch, observes those who a re a few minutes behind the time, and effectual means are taken to stimulate to punctuality. This is the morning commencement of the industrial discipline- (should we not rather say industrial tyranny?) which is established in these Associations of this m oral and Christian community. At seven the girls are allowed thirty minutes for breakfast, and at noon thirty minutes more for dinner, except during the first quarter of the year, when the time is extended to forty-five minutes. But within this time they must hurry to their boarding-houses and return to the factory, and that through the hot sun, or the rain and cold. A meal eaten under such circumstances must be quite unfavorable to digestion and health, as any medical man will inform us. At seven o'clock in the evening the factory bell sounds the close of the days work. Thus thirteen hours per day of close attention and monotonous labor are exacted from the young women in these manufactories. . . So fatigued-we should say, exhausted and worn out but we wish to speak of the system in the simplest language-are numbers o f the girls, that they go to bed soon after their evening meal? and endeavor by a comparatively long sleep to resuscitate their weakened frames for the toils of the coming day. When Capital has got thirteen hours of labor daily out of a being, it can get nothing more. It could be a poor speculation in an industrial point of view to own the operative; for the trouble and expense of providing for times of sickness and old age could more than counterbalance the difference between the price of wages and the e xpense of board and clothing. The far greater number of fortunes, accumulated by the North in comparison with the South, shows that hireling labor is more profitable for Capital than slave labor. Now let us examine the nature of the labor itself, and the conditions under which it is performed. Enter with us into the large rooms, when the looms are at work. The largest that we saw is in the Amoskeag Mills at Manchester. It is four hundred feet l ong, and about seventy broad; there are five hundred looms, and twenty-one thousand spindles in it. The din and clatter of these five hundred looms under full operation, struck us on first entering as something frightful and infernal, for it seemed such a n atrocious violation of one of the faculties of the human soul, the sense of hearing. After a while we became somewhat inured to it, and by speaking quite close to the ear of an operative and quite loud, we could hold a conversation, and make the inquiri es we wished. The girls attend upon an average three looms; many attend four, but this requires a very active person, and the most unremitting care. However, a great many do it. Attention to two is as much as should be demanded of an operative. This gives us some id ea of the application required during the thirteen hours of daily laborer. The atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be pure; on the contrary it is charged with cotton filaments and dust, which, we were told, are very injurious to the lungs. On enter ing the room, although the day was warm, we remarked that the windows were down; we asked the reason, and a young woman answered very naively, and without seeming to be in the least aware that this privation of fresh air was anything else than perfectly n atural, that "when the wind blew, the threads did not work so well." After we had been in the room for fifteen or twenty minutes, we found ourselves, as did the persons who accompanied us, in quite a perspiration, produced by a certain moisture which we o bserved in the air, as well as by the heat. The young women sleep upon an average six in room; three beds to a room. There is no privacy, no retirement here; it is almost impossible to read or write alone, as the parlor is full and so many sleep in the same chamber. A young woman remarked to us, that if she had a letter to write, she did it on the head of a band-box, sitting on a trunk, as there was not space for a table. So live and toil the young women of our country in the boarding-houses and manufactories, which the rich and influential of our land have built for them. The Editor of the Courier and Enquirer has often accused the Associationists of wishing to reduce men "to herd together like beasts of the field." We would ask him whether he does not find as much of what may be called "herding together in these modern industrial Associations, established by men of his own kidney as he thinks would exist in one of the Industrial Phalanxes, which we propose. This account was received from []

REGULATIONS FOR THE BOARDING-HOUSES of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company. The tenants of the boarding-houses are not to board, or permit any part of their houses to be occupied by any person, except those in the employ of the company, without special per mission. They will be considered answerable for any improper conduct in their houses, and are not to permit their boarders to have company at unseasonable hours. The doors must be closed at ten o'clock in the evening, and no person admitted after that time, without some reasonable excuse. The keepers of the boarding-houses must give an account of the number, names and employment of their boarders, when required, and report the names of such as are guilty of any improper conduct, or are not in the as are guilty of any improper conduct, or are not in the regular habit of attending public worship. The buildings, and yards about them, must be kept clean and in good order; and if they are injured, other-wise than from ordinary use, all necessary repairs will be made, and charged to the occupant. The sidewalks, also, in front of the houses, must be kept clean, and free from snow, which must be removed from them immediately after it has ceased falling; if neglected, it will be removed by the company at the expense of the tenant. It is desirable that the families of those who live in the houses, as well as the boarders, who have not had the kine pox, should be vaccinated, which will be done at the expense of the company, for such as wish it. Some suitable chamber in the house must be reserved, and appropriated for the use of the sick, so that others may not be under the necessity of sleeping in the same room." These accounts were received from []
 * Boarding House Rules from the Handbook to Lowell, 1848**

Pictures of the Lowell Girls





by Harriet Hanson Robinson
http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5714 A group of Boston capitalists built a major textile manufacturing center in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the second quarter of the 19th century. The first factories recruited women from rural New England as their labor force. These young women, far from home, lived in rows of boardinghouses adjacent to the growing number of mills. The industrial production of textiles was highly profitable,and the number of factories in Lowell and other mill towns increased. More mills led to overproduction, which led to a drop in prices and profits. Mill owners reduced wages and speeded up the pace of work. The young female operatives organized to protest these wage cuts in 1834 and 1836. Harriet Hanson Robinson was one of those factory operatives; she began work in Lowell at the age of ten, later becoming an author and advocate of women’s suffrage. In 1898 she published //Loom and Spindle//, a memoir of her Lowell experiences, where she recounted the strike of 1836.

One of the first strikes of cotton-factory operatives that ever took place in this country was that in Lowell, in October, 1836. When it was announced that the wages were to be cut down, great indignation was felt, and it was decided to strike, en masse. This was done. The mills were shut down, and the girls went in procession from their several corporations to the “grove” on Chapel Hill, and listened to “incendiary” speeches from early labor reformers. 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. Cutting down the wages was not their only grievance, nor the only cause of this strike. Hitherto the corporations had paid twenty—five cents a week towards the board of each operative, and now it was their purpose to have the girls pay the sum; and this, in addition to the cut in the wages, would make a difference of at least one dollar a week. It was estimated that as many as twelve or fifteen hundred girls turned out, and walked in procession through the streets. They had neither flags nor music, but sang songs, a favorite (but rather inappropriate) one being a parody on “I won’t be a nun. ” "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." My own recollection of this first strike (or “turn out” as it was called) is very vivid. I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed; I had been an ardent listener to what was said against this attempt at “oppression” on the part of the corporation, and naturally I took sides with the strikers. When the day came on which the girls were to turn out, those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, “Would you? ” or “Shall we turn out?” and not one of them 1laving the courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, "I don’t care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;‘’ and I marched out, and was followed by the others. As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I have ever been since at any success I may have achieved, and more proud than I shall ever be again until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage. The agent of the corporation where I then worked took some small revenges on the supposed ringleaders; on the principle of sending the weaker to the wall, my mother was turned away from her boarding-house, that functionary saying,“Mrs. Hanson, you could not prevent the older girls from turning out, but your daughter is a child, and her you could control.” It is hardly necessary to say that so far as results were concerned this strike did no good. The dissatisfaction of the operatives subsided, or burned itself out, and though the authorities did not accede to their demands, the majority returned to their work, and the corporation went on cutting down the wages. And after a time, as the wages became more and more reduced, the best portion of the girls left and went to their homes, or to the other employments that were fast opening to women, until there were very few of the old guard left; and thus the status of the factory population of New England gradually became what we know it to be to-day. Source: Harriet Hanson Robinson, //Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls// (New York, T. Y. Crowell, 1898), 83–86.

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. Sometimes girls as young as age 10, however, would work too if they came with their mom or sister. Employees worked from 5 in the morning until 7 in the evening, for an average of 73 hours per week. They worked in deafening noise from the machines, and the air was filled with particles of thread and cloth. []

 In Lowell, Massachusetts, textile mills were the site in which many daughters, sisters, mothers, aunts, etc., would be found working. Many traveled to work there and the mill owners would allow for them to live there. However, the working conditions were horrible. “In 1826, an anonymous Lowell Mill worker wrote: “In vain do I try to soar in fancy and imagination above the dull reality around me but beyond the roof of the factory I cannot rise.” In 1844, Lowell Mill factory workers organized the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) “to press for better pay and working conditions. When the LFLRA was unable to bargain with the owners, they joined with the New England Workingmen's Association. Despite its lack of significant effect, the LFLRA was the first organization of working women in the United States to try to bargain collectively for better conditions and higher pay.” ([]). ~caseyysmith12

Even in the beginning years of the Lowell Mills, there was considerable discontent and resistance among workers. The Hamilton Company of Lowell incorporated in 1825. In 1826 and 1827, there were women discharged for "misconduct", "captiousness," "disobedience to orders," "impudence to overseer, "dissatisfaction with wages," and "mutiny." In December 1828, less than two years after the Dover, New Hampshire mill was incorporated, 300-400 women turned out in the first recorded strike of female textile operatives. They were protesting the imposition of "obnoxious regulations" in the factory. Sporadic strikes continued through the 1830s and intensified in the 1840s. As the conditions of factory life deteriorated, more and more women experienced life there as oppressive, and those who stayed in the mills began to fight back. In 1834 and 1836 wage cuts, increasing rents in company housing, and speedups resulted in sporadic, unorganized, and rebellious outbursts. The first activity in 1834 created great excitement, not only in Lowell, but around the country. The //Boston Transcript// reported the events in Lowell in great detail, using a tone of dignified regret at such goings on: "We learn that extraordinary excitement was occasioned at Lowell, last week, by an announcement that the wages paid in some of the departments would be reduced 15 percent on the 1st of March. The reduction principally affected the female operatives, and they held several meetings, or caucuses, at which a young woman presided, who took an active part in persuading her associates to give notice that they should quit the mills, and to induce them to 'make a run' on the Lowell Bank and the Savings Bank, which they did. On Friday morning, the young woman referred to was dismissed, by the Agent...and on leaving the office...waved her calash in the air, as a signal to the others, who were watching from the windows, when they immediately 'struck' and assembled about her, in despite of the overseers. "The number soon increased to nearly 800. A procession was formed, and they marched about the town, to the amusement of a mob of idlers and boys, and we are sorry to add, not altogether to the credit of Yankee girls....We are told that one of the leaders mounted a stump and made a flaming [|Mary] [|Wollstonecraft] speech on the rights of women and the iniquities of the 'monied aristocracy,' which produced a powerful effect on her auditors, and they determined to 'have their way if they died for it.'"

The 800 who turned out in 1834 consisted of about a sixth of the work force. These turnouts were characterized by parading around town, making speeches, passing resolutions, holding meetings--all behavior not deemed proper for women as evidenced in the //Transcript// report. The activity revealed courage and a great sense of wrong on the part of the female workers. Although they were encouraged by the 3rd convention of the National Trades Union, an all-male organization, they were given little concrete support in the way of organizing, sympathetic action, or money. Instead, the women strikers focused on rhetoric, and to do this, they built on the language and intentions of the US Declaration of Independence. http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/history/lavender/lowstr.html

The Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (established in 1845), is recognized as one of the earliest organized efforts led by female Americans to enact social change. As a result of “The Panic of 1837,” already oppressive working conditions worsened, so industrial workers sought redress through organization and petition. Their primary aim was to enact a state law mandating ten-hour workdays, which although still long, would significantly shorten their weekly hours and give workers some free time to enjoy the simple things that we take for granted, like a full night’s sleep for example. Their argument was focused on the need for time to "hone their physical, spiritual, intellectual, and moral development," which average workdays of 12+ hours precluded. Sarah Bagley, served as president of the association, and began the Industrial Reform Lyceum. --Dea_De_Amore

Source: [|www.blackwellreference.com]