1834-1841 Cover Page 1 The Inquirer

- - ​In Partnership with ​The Miquon Herald​

This Special Edition newspaper is a compilation of articles covering Lowell Mills in the ​ ​ 1830s-1840s. Guest journalists are all from The Miquon Herald in Conshohoken, PA. ​ ​

Women in Lowell Mills Demand Fairer Conditions

1834-1841 Page 2 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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ages span from 12 to mid 30’s with most of them having little to no work experience, but work experience wouldn’t help with the grueling 13 hours of work they did every day. It was quite unfair to them that they got barely any pay for it. The workers have been stuck with these conditions for thirteen years so it’s no surprise they want change. They started

“Mill Girl” in Lowell, MA mill . striking only a few weeks ago and the strike has already successfully slowed Workers of Lowell mill down the factory due to there being less people operating the machines and more outraged about working people going on strike, which has helped conditions, go on strike the mill girls in trying to achieve their goal. By Jasper Scanlon

The have had enough of the As well as that, it has hurt the factory's working conditions they’ve had to live with image which means less girls would want for the past thirteen years in the mills and to come there to work. It’s a huge problem have decided to go on strike. Most of Lowell’s that they are losing all the workers. Many workers are girls from farming backgrounds of the workers didn’t wave flags, or hold who came to the mills looking for a life of signs, but rather sang songs. A favorite of the mill girls was a parody of the song I opportunity away from home where they ​ won’t be a nun that went like: didn't have much to do. The girls’ ​ (cont on pg. 3) ​

Workers of Lowell mill outraged about working conditions, go on Sarah G. Bagley: strike (cont.) Women's rights activist “OH! Isn’t it a pity, such a pretty girl as I- By Ari Castro-Gross Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die? Sarah George Bagley was born April 1918 in Oh! I cannot be a slave, Rural Candia, New Hampshire, her family I will not be a slave, fell on hard times and she moved to The For I’m so fond of library Lowell mills to earn a little extra money That I cannot be a slave.” for her family, and became a women rights activist, to promote equal rights for The Lowell Mills opened in 1823 and over the women, in the mills. The mill girls had a 12-14 hour work last thirteen years Lowell has become one of day and had to use power tools and the biggest industrial centers in the country, ladders without proper instructions and with around 50,000 miles of cloth being authorization, fire hazards, and over produced each year. congestion of their workspaces. wanted safer working conditions, All in all, the Lowell strike has so far been and shorter working hours. That is why successful, but the company has not backed she quit The Mills and founded the LLFRA down yet. All we can do is hope that the (Lowell Labor Female Reform Association) to promote safer working conditions, and strike is successful. less taxing working hours. ”I am sick at heart when I look into the social world and see women so willingly made a dupe to the beastly selfishness of man.” Sarah G. Bagley in the mills. After she left the mills, she became a doctor. Which is rare in it of itself because she is a woman. Not only that she became a successful snuff . manufacturer​

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Francis Cabot Lowell seen in new light By: Felix! Z. Robinson

The Lowell factory owners have been perceived as mean and unfair, the recent strikes have shown that. But, new information The waltham system or the Lowell system has come about that may shed some new light that ensured workers good pay, on them and blow your mind. opportunities and housing, began to fall Many people think of Francis Lowell as after Lowell's death in 1817. The Boston an antagonist but in reality he wanted the best manufacturing company was handed over for his workers. He wanted to make the world to Nathan Appleton and Patrick Tracy a better place; he once said, ​“One lifetime is Jackson: pay and condition standards never enough to accomplish one’s horticultural goals. If a garden is a site for the imagination, how dropped, worker morale plummeted. Today can we be very far from the beginning? the pay and treatment of the workers is Before the boston manufacturing still at rock bottom.​” company was constructed along the charles was originally river in 1812, there was not a single factory in a merchant who traveled between England the united states that processed wool straight and America to deliver goods,at the time into textiles. Usually every step of the process England was the leader in textile had its own building. technology and wanted it to stay that way. Thanks to the advance in technology, They didn’t even allow textile workers to business sored and thanks to the steady stream leave the country. When Lowell was at the of labor he was able to run the factory the way factories he took notes on the machinery he wanted to. He was able to provide the he saw. On his way back to America his workers with academic opportunities, good ship was searched by the british but they wages and housing.But,soon after the Boston found none of his notes.

manufacturing company began to gain traction. Other textile companies popped up in New Hampshire and with lower wages and worse conditions. Sadly Lowell’s factory had to cut pay by 25%.

1834-1841 Page 5 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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How the Lowell mill

A Day in the life girls strike is

changing America at Lowell Mills By: Zoë Fairweather By Lucas Aptowicz Young women begin to work at textile mills in Lowell, MA to get away from farm life or raise money for their The Lowell mill girls have become the first woman to ever brother’s college funds among a strike, after their pay was lowered four months ago. number of other reasons. They’re nicknamed “mill girls”. A historic moment happened four months ago after the Mill girls live in small tenements with other mill girls. The mill girls pay was lowered by a whopping 25 %. It was the daily life of one of these mill girls is anything but ideal. They work 13 hour final straw for the mill girls, they already worked for more days and their tenements are than eleven hours each day. “I am going home where I shall cramped and uncomfortable. At work, they are constantly watched by their not be obliged to rise so early in the morning, nor be dragged bosses, and at the tenements, they about by the ringing bell, nor be confined to a close noisy were constantly watched by boarding housekeepers allowing them almost room,” said Almira, a Lowell mill girl we interviewed. Another no privacy. said, “I am determined to give my notice every day.” But And so what went from a content and enthusiastic group of instead of just going home they striked. They striked twice, farm-girls looking for a chance to be both times the managers fought back and won. Most of the their own people became a fed-up and compassionate group of mill girls went back to factories and the ones that didn’t were girls. With the rise of the indignant replaced. young girls came their first but not only strike. Women and girls would leave their stations at 11:00 on Saturday Last month Sarah Bagley, and five other mill girls morning and take to the streets to formed the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA). protest the fifteen percent wage cut. Another strike saw workers turning In the LFLRA Sarah Bagley has been doing campaign picnics out because of a proposed pay cut for money. The LFLRA was made to improve health conditions that would have mill owners paying more to the boardinghouse in the mills and to lobby for ten hour workdays and it is managers. Eleven-year-old Harriet already doing that . Now it has grown to six hundred Robinson who led a room full of girls straight into the march said “I don't members. It has already sparked strikes across the country care what you do, I am going to turn and changed the United States of America for the better. out.”

1834-1841 Page 6 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Mill girls split about living conditions, negative or positive By Henry Gelbach In textile mills, mostly in Massachusetts, girls from the ages of 15-35 use looms to spin cloth into cotton. They mostly move to the mills because in the bigger cities, they can be social in a way they can’t on the farms most of them are from, also they make money from it. Although it can be a good experience for them, the conditions are not perfect. They live in small dormitories, with two

beds, two girls to a bed. They work eleven hours a day, and get only a little bit to eat at breakfast, lunch, and dinner. They are also forbidden from making unions, so they can’t speak their voices, except in some newspapers reserved for just the girls. Most of them write to their families, talking about their experiences, whether they are good or bad. One girl, Lucy Ann, said in a letter to her

sist​er “​I have earned enough to school me awhile, & have not I a right to do so, or must I go home, like a dutiful girl, place the money in father’s hands & then there goes all my hard earnings, within (cont. on pg. 7)

(cont. from pg 6) Girls desperate for a new life off the prison walls, my sleepless nights & gloomy days, farm, working in factory becomes & all for what, to benefit mother, to make her or disappointment too any member of our family happy?” By: Cashius perrot Though some girls have a bad experience, Girls from neighboring farms traveled to not all of them are unhappy with their jobs at the Lowell, MA to work in the mills, hoping to start a new life, but became upset by the awful working mills, There are occasionally concerts and other conditions they experienced. activities, and they get paid a decent $3 a week. In Lowell, Massachusetts, girls are traveling to Another wrote, “We had tea then went to our work in the mills .’it’s one of the first opportunities room and talked fast for a while till the streets for them to work off of the farm.The main reason that mill girls work is because they need money to were lit then we went out to the post-office & to come home with for their family’s. The mill girls walk.” are getting their first chance at work away from Most of the girls work to get money for home, good education and everything that women their family to survive, some do it because they usually don’t have the chance to do . While they work hard, the mill girls get treated poorly and have want to, and some do it because their family barely any pay, even when they work until their makes them. Whether they want to or not, the fingers bleed . Even though mill girls are treated living conditions are poor, and the pay isn’t unfairly. They still work and work and work all day . Recently the factory owners have cut the mill girls enough for most, so there is talk of a strike. The pay in half. A popular mill girl named Sally Rice girls are fed up and want to use their voices. wrote a story on her perspective of being a mill girl . Some people agree with them, saying that the Another mill girl complained about the machine girls should have better conditions and better she worked on: “it had to be watched in a dosen directions every minute. I felt as if the half-live pay, others think that the girls are in their place, creature with its great groaning joints and whizzing without power, and under the control of others. fans was aware of my incapacity to manage it” They were fed up and needed more pay and to get better education so they went on strike. Although the factory owners were mad, no mill girl had lost their jobs. They were ordered to go back to working at the mill. All of the women work hard each day.They still wake up the next day to the same pay, same education ​ and the same lousy conditions.

1834-1841 Page 8 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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Lowell mill girls go on Daily Life in a dangerous factory By Jules Parisi strike when bosses cut their pay. Women ages 15-35 in the Lowell mills under tough conditions. There are diseases,frequent injuries, By Ali Rosenwinkel long hours, and hot factory rooms. They only get paid In 1834, this very year, the Mill girls $1.25-$4.00 a week. Though they work for 6 days a down at Lowell organized a strike when week (having Sunday off) and for an average of 73 their bosses reduced their wages. But not hours a week and 12-14 hours a day. only was it there pay, their working They wake up in a cramped dormitory at first conditions were dreadful and they already bell. They have 4 other girls living with them in their were not getting paid enough for a dormitory, sleeping two to a bed. There is a fireplace regular lifestyle. Lowell Mills was very for warmth. Then a second bell rings signaling them to admired, but to the mill girls, it was like come and have breakfast. The housekeepers of the living in hell. , a Mill girl mill will prepare their meals. The Third bell rings and who is only 12 years old said she “hated the mill girls walk back to the mill. The girls work the the confinement noise and lint filled air”. looms and other machinery. When the mill girls were planning the The rooms in the factories are very hot because strike, they went to other mills to it needs to be the right temperature to make the cloth well. The smell in the air is bad due to all of the encourage others to join them in their machine oil. There are a lot of cotton fibers in the air, strike. They signed a petition and resulting in damage to the workers’ lungs. Brown lung channted “We will not go back to the is a common sickness among the mill workers because mills to work until our wages are of all the cotton they breath in constantly while working continued” in the mill. These machines are dangerous, workers The girls lost and the head of Lowell sometimes lose tips off their fingers in the machines. mills managed to get everything under After a lot of hard work the lunch bell rings. The control. The bosses had enough power workers go back to the boarding houses for a quick and resources to defeat the Mill girls. In lunch. The next bell rings and the workers go back to 1836 the mill girls tried another strike but the mill. They work until the last bell at 6:30pm. once again were overpowered and But many girls don't like the conditions. "I am nothing seemed to change. Many years going home where I will not be obliged to rise so early later around the 1840’s, the mill girls took in the morning,nor be dragged about by the ringing of a a different approach, political action. bell, nor confined in a close noisy room from morning They organized the Lowell Female Labor till night. I will not stay here,I am determined to go Reform Association and were able to home in a fortnight." says Ellen Collins a mill worker. reduce the working hours from 14 to 10. Some workers have protested. They working hard for a shorter work day and better conditions

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LOWELL MILL GIRLS DAILY LIFE UNFAIR By Pax Commons From the time the Lowell Mill opened (1823) and up until now, the Lowell Mill girls’ daily life shouldn’t have been legal. They’ve been required to work long hours and they’re all quite young. They are not treated well in general. The Mill girls daily life consists mostly of working, with a couple hours of relative freedom after dinner. They live in boarding houses, sleeping two or sometimes three to a bed. Each boarding house has 8 units, each as small and

uncomfortable as the last. There are around thirty women in each unit, usually two to three to a

room. Each day they wake up to a bell, have a quick breakfast, and get to work. Most of the

women or girls at Lowell Mills are in their twenties, though some range all the way down to 10 and up to 30. The really young ones work at the spinning frames taking off full bobbins and replacing them with new empty ones. Those girls generally work 15 minutes per hour, 14 hours a day, because of their job and because they're younger; this is not the same amount of time for an older girl. They get paid two dollars each week, which is pretty much nothing at all.

“I will not stay in Lowell any longer; I am determined to give my notice this very day.” That was Ellen Collins, who despised the Lowell mill. Despite the hardship of working in the mill, they still had a bit of extra time, and in that extra time the mill girls would follow interests that they had, taking walks, shopping, writing letters to families and other hobbies of the sort. Most of the lowell mill girls also came because they wanted to meet more girls their age.

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The Lowell Mill Girls Strike By Giovanni D’Amico

Young girls in Lowell, MA went on strike

because of poor working conditions in the factories.

Girls from farms in the Lowell area come to Lowell for an opportunity to make money and get

an education. When they start working to produce

cotton, woolen goods or shoes, they are forced to be in the factories for 11 hours a day with minimal breaks. Those factories have disgusting working

conditions, a very low wage of 3-4 dollars a week. Sometimes the air quality in the factories is too

dangerous to breathe! In addition, the mill girls have no rights. They can't decide anything for themselves or help make new rules. So they became fed up. The mill girls went on strike so they could have a liveable pay, more rights, and better working conditions. They are desperate because some mill girls need more money to support their families. But sadly the mill girls did not win and never got the rights they deserved. “I will not stay in Lowell any longer. I am determined to give my notice this very day,”said

Ellen Collins. The mill girls continued to voice this

displeasure, but the factory owner will not let them get better pay.

1834-1841 Page 11 The Philadelphia Inquirer

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The strike for better SARAH G. BAGLEY - women’s rights activist working conditions ​ ​ By Charles Rinker Sarah G Bagley was born in Candia, NH and more pay April 6th, 1806 to Nathan and Rhonda Witham Bagley.. After her family fell on hard times, she By Calvin Richter decided to move to Lowell, MA to make money for her family. In 1835, she decided to work at the Lowell 1836: Mill girls start a strike because of ​ Hamilton Mills. At that time she was 28 years old, bad working conditions and low pay. older than most of the other mill girls. After a while The working conditions in the mill are so bad of working there, she had a conflict with William that many people said,”It was basically slavery” ​ Schoulder, a known politician and journalist. She and ”it was child labor,” all because of the bad pay. realized that the working conditions weren’t good ​ ​ The bosses decided to cut the workers’ wages enough, so she decided to share the details of a completely which made the mill girls want to regular work day with the Lowell newspaper. That article was called Pleasantries of Factory Life. In protest and go on strike. In addition to this, mill ​ ​ girls often work 12 hour days with very little pay. October 1842, the State Rep William Schoulder, Some girls have even suffered some injuries while shut down The Lowell Offering because he didn’t like Ms. Bagley very much for exposing the working. A mill girl, Sarah Bagley, has worked to ​ ​ dangerous working conditions. It became clear get other girls on board with fighting for what’s that he was much more interested in corporations right. She is an activist for women’s rights. She than workers’ rights. According to Bagley, “Let no wants better working conditions, not just for her one suppose the factory girls are without but for every mill girl in the future, so she started a guardians. We are placed in the care of our strike for better pay. overseers who feel under moral obligations to look Some mill girls wanted to keep working and after our interests.” In November 1842, The ​ not start a union but others wanted better working Hamilton Mill Management made workers use two conditions so they could provide for their families. looms instead of one. The Mill girls staged a Though to start a strike you need a lot of people. walkout because they felt the workday was unfair This strike was the first union led strike by working and most of them got fired or blacklisted. ​ ​ women in American history. But, in the end the Sarah worked tirelessly to make 10 hours strike is unsuccessful and mills are working at full the maximum work day in Lowell, MA. She founded the Lowell Female Labor Reform capacity again. However, the strike has left a Association (LFLRA) and she became their first large dent in the industry resulting in less president. She also worked on women’s health employment and taught Lowell to stop treating care, prison reform, and women’s rights. She their workers badly. That's why Lowell went down believed that if they got all of these policies in history. passed, all of their lives would improve. But soon after the strikes she needed to return to work at the mills- that rat.