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| A view of the Lowell Mills during the Industrial Revolution. http://abudiphotography.com/pa/wp-content/uploads/2013/12/lowellmills-21.jpg |
Many young girls in the United States made the same bold decision during the Industrial Revolution - to leave their families and to begin work at the Lowell Mills. This choice was influenced by men who came to family farms just to recruit the girls to their mills. These men made the mills sound like the perfect place to grow up, and convinced most families to let their children go. One of these children, Lucy Hall, was featured in a documentary I watched in class (link below). The men who ran the mills were motivated to recruit girls as workers because they were obedient because of their young age, and were a cheap labor force. They chose girls over boys because boys were needed on farms to help their parents run them. Many families let their girls go to Lowell for work because they knew the girls would care for the money they earned and would send it home to help them, and knew it was a good opportunity for the girls to be independent and earn money to buy things like clothes for themselves. This decision to work in Lowell had some benefits and some costs, but the girls enjoyed working there most of the time.
The girls liked working in Lowell, even though there were an equal amount of costs and benefits for the situation. Some costs were health problems, injuries, being away from family, pollution, and unfair treatment from overseers and mill owners. Most girls in the factories became ill at least once during their time in Lowell, because diseases spread quickly with so may children there to pass them on. Also, girls received terrible injuries from machinery, and certain physical deformities were common amongst workers. Children got "knock knees," when their knees gave way and turned inwards, they had weakness in joints they used often such as their wrists, and the arches in their feet would give out. Girls also missed their families while working in Lowell, and became ill from the pollution in the city. When overseers thought that they weren't working to their best ability, then the children, especially young ones, were beaten hard until they appeared hurt, or even dead. Some benefits of the Lowell Experiment were independence, food and boarding, a good way to get money for families and girls, education, and the idea of family figures. In Lowell, girls were able to rely on themselves more and be independent. They received food and boarding for working there and met friends, who lived in the boarding houses with them. After they payed for things they needed, girls would send extra money to their families to help them. If the girls had money left over after that, they would get products that they wanted for themselves. It was law in Lowell for girls to be educated at least three months per year, so mill girls became smarter than they had been back home. The figures in the mill became like a second family to the children. Girls were like siblings to one another, and the overseers and mill owners were like parents, who enforced the rules. The mills were both a fun and dangerous place to live, and many girls liked it there.
The opportunities for women and restrictions on their working lives changed many people's attitudes towards women during the 19th century. Before the Industrial Revolution, people thought that women were supposed to stay home, do the cooking and cleaning, and raise their children. The Lowell Experiment ended around the beginning of the Civil War, and around this time people's opinions of women were changed. The factories ended before the Civil War because there was an increase in immigration, which provided a cheap labor force, so living and working conditions deteriorated in Lowell. Although the mills became inactive, the mill girls changed people's opinions on women because they lived away from their home and parents, were educated, wrote about their experience to the public, and participated in labor reform. This new opinion on women is still effective today, and many mill girls went on to become outspoken abolitionists and women's rights activists. The Lowell mill girls had a unique experience while working in the factories, and changed the opinion of women for good.
Link to the website of the documentary we watched in class : "Daughters of Free Men"
http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/daughters-of-free-men/
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