A Former Mill Girl Remembers the Lowell Strike of 1836
Labor Activism
Work
Harriet Hanson Robinson began work in Lowell at the age of ten, later becoming an author and advocate of women's suffrage. In 1834 and 1836, the mill owners reduced wages, increased the pace of work, and raised the rent for the boardinghouses. The young female workers went on strike (they called it “turning out” then) to protest the decrease in wages and increase in rent. In 1898 Robinson published a memoir of her Lowell experiences where she describes the strike of 1836.
Harriet Hanson Robinson
Harriet Hanson Robinson, <em>Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls</em> (New York, T. Y. Crowell, 1898), 83–86, from <em>History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web</em>, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5714/.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1898
1808, 1822
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
Regulations of the Middlesex Company and Its Boarding Houses (with text supports)
Work
The Lowell textile factories, and the boarding houses where they required their female workers to live, had strict rules. The women accepted these rules and even helped enforce them.
Samuel Lawrence
Samuel Lawrence, 1 July 1846; Tsongas Industrial History Center and Center for Lowell History, http://www.uml.edu/tsongas/bringing-history-home/page_00/index.htm.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1846
1808, 1819
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
Regulations of the Middlesex Company and Its Boarding Houses
Work
The Lowell textile factories, and the boarding houses where they required their female workers to live, had strict rules. The women accepted these rules and even helped enforce them.
Samuel Lawrence
Samuel Lawrence, 1 July 1846; Tsongas Industrial History Center and Center for Lowell History, http://www.uml.edu/tsongas/bringing-history-home/page_00/index.htm.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1846
1808, 1820
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
A Former Lowell Girl Remembers Working in the Mills (with text supports)
Work
Lucy Larcom worked in the mills at Lowell as a young woman. In her memoir, written more than forty years later, she remembered how she and other young female mill workers felt about their jobs.
Lucy Larcom
Lucy Larcom, <em>A New England Girlhood</em> (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1889).
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1889
1808, 1817
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
A Former Lowell Girl Remembers Working in the Mills
Work
Lucy Larcom worked in the mills at Lowell as a young woman. In her memoir, written more than forty years later, she remembered how she and other young female mill workers felt about their jobs.
Lucy Larcom
Lucy Larcom, <em>A New England Girlhood</em> (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1889).
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1889
1808, 1818
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
<em>Daughters of Free Men</em> Script Excerpts (with text supports)
Work
The following excerpts are taken from the script for <em><a href="The following excerpts are taken from the script for Daughters of Free Men, which was written by the American Social History Project. " target="_blank">Daughters of Free Men,</a></em> which was written by the American Social History Project.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2011
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.
1808, 1815
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
<em>Daughters of Free Men</em> Script Excerpts
Work
The following excerpts are taken from the script for <em><a href="http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/daughters-of-free-men/" target="_blank">Daughters of Free Men</a></em>, which was written by the American Social History Project.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2011
1808, 1816
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
<em>Daughters of Free Men</em> Active Viewing worksheets
Labor Activism
Work
These worksheets guide students as they watch the short film <em><a href="http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/daughters-of-free-men/" target="_blank">Daughters of Free Men</a></em>.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2011
Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
<div><a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/"><img style="border-width:0" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a rel="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.</div>
1813
English
To Strike or Not to Strike in 1830s Lowell: A Role Play
Labor Activism
Work
In this activity students perform a role play of a talk show between Lowell workers and factory owners. To research their characters, students analyze primary sources. This activity is used to teach with the film Daughters of Free Men, but can be completed without the film.
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning, 2011.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
2011
Copyright American Social History Project/Center for Media and Learning
<div><a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license"><img style="border-width: 0;" src="http://i.creativecommons.org/l/by-nc-nd/3.0/88x31.png" alt="Creative Commons License" /></a><br />This work is licensed under a <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/3.0/" rel="license">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License</a>.</div>
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)
Time Table of the Lowell Mills
Work
The young farm women who worked in the Lowell textile mills were used to hard work, but working the large, noisy mills was different. On the farm, women had controlled their own work schedule, and they did may different tasks. In the mill, women did one task over and over again. Factory owners now controlled the speed and hours of work.
Unknown
Time Table of the Lowell Mills, Merrimack Valley Textile Museum, from Uses of Liberty Rhetoric Among Lowell Mill Girls, http://www.library.csi.cuny.edu/dept/americanstudies/lavender/lowell.html.
American Social History Project / Center for Media and Learning
1853 (Circa)
1808
English
Antebellum America (1816-1860)