Starting in the 1820s, a group of business owners built textile mills in New England, where for the first time, people could use machines to weave cotton into cloth. The first factories recruited women from rural New England as their labor force.…

The Lowell Offering was a magazine written by the young women who worked in the Lowell textile mills. It was published from 1840 to 1845. The magazine was supported by the city’s textile companies, and it promoted morality and hard work among…

Lucy Larcom worked in the mills of Lowell as a young woman. Forty years later, she described her experiences in her book An Idyl of Work. She dedicated the book "to working women."

These worksheets help students analyze the Theodor Kaufmann painting On to Liberty. The graphic organizer included here can also be used to analyze the painting A Ride for Liberty by Eastman Johnson. The worksheets are included as part of Lessons in…

This worksheet helps students analyze the 1863 testimony of Captain C.B. Wilder, who attested to the impact of contraband slaves during the early years of the Civil War.

This worksheet helps students analyze the 1865 print Lincoln in Richmond.

This worksheet helps students analyze a letter from John Boston, a runaway slave during the Civil War, to his wife.

This worksheet helps students analyze a letter in which Lydia Maria Child describes Harriet Tubman's vivid allegory about the necessity of destroying slavery during the Civil War.

This worksheet helps students analyze an 1864 sketch of African-American troops, many of whom were former slaves, liberating slaves on a North Carolina plantation.

This worksheet helps students analyze Civil War photographs of a former slave who joined the Union military.