Lowell Strikers Sing
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. [...]
"Song of the Spinners"
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 the [...]
Time Table of the Lowell Mills
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 [...]
To Strike or Not to Strike in 1830s Lowell: A Role Play
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 [...]
Daughters of Free Men Active Viewing worksheets
These worksheets guide students as they watch the short film Daughters of Free Men.
Daughters of Free Men Script Excerpts
The following excerpts are taken from the script for Daughters of Free Men, which was written by the American Social History Project.
Daughters of Free Men Script Excerpts (with text supports)
The following excerpts are taken from the script for Daughters of Free Men, which was written by the American Social History Project.
A Former Lowell Girl Remembers Working in the Mills
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.
A Former Lowell Girl Remembers Working in the Mills (with text supports)
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.
Regulations of the Middlesex Company and Its Boarding Houses
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.