Lowell
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An Account of a Visitor to Lowell (1836)
We have lately visited the cities of Lowell [Massachusetts] and Manchester [New Hampshire] and have had an opportunity of
examining the factory system more closely than before. We had distrusted the accounts which we had heard from persons engaged in
the labor reform now beginning to agitate New England. We could scarcely credit the statements made in relation to the exhausting
nature of the labor in the mills, and to the manner in which the young women--the operatives--lived in their boardinghouses, six
sleeping in a room, poorly ventilated.
We went through many of the mills, talked particularly to a large number of the operatives, and ate at their boardinghouses, on
purpose to ascertain by personal inspection the facts of the case. We assure our readers that very little information is possessed, and no
correct judgments formed, by the public at large, of our factory system, which is the first germ of the industrial or commercial
feudalism that is to spread over our land. . . .
In Lowell live between seven and eight thousand young women, who are generally daughters of farmers of the different states of New
England. Some of them are members of families that were rich in the generation before. . . .
The operatives work thirteen hours a day in the summer time, and from daylight to dark in the winter. At half past four in the
morning the factory bell rings, and at five the girls must be in the mills. A clerk, placed as a watch, observes those who are a few
minutes behind the time, and effectual means are taken to stimulate to punctuality. This is the morning commencement of the
industrial discipline (should we not rather say industrial tyranny?) which is established in these associations of this moral and
Christian community.
At seven the girls are allowed thirty minutes for breakfast, and at noon thirty minutes more for dinner, except during the first quarter
of the year, when the time is extended to forty-five minutes. But within this time they must hurry to their boardinghouses and return to
the factory, and that through the hot sun or the rain or the cold. A meal eaten under such circumstances must be quite unfavorable to
digestion and health, as any medical man will inform us. At seven o'clock in the evening the factory bell sounds the close of the day's
work.
Thus thirteen hours per day of close attention and monotonous labor are exacted from the young women in these manufactories. . . .
So fatigued--we should say, exhausted and worn out, but we wish to speak of the system in the simplest language--are numbers of
girls that they go to bed soon after their evening meal, and endeavor by a comparatively long sleep to resuscitate their weakened
frames for the toil of the coming day.
When capital has got thirteen hours of labor daily out of a being, it can get nothing more. It would be a poor speculation in an
industrial point of view to own the operative; for the trouble and expense of providing for times of sickness and old age would more
than counterbalance the difference between the price of wages and the expense of board and clothing. The far greater number of
fortunes accumulated by the North in comparison with the South shows that hireling labor is more profitable for capital than slave
labor.
Now let us examine the nature of the labor itself, and the conditions under which it is performed. Enter with us into the large rooms,
when the looms are at work. The largest that we saw is in the Amoskeag Mills at Manchester. . . . The din and clatter of these five
hundred looms, under full operation, struck us on first entering as something frightful and infernal, for it seemed such an atrocious
violation of one of the faculties of the human soul, the sense of hearing. After a while we became somewhat inured to it, and by
speaking quite close to the ear of an operative and quite loud, we could hold a conversation and make the inquiries we wished.
The girls attend upon an average three looms; many attend four, but this requires a very active person, and the most unremitting care.
However, a great many do it. Attention to two is as much as should be demanded of an operative. This gives us some idea of the
application required during the thirteen hours of daily labor. The atmosphere of such a room cannot of course be pure; on the contrary,
it is charged with cotton filaments and dust, which, we are told, are very injurious to the lungs.
On entering the room, although the day was warm, we remarked that the windows were down. We asked the reason, and a young
woman answered very naïvely, and without seeming to be in the least aware that this privation of fresh air was anything else than
perfectly natural, that "when the wind blew, the threads did not work well." After we had been in the room for fifteen or twenty
minutes, we found ourselves, as did the persons who accompanied us, in quite a perspiration, produced by a certain moisture which we
observed in the air, as well as by the heat. . . .
The young women sleep upon an average six in a room, three beds to a room. There is no privacy, no retirement, here. It is almost
impossible to read or write alone, as the parlor is full and so many sleep in the same chamber. A young woman remarked to us that if
she had a letter to write, she did it on the head of a bandbox, sitting on a trunk, as there was no space for a table.
So live and toil the young women of our country in the boardinghouses and manufactories which the rich and influential of our land
have built for them.
***
SOURCE: The Harbinger, November 14, 1836
1836 Song Lyrics Sung by Protesting Workers at Lowell
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.
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Article from the Harbinger –
Orestes A. Brownson -- preacher, magazine editor, lecturer, reformer, socialist, Transcendentalist, and writer -- was an avid labor
reformer in the 1830s and 1840s. Here he argues that so-called "free labor" is far more oppressed than slave labor.
In regard to labor, two systems obtain: one that of slave labor, the other that of free labor. Of the two, the first is, in our judgment,
except so far as the feelings are concerned, decidedly the least oppressive. If the slave has never been a free man, we think, as a
general rule, his sufferings are less than those of the free laborer at wages. As to actual freedom, one has just about as much as the
other. The laborer at wages has all the disadvantages of freedom and none of its blessings, while the slave, if denied the blessings, is
freed from the disadvantages.
We are no advocates of slavery. We are as heartily opposed to it as any modern abolitionist can be. But we say frankly that, if there
must always be a laboring population distinct from proprietors and employers, we regard the slave system as decidedly preferable to
the system at wages.
It is no pleasant thing to go days without food; to lie idle for weeks, seeking work and finding none; to rise in the morning with a wife
and children you love, and know not where to procure them a breakfast; and to see constantly before you no brighter prospect than the
almshouse.
Yet these are no infrequent incidents in the lives of our laboring population. Even in seasons of general prosperity, when there was
only the ordinary cry of "hard times," we have seen hundreds of people in a not very populous village, in a wealthy portion of our
common country, suffering for the want of the necessaries of life, willing to work and yet finding no work to do. Many and many is
the application of a poor man for work, merely for his food, we have seen rejected. These things are little thought of, for the applicants
are poor; they fill no conspicuous place in society, and they have no biographers. But their wrongs are chronicled in heaven.
It is said there is no want in this country. There may be less in some other countries. But death by actual starvation in this country is,
we apprehend, no uncommon occurrence. The sufferings of a quiet, unassuming but useful class of females in our cities, in general
seamstresses, too proud to beg or to apply to the almshouse, are not easily told. They are industrious; they do all that they can find to
do. But yet the little there is for them to do, and the miserable pittance they receive for it, is hardly sufficient to keep soul and body
together.
And yet there is a man who employs them to make shirts, trousers, etc., and grows rich on their labors. He is one of our respectable
citizens, perhaps is praised in the newspapers for his liberal donations to some charitable institution. He passes among us as a pattern
of morality and is honored as a worthy Christian. And why should he not be, since our Christian community is made up of such as he,
and since our clergy would not dare question his piety lest they should incur the reproach of infidelity and lose their standing and their
salaries? . . .
The average life--working life, we mean--of the girls that come to Lowell, for instance, from Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont,
we have been assured, is only about three years. What becomes of them then? Few of them ever marry; fewer still ever return to their
native places with reputations unimpaired. "She has worked in a factory" is almost enough to damn to infamy the most worthy and
virtuous girl. . . .
Where go the proceeds of their labors? The man who employs them, and for whom they are toiling as so many slaves, is one of our
city nabobs, reveling in luxury; or he is a member of our legislature, enacting laws to put money in his own pocket; or he is a member
of Congress, contending for a high tariff to tax the poor for the benefit of the rich; or in these times he is shedding crocodile tears over
the deplorable condition of the poor laborer, while he docks his wages 25 percent. . . . And this man too would fain pass for a
Christian and a republican. He shouts for liberty, stickles for equality, and is horrified at a Southern planter who keeps slaves.
One thing is certain: that, of the amount actually produced by the operative, he retains a less proportion than it costs the master to feed,
clothe, and lodge his slave. Wages is a cunning device of the devil, for the benefit of tender consciences who would retain all the
advantages of the slave system without the expense, trouble, and odium of being slaveholders.
***
SOURCE: Boston Quarterly Review 3 (1840): 368-370.
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Recruitment of Female Operatives -- an Account from the 1840s
We were not aware, until within a few days, of the modus operandi of the factory powers in this village of forcing poor girls from their
quiet homes to become their tools and, like the Southern slaves, to give up their life and liberty to the heartless tyrants and
taskmasters.
Observing a singular-looking "long, low, black" wagon passing along the street, we made inquiries respecting it, and were informed
that it was what we term a "slaver." She makes regular trips to the north of the state [Massachusetts], cruising around in Vermont and
New Hampshire, with a "commander" whose heart must be as black as his craft, who is paid a dollar a head for all he brings to the
market, and more in proportion to the distance--if they bring them from such a distance that they cannot easily get back.
This is done by "hoisting false colors," and representing to the girls that they can tend more machinery than is possible, and that the
work is so very neat, and the wages such that they can dress in silks and spend half their time in reading. Now, is this true? Let those
girls who have been thus deceived, answer.
Let us say a word in regard to the manner in which they are stowed in the wagon, which may find a similarity only in the manner in
which slaves are fastened in the hold of a vessel. It is long, and the seats so close that it must be very inconvenient.
Is there any humanity in this? Philanthropists may talk of Negro slavery, but it would be well first to endeavor to emancipate the
slaves at home. Let us not stretch our ears to catch the sound of the lash on the flesh of the oppressed black while the oppressed in our
very midst are crying out in thunder tones, and calling upon us for assistance.
***
Source: Voice of Industry, January 2, 1846
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The Lowell Mill Girls Go on Strike, 1836
by Harriet Hanson Robinson
A group of Boston capitalists built a major textile manufacturing center in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the second quarter of the 19th
century. The first factories recruited women from rural New England as their labor force. These young women, far from home, lived
in rows of boardinghouses adjacent to the growing number of mills. The industrial production of textiles was highly profitable,and the
number of factories in Lowell and other mill towns increased. More mills led to overproduction, which led to a drop in prices and
profits. Mill owners reduced wages and speeded up the pace of work. The young female operatives organized to protest these wage
cuts in 1834 and 1836. Harriet Hanson Robinson was one of those factory operatives; she began work in Lowell at the age of ten,
later becoming an author and advocate of women’s suffrage. In 1898 she published Loom and Spindle, a memoir of her Lowell
experiences, where she recounted the strike of 1836.
One of the first strikes of cotton-factory operatives that ever took place in this country was that in Lowell, in October, 1836. When it
was announced that the wages were to be cut down, great indignation was felt, and it was decided to strike, en masse. This was done.
The mills were shut down, and the girls went in procession from their several corporations to the “grove” on Chapel Hill, and listened
to “incendiary” speeches from early labor reformers.
One of the girls stood on a pump, and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to
resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused
surprise and consternation among her audience.
Cutting down the wages was not their only grievance, nor the only cause of this strike. Hitherto the corporations had paid twenty—
five cents a week towards the board of each operative, and now it was their purpose to have the girls pay the sum; and this, in addition
to the cut in the wages, would make a difference of at least one dollar a week. It was estimated that as many as twelve or fifteen
hundred girls turned out, and walked in procession through the streets. They had neither flags nor music, but sang songs, a favorite
(but rather inappropriate) one being a parody on “I won’t be a nun. ”
"Oh! isn’t it a pity, such a pretty girl as IShould be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh ! I cannot be a slave,
I will not be a slave,
For I’m so fond of liberty
That I cannot be a slave."
My own recollection of this first strike (or “turn out” as it was called) is very vivid. I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the
proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed; I had been an ardent listener to what was said against this attempt at “oppression”
on the part of the corporation, and naturally I took sides with the strikers. When the day came on which the girls were to turn out,
those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room
stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, “Would you? ” or “Shall we turn out?” and not one of them 1laving the
courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying,
with childish bravado, "I don’t care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;‘’ and I marched out, and
was followed by the others.
As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I have ever been since at any success I may have achieved,
and more proud than I shall ever be again until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage.
The agent of the corporation where I then worked took some small revenges on the supposed ringleaders; on the principle of sending
the weaker to the wall, my mother was turned away from her boarding-house, that functionary saying,“Mrs. Hanson, you could not
prevent the older girls from turning out, but your daughter is a child, and her you could control.”
It is hardly necessary to say that so far as results were concerned this strike did no good. The dissatisfaction of the operatives subsided,
or burned itself out, and though the authorities did not accede to their demands, the majority returned to their work, and the
corporation went on cutting down the wages.
And after a time, as the wages became more and more reduced, the best portion of the girls left and went to their homes, or to the other
employments that were fast opening to women, until there were very few of the old guard left; and thus the status of the factory
population of New England gradually became what we know it to be to-day.
Source: Harriet Hanson Robinson, Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls (New York, T. Y. Crowell, 1898), 83–86.
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“We Call On You to Deliver Us From the Tyrant’s Chain”: Lowell Women Workers Campaign for a Ten Hour Workday
The burgeoning textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, brought increasing competition among the owners and declining conditions for
the workers. In the 1830s the women working in the mills turned to economic protests and collective action; their “turn outs” or
strikes proved unsuccessful in combating the wage cuts. In the 1840s mill workers turned to political organization as they mounted
annual petition campaigns calling on the state legislature to limit the hours of labor within the mills. These campaigns reached their
height in 1845 and 1846, when 2,000 and 5,000 operatives respectively signed petitions. to reduce the hours of labor in the mills.
Women operatives organized the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association in 1845. An important part of the campaign was their
periodical The Voice of Industry. Another publication, Factory Tracts, was part of their effort to expose conditions in the mills and
advocate a ten hour day. Male mechanics and other workers in industrial communities joined the Lowell women operatives'
campaign.
Factory Tracts. Factory Life as it Is. By an Operative
INTRODUCTION.
PHILANTHROPISTS of the nineteenth century!—shall not the operatives of our country be permitted to speak for themselves? Shall
they be compelled to listen in silence to [ ] who speak for gain, and are the mere echo of the will of the corporations? Shall the worthy
laborer be awed into silence by wealth and power, and for fear of being deprived of the means of procuring his daily bread? Shall
tyranny and cruel oppression be allowed to rived the chains of physical and mental slavery on the millions of our country who are
thereal producers of all its improvements and wealth, and they fear to speak out in noble self-defence? Shall they fear to appeal to the
sympathies of the people, or the justice of this far-famed republican nation? God forbid!
Much has been written and spoken in woman’s behalf, especially in America; and yet a large class of females are, and have been,
destined to a state of servitude as degrading as unceasing toil can make it. I refer to the female operatives of New England—
the freestates of our union—the states where no colored slave can breathe the balmy air, and exist as such;—but yet there are those, a
host of them, too, who are in fact nothing more nor less than slaves in every sense of the word! Slaves to a system of labor which
requires them to toil from five until seven o’clock, with one hour only to attend to the wants of nature, allowed—slaves to the will and
requirements of the “powers that be,” however they may infringe on the rights or conflict with the feelings of the operative—slaves to
ignorance—and how can it be otherwise? What time has the operative to bestow on moral, religious or intellectual culture? How can
our country look for aught but ignorance and vice, under the existing state of things? When the whole system is exhausted by
unremitting labor during twelve and thirteen hours per day, can any reasonable being expect that the mind will retain its vigor and
energy? Impossible! Common sense will each every one the utter impossibility of improving the mind under these circumstances,
however great the desire may be for knowledge.
Again, we hear much said on the subject of benevolence among the wealthy and so called, christian part of community. Have we not
cause to question the sincerity of those who, while they talk benevolence in the parlor, compel their help to labor for a mean, paltry
pittance in the kitchen? And while they manifest great concern for the souls of the heathen in distant lands, care nothing for the bodies
and intellects of those within their own precincts? Shall we esteem men honest in their pretensions to piety and benevolence, who
compel their help to labor on the Sabbath day or lose their situation? Have they made their regulations hold up to the world a large
amount of piety, and a great desire that those in their employ shall be religious—so much so that they have made a corporation law,
that “no one shall be retained in their employ who is not a constant attendant on public worship.” Will those who are obliged to hear
the noise and confusion caused by some fifty or more men, with teams of oxen, and all the noise consequent on such occasions,
together with splitting and blasting of rock, to their great annoyance while in their places of worship—will these be deceived by such
hypocritical pretensions of piety, and love to the moral interests of the community in which they live? What is and must be, the
tendency of such examples on those who are familiar with such violations of the day called the christian Sabbath, but to throw off all
restraint, and make the Sabbath a pastime, or a day in which the weary operatives may attend to their own private business? Such
examples have alreadyproduced such results, and the end is not yet.
As philanthropists and lovers of equal rights, we address our readers; and before we close this series of tracts, (which will consist of
some three or four numbers,) we intend to give a fair exposition of the regulations of the “factory system,” its operations and abuses,
the grand results of protection given to industry, including the low price paid for board and wages—the long hours for labor, with its
effects on the health of the operatives, and some other "facts for the million, &c. &c.
An Operative.
...
SOME OF THE BEAUTIES OF OUR FACTORY SYSTEM—-OTHERWISE, LOWELL SLAVERY.
For the purpose of illustration, let us go with that light-hearted, joyous young girl who is about for the first time to leave the home of
her childhood; that home around which clusters so many beautiful and holy associations, pleasant memories, and quiet joys; to leave,
too, a mother’s cheerful smile, a father’s care and protection; and wend her way toward this famed “city of spindles,” this promised
land of the imagination, in whose praise she has doubtless heard so much.
Let us trace her progress during her first year’s residence, and see whether she indeed realizes those golden prospects which have been
held out to her. Follow her now as she enters that large gloomy looking building—she is in search of employment, and has been told
that she might here obtain an eligible situation. She is sadly wearied with her journey, and withal somewhat annoyed by the noise,
confusion, and strange faces all around her. So, after a brief conversation with the overseer, she concludes to accept the first situation
which offers; and reserving to herself a sufficient portion of time in which to obtain the necessary rest after her unwonted exertions,
and the gratification of a stranger’s curiosity regarding the place in which she is now to make her future home, she retires to her
boarding house, to arrange matters as much to her mind as may be.
The intervening time passes rapidly away, and she soon finds herself once more within the confines of that close noisy apartment, and
is forthwith installed in her new situation—first, however, premising that she has been sent to the Counting-room, and receives
therefrom a Regulation paper, containing the rules by which she must be governed while in their employ; and lo! Here is the
beginning of mischief; for in addition to the tyranous and oppressive rules which meet her astonished eyes, she finds herself
compelled to remain for the space of twelve months in the very place she then occupies, however reasonable and just cause of
complaint might be hers, or however strong the wish for dismission; thus, in fact, constituting herself a slave, a very slave to the
caprices of him for whom she labors. Several incidents coming to the knowledge of the writer, might be somewhat interesting in this
connection, as tending to show the prejudicial influence exerted upon the interests of the operative by this unjust requisition. The first
is of a lady who has been engaged as an operative for a number of years, and recently entered a weaving room on the Massachusetts
Corporation; the overseer having assured her previous to her entrance, that she should receive the sum of $2,25 per week, exclusive of
board; which she finding it impossible to do, appealed to the Counting-room for a line enabling her to engage elsewhere, but it was
peremptorily refused.
The next is of a more general bearing, concerning quite a number of individuals employed on the Lawrence Corporation, where the
owners have recently erected and put in motion a new mill, at the same time stopping one of the old, in which said persons were
employed. Now as they did not voluntarily leave their situations, but were discharged therefrom on account of suspension of
operations by the company; they had an undoubted right to choose their own place of labor; and as the work in the new mill is vastly
more laborious, and the wages less than can be obtained in many parts of the city, they signified their wish to go elsewhere, but are
insolently told that they shall labor there or not at all: and will not be released until their year has expired, when if the
can possibly findno further excuse for delay, they may deign to bestow upon them what is in common parlance termed, a “regular
discharge;” thus enabling them to pass from one prison house to another. Concerning this precious document, it is only necessary to
say, that it very precisely reminds one of that which the dealers in human flesh at the South are wont to give and receive as the transfer
of one piece of property from one owner to another.
Now, reader, what think you? is not this the height of the beautiful? and are not we operatives an ungrateful set of creatures that we do
not properly appreciate, and be highly thankful for such unparalleled generosity on the part of our employers!
But to return to our toiling Maiden,—the next beautiful feature which she discovers in this glorious system is, the long number of
hours which she is obliged to spend in the above named close, unwholesome apartment. It is not enough, that like the poor peasant of
Ireland, or the Russian serf who labors from sun to sun, but during one half of the year, she must still continue to toil on, long after
Nature’s lamp has ceased to lend its aid—nor will even this suffice to satisfy the grasping avarice of her employer; for she is also
through the winter months required to rise, partake of her morning meal, and be at her station in the mill, while the sun is yet sleeping
behind the eastern hills; thus working on an average, at least twelve hours and three fourths per day, exclusive of the time allotted for
her hasty meals, which is in winter simply one half hour at noon,—in the spring is allowed the same at morn, and during the summer
is added 15 minutes to the half hour at noon. Then too, when she is at last released from her wearisome day’s toil, still may she not
depart in peace. No! her footsteps must be dogged to see that they do not stray beyond the corporation limits, and she must, whether
she will or no, be subjected to the manifold inconveniences of a large crowded boarding-house, where too, the price paid for her
accommodation is so utterly insignificant, that it will not ensure to her the common comforts of life; she is obliged to sleep in a small
comfortless, half ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants each, but no matter, she is an operative—it is all well
enough for her; there is no “abuse” about it; no, indeed; so think our employers,—but do we think so? time will show.
Here, too, comes up a case which strikingly illustrates the petty tyranny of the employer. A little girl, some 12 or 13 years of age, the
daughter of a poor widow, dependent on her daily toil for a livelihood, worked on one of the Corporations, boarding with her mother;
who dying left her to the care of an aunt, residing but a few steps from the Corporation—but the poor creature all unqualified as she
was, to provide for her own wants, was compelled to leave her home and the motherly care bestowed upon her, and enter one of these
same large crowded boarding-houses. We do but give the facts in this case and they need no comment for every one must see the utter
heartlesness which prompted such conduct toward a mere child.
Reader will you pronounce this a mere fancy sketch, written for the sake of effect? It is not so. It is a real picture of “Factory life;” nor
is it one half so bad as might truthfully and justly have been drawn. But it has been asked, and doubtless will be again, why, if these
evils are so aggravating, have they been so long and so peacefully borne? Ah! and why have they? It is a question well worthy of our
consideration, and we would call upon every operative in our city, aye, throughout the length and breadth of the land, to awake from
the lethargy which has fallen upon them, and assert and maintain their rights. We will call upon you for action— united and immediate
action. But, says one, let us wait till we are stronger. In the language of one of old, we ask, when shall we be stronger? Will it be the
next week, or the next year? Will it be when we are reduced to the servile condition of the poor operatives of England? for verily we
shall be and that right soon, if matters be suffered to remain as they are. Says another, how shall we act? we are but one amongst a
thousand, what shall we do that our influence may be felt in this vast multitude? We answer, there is in this city an Association called
the Female Labor Reform Association, having for its professed object, the amelioration of the condition of the operative. Enrolled
upon its records are the names of five hundred members—come then, and add thereto five hundred or rather five thousand more, and
in the strength of our united influence we will soon show these drivelling cotton lords, this mushroon aristocracy of New England,
who so arrogantly aspire to lord it over God’s heritage, that our rights cannot be trampled upon with impunity; that we WILL not
longer submit to that arbitrary power which has for the last ten years been so abundantly exercised over us.
One word ere we close, to the hardy independent yeomanry and mechanics, among the Granite Hills of New Hampshire, the woody
forests of Maine, the cloud capped mountains of Vermont, and the busy, bustling towns of the old Bay State—ye! who have daughters
and sisters toiling in these sickly prison-houses which are scattered far and wide over each of these States, we appeal to you for aid in
this matter. Do you ask how that aid can be administered? We answer through the Ballot Box. Yes! if you have one spark of sympathy
for our condition, carry it there, and see to it that you send to preside in the Councils of each Commonwealth, men who have hearts as
well as heads, souls as well bodies; men who will watch zealously over the interests of the laborer in every department; who will
protect him by the strong arm of the law from the encroachments of arbitrary power; who will see that he is not deprived of those
rights and privileges which God and Nature have bestowed upon him—yes,
From every rolling river,
From mountain, vale and plain,
We call on you to deliver
Us, from the tyrant’s chain:
And shall we call in vain? we trust not. More anon. AMELIA.
Source: Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is, Number One, [(Lowell, MA, 1845)].
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1834 Boston Transcript reports on the Strike
"We learn that extraordinary excitement was occasioned at Lowell, last week, by an announcement that the
wages paid in some of the departments would be reduced 15 percent on the 1st of March. The reduction
principally affected the female operatives, and they held several meetings, or caucuses, at which a young
woman presided, who took an active part in persuading her associates to give notice that they should quit the
mills, and to induce them to 'make a run' on the Lowell Bank and the Savings Bank, which they did. On Friday
morning, the young woman referred to was dismissed, by the Agent...and on leaving the office...waved her
calash in the air, as a signal to the others, who were watching from the windows, when they immediately 'struck'
and assembled about her, in despite of the overseers.
"The number soon increased to nearly 800. A procession was formed, and they marched about the town, to the
amusement of a mob of idlers and boys, and we are sorry to add, not altogether to the credit of Yankee
girls....We are told that one of the leaders mounted a stump and made a flamingMary Wollstonecraft speech on
the rights of women and the iniquities of the 'monied aristocracy,' which produced a powerful effect on her
auditors, and they determined to 'have their way if they died for it.'"
Poem that Concluded Lowell Women Workers' 1834 Petition to the Manufacturers
Let
oppression
shrug
her
shoulders,
And
a
haughty
tyrant
frown,
And
little
upstart
Ignorance,
In
mockery
look
down.
Yet
I
value
not
the
feeble
threats
Of
Tories
in
disguise,
While
the
flag
of
Independence
O'er
our
noble
nation
flies.