The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove

by William Moran

A book review by Priscilla Kron

March 2009

“The rivers of New England long ago ceased to generate power for the mill machines that clothed the world. Now, on warm, sun-filled days, the rivers carry people in canoes and kayaks as they explore the old industrial waterways…In the distance, they see the deserted mills, with weeds reaching up to shattered windows and gloomy interiors.” (p. 243) Such are the vast, empty, brick buildings as they are seen today. But what of the life that once inhabited them, the thousands of workers from near and far who lent their life blood to those walls?

Traveling the winding roads from New York City to Maine, William Moran asked himself just that question. With a newsman’s eye for detail and a journalist’s passion for a story, Moran spent six years researching and writing The Belles of New England: The Women of the Textile Mills and the Families Whose Wealth They Wove. Having been a writer for the CBS Evening News and CBS Sunday Morning for some twenty years, he knows the importance and the value of an in-depth report. For those of us who have probably enjoyed his stories during one of those programs, this book is not a disappointment.

Many people, especially those with an interest in U. S. history, have some limited knowledge of the “Lowell girls”, those many young women who ventured beyond their rural fences or city streets to live the life of an independent worker during the 1800s. These same people may have seen pictures of young girls beside looms or spindles or of the massive buildings that dominated a mill city. They may even have read an account or two written by a young woman employed at one of the many mills. That knowledge, however, is quite focused and narrow. Moran’s book, on the other hand, delivers a much broader, more complete social history of the more than one hundred years during which the mills flourished.

In 1814 Francis Cabot Lowell began to build an empire in Waltham, Massachusetts that would forever change the textile industry. Though its roots were there, the industry would expand throughout New England and later into the South. It would attract not only young girls from New England families, but Irish immigrants, French-Canadian immigrants, and many other Europeans escaping their own harsh, industrial landscape.

Weaving together historical record, quotations from business owners, journals of mill workers, and newspaper reports of the time, Moran successfully describes the initial attraction of the mills in the 1820s and 1830s. In “The Glory of the Nation”, the first chapter, he creates the world of the mill girls – the boardinghouses, the regulations and the daily schedule, the doctors who attended them, the evening lectures they attended. To bring this environment to life, Moran intersperses writings by the women themselves, such as “Despite the toil we all agree/Out of the mill or in/Dependent on other we ne’er will be/As long as we’re able to spin.” (p. 28) With his background in journalism not far behind him, Moran is also careful to present information about the dissension and the opposition to the mills that developed, including extensive background on women leaders such as Sarah Bagley who, in 1844, helped form the Lowell Female Labor Reform organization. (p. 35) As evidence of the issue of wages, for example, Moran presents excerpts from a log kept by the treasurer of New Bedford Steam Company, a textile mill. (p. 38)

Of course, no narrative of the mills would be complete without the viewpoint of the owners. Moran writes a thorough chapter on “The Lords of the Loom”, the Lowells, the Cabots, the Appletons, the Lawrences, the Boston Associates, and the Boston Brahmins. The latter two groups were Boston aristocracy who financially aided and politically protected the textile empires. As the empires grew, the need for cotton increased as well. “The wheels of the cotton factories revolved at a furious pace, and the Southern slave drivers plied the whips to feed the Yankee mills with Southern cotton. The more the prosperity of New England came to depend on cotton, the closer the propertied classes drew to the Southern planters…” (p. 59) Using the words of abolitionists, reporters of the time, and letters from such individuals as Longfellow and Emerson, Moran adequately explains the slavery debate of the day. He makes it clear that the success of the mills and the demand for slavery were inextricably bound to one another.

As cotton production expanded, the mills were in need of more workers and Hugh Cummisky, a native of Ireland, arranged the arrival from Ireland of hundreds more laborers for the mills. (p. 75) The immigrants poured into New England, often much to the dismay of the Americans. Moran does a nice job of presenting various reactions of supporters and dissenters alike. Again he relies on writing from the time – journals, newspapers, poetry, novels – to provide the reader with some of the more human aspects of the lives of these immigrants. As a result of their presence, “the Irish Catholics changed the face of New England. By 1860, just 15 years after the Great Famine began, 60% of the people in Lowell, Lawrence, Fall River, and Boston were foreign born, and most of them were Irish. Native New Englanders heard plenty of their blarney.” (p. 99) In January 1860, the Irish suffered immensely when the Pemberton Mill collapsed and burned. Moran allows the reader to see the tragedy primarily through reports of the day. Despite the obvious risks involved, the Irish continued working in mills for more than 60 years.

Further north, Franco-Americans from Canada, found work in the mills. Moran gives a glimpse of the struggles they encountered in song: “Where are you going? – to the States/You are headed for poverty/Turn around, don’t go there!” (p. 115) As he relates their experiences, he comments that they were not alone, “the streets were crowded with people speaking many languages.” (p. 122) Greeks, Armenians, Poles, Russians, Italians, and Jews joined them. So many in fact, that the constant tide of immigration contributed to the rise of the Ku Klux Klan in 1915. (p. 122) Conditions in the mills gave way to the establishment of unions, the United Textile Workers Union and the Independent Textile Workers. One of the benefits of Moran’s book is this recognition of the importance of the mills and their workers in the development of labor organizations. Throughout the text he mentions strikes and the women and men who organized the workers, standing by them as they sought to improve their conditions.

In two critical chapters, “Wretched Refuse” and “Fighting for Roses”, Moran’s reporting skills become evident. He draws on the many sources he consulted to describe how the mills were changing for the worse. He quotes girls and older women who were working in the mills and cites articles from the day that referred to their plight. “Newspaper coverage of them was outrageous. The Lawrence Tribune reported a crime story in 1911 with the headline: ‘Murderous Dago Shot to Kill.’” (p. 153) As life in the mill deteriorated, labor protests spread. However, for the workers themselves “The mill agents still ruled their lives. The agent could make or break them, and workers who got in trouble on the job had to beg for his mercy.” (p. 159)

At the turn of the century, the industrial giants dominated America, and the needs of the textile workers seemed insignificant. Strikes were prevalent. Labor violence increased. The Industrial Workers of the World (IWW or Wobblies) “struck fear in the hearts of industrialists and many other Americans.” (p. 168) Although Moran does present a few instances of mill bosses who were humane and generous, most were not. As a result, the textile workers turned to “Elizabeth Gurley Flynn, the IWW’s star strike organizer.” (p. 170) It is significant that Moran includes in this history the strike at the Everett Mill in Lawrence, Massachusetts in 1912. It united women workers around fair pay and decent working conditions. As he so effectively shows with his wide variety of resources, this strike had enormous importance in labor history. “In History of Labor in the United States” [the authors] wrote that the strike taught the AFL that it had to pay more attention to the needs of powerless workers.” (p. 217)

During the next 50 years those same mills were to grind to silence. Some of the largest moved to the south; others abandoned the huge buildings altogether. Moran thoughtfully wraps up his story by using quotes from many interviews with women and men who had worked in the mills themselves or who had relatives who had. Once again, he retains the personal touch that has permeated the entire text. Commenting on the American Textile History Museum, Ray Fremmer wrote, “I saw my grandparents, great-grandparents, and parents, all their brothers and sisters, dehydrated of every creative human impulse by giving their working lives to the very same mills the [Museum] now seeks to glorify.” Madalyn Donahue replied ‘No, Mr. Fremmer, their spirit lives on.’” (p. 241)

Today, in Lowell, tourists walk through boardinghouses, mill rooms, and the museum in an old brick mill that commemorates this early factory life. Today, the mills of New England are but hollow shells. Perhaps they are still filled with the spirits of the thousands of girls, boys, women and men who dedicated parts of their lives to the work done within them. Today, “Unions still fight for workers’ rights in the Southern mills that are still doing business. They fight the abuses of textile plants in Latin American Asia whose workers are in a virtual state of bondage.” (p. 238) Moran’s book, The Belles of New England, expertly weaves research and human interest together into a masterful look at how these unions, these mills, and indeed Lowell itself forever changed the history of our country.