Boston: Relocation, Revolution & Resistance: An Experiential Learning Trip

Trade-Offs for Progress: Life for the Mill Girls

Izona J. Burgess, AHTC 2009

‘With great anticipation, you place all of your worldly belongings in a stack of band boxes that will accompany you on your stagecoach journey from New Hampshire or Vermont to Massachusetts. You will become part of “the mill girl experiment,” the lucrative brainstorm of the Boston Associates, rich investors who have financed the community into which you will now be integrated. Although you will experience long hours and potentially life-threatening work conditions, you will have had a chance to earn the highest wages paid to any woman of your time.”

That quote, taken from an article by Patricia Cummings, shows both the good and the bad of life for the Lowell Mill girls who were part of a revolutionary experiment by the Boston Manufacturing Company during the Industrial Revolution. This revolutionary experiment begun by merchant Francis Cabott Lowell, and although progressive for its time, is fueled by the same motivation that often fuels progress and that’s a simple case of supply and demand. With the rapid growth of the mills, twenty five miles outside of Boston, came a great need for more workers, thus creating an opportunity which allowed this largely untapped resource of young farmwomen to become a part of this pioneering effort to live and work in the same location. This great paradox sets the stage for one of the greatest pitfalls of any great movement that involves trade-offs and the price we’re willing to pay for what we feel are freedoms, or greater freedoms for the greater good. The author quoted above stated that these mill girls would have an opportunity to earn the highest wages paid to any woman of their time, but the long hours and potentially life-threatening work conditions would be the trade-off. And, so on October 8, 1823 Deborah Skinner became the first mill girl, a name I’m sure that most students of history have never heard, including me.

Although I’ve always been fascinated by the story of the Lowell Mill girls, I became far more fascinated after visiting the site of the Lowell Mills during our experiential learning trip to Boston where I snapped a photo of the one of the exhibits. This exhibit showed documents reporting injuries that resulted in a badly lacerated middle finger, as well as an injury which involved a hospital stay of 60 days at a cost of $1.50 a day for a total of $90.00. I’m almost ashamed to admit that this is finally what made the conditions these girls faced much more real and far more fascinating than the reading of injuries in books, and I wanted to learn more. Throughout the tour of the Lowell Mills, I viewed every exhibit through the lens of the dangers it may have posed for the girls. This was further borne out by the simulations we did involving working conditions at the mills. Forr the rest of the tour, I found it difficult to look at photos of the girls without reflecting upon the “price” paid for this freedom for women.

What were some of the trade-offs that these pioneers made for the freedom to break new ground? We’ve read so many stories of the girls being able to spend and save their money or the stories of their writings in “The Lowell Offering” a magazine which described their lives and hopes, but I’d like to focus the students’ attention on the high price that these pioneers pay. When we think of freedom fighters of Boston, we often think of those who fought in the Revolutionary War, or the accomplishments of African Americans before the Emancipation Proclamation, but we seldom think of these women and the real sacrifices that they made to not only pave the way for women, but to begin the fight for many of the labor rights that we so often take for granted today. I’ve also found it difficult to find documents related to the injuries that these women and other workers sustained, thus leading me to believe that this is not accidental in nature. I would like to get students to begin thinking about the common theme of “the real price of freedom,” and how freedom refers to more than just the absence of slavery and that it really reflects a framework within a society. For women in the early part of the nineteenth century, they were fighting for greater control over their employment and living conditions just as their forefathers had fought for freedom from the tyranny of the king of England using tactics that were quite similar.

Reflecting upon some of the issues inherent during the Industrial Revolution and the role that the women of Lowell Mills played, I became aware of new ways of getting students to think about this period. In addition to industrialization creating a need for the Lowell Mills, I would also like to have students reflect upon the issue of social justice and the great trade-offs that these freedom fighters pay for the causes they strongly believe in. One of the tools that a student at my grade level (upper elementary) could use to begin thinking about these issues would be a graphic organizer using a minimum of three events to compare and contrast the down side of each event and drawing conclusions about what they had in common. Usually, the student will find that the causes for which the freedom fighter fought usually wasn’t resolved in the fighter’s lifetime or even in the way the fighter may have sought, but it may have paved the way for the issue to be resolved at a later time. So, even though the labor reform movement may have been organized in the mills and some victories were achieved, the Massachusetts legislature did not pass a ten-hour law until 1874; we now have an eight hour law and we’re still continuing to fight over the issues of wages and conditions one hundred thirty five years later.

In conclusion, the question becomes: What is the cost of freedom and is it worth it? Did the trade-off to make more money and to hold down jobs formerly opened only to men make life better for women? What are the issues that women face today? Do the terms “glass ceiling,” “reproductive rights,” or “biological clock” resonate with women today and will these be issues that will be talked about in another one hundred thirty five years? Only time will tell.