So far in this class we have talked about how much children have taken a role in the Industrial Revolution. But it seems that we have left out how big of a role women took in this period of time. You would wonder why women would want to leave their families and countries and come work in the Lowell Mills. The women that came to the Mills had some benefits from coming, but definitely had some costs that came with it.
The girls who came to the Mills were in way over their heads. They were not expecting to come to another country to have to work all day, make little money, and suffer these horrible conditions. But I mean, why would they come in that case? Instead of telling the girls what they would really be in for, the "Factory Agents" might have exaggerated a little bit. The video we watched called "Daughters of Free Men" talked about how these Factory Agents would come to homes, door to door, and ask the father of the family if they would be willing to send their daughter to America to work in factories and make some money. The Agents would always ask the father because the father of the family is the one who makes all of the decisions, the one who made sure all of the rules were followed, he was the overseer. So the Factory Agent would come and ask the father for his permission to send his daughter to America to come work in these factories where she would be making her own money.
But it was the way the Agent would ask that convinced the father. The Agent would talk about how the daughter of the man would develop lots of working skill, gain lady like habits, find a man to marry, and make herself some money. The video we watched talked about how this convinced the father because back then, women were viewed as fairly useless. They were literally viewed as just an extra mouth to feed. And when a woman met a man, the parents of the girl would pay the parents of the husband because they are basically "taking her off of their hands." This money being paid was called a dowry, so some of the money the woman would make would go towards her dowry. Once the father heard all of this, the daughter was as good as gone.
Believe it or not, their were some benefits of these girls being sent to the Mills in Lowell. The girls would be making their own money while working here. They would also develop friendships with fellow coworkers, they would develop working skills, and learn lady like manners. One of the huge reasons why the women came was because they thought they would meet a nice gentleman to marry. But at the same time there were definitely some costs that came with it. The conditions of the factories were not nearly as great as they were picturing it, "Daughters of Free Men" and the document on Edline called "Labor in Lowell" talks about how the conditions were awful and the work was extremely hard. Plus punishment was very severe for these girls, they would be locked in rooms, threatened, or even scalped.
The "Mill Girl" era ended right around the time of the Civil War, which was around 1863. This era came to an end because eventually the factories cut the pay of the women. When this happened, the women snapped. They went on strike in order to raise the wages, but the first time it didn't work. The women tried it a second time, this is when it finally worked, the factories had shut down. The document on Edline called "Women March in Lowell" talks about how the women made a great attempt, but the first strike ended up unsuccessful. It says "800 women walked out in protest, and held a march through the center of Lowell.
However, the owners quickly recruited replacements from the surrounding countryside, and the strike was defeated."
Describing the "Lowell Experiment" is very hard. Lots of different things happened in a short period of time. These women were persuaded to come to these factories that were projected to lead the woman to have a very nice and successful life. Then they were sent to the factories and realized how miserable it was going to be there. Then their payments got cut, so they protested, and failed. Then they protested again and it actually worked. The actions of these women lead on to women standing up for themselves and lots of them ended up joining the Women's Rights Activists. So a lot happened during Lowell Experiment, and a lot more happened due to the influential acts of these women during this time.
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