Lowell Mills Girls: Chapel Hill Procession and Speakers

Harriet Hanson Robinson’s memoir “The Loom and Spindle” details how the second of the two walk outs began. She claims that the girls walked out “en masse” and proceeded up Chapel Hill singing songs and making “incendiary speeches” when then arrived in a grove on the hill. As this was the first time that women spoke publicly in Lowell, a young city, this moment would prove to be a flashpoint that encouraged more organization and strategic planning for this second strike.

Robinson claims that she led her the parade out of the factories initially as they debated whether or not to turn out.

Robinson’s mother was a matron of a boarding house at the time and lost her job over not being able to control her child. When the strike eventually faded and the girls returned to their jobs in the factories, Robinson continued reading and learning that led her to the suffrage movement. She credits her time in the factories as a child for inspiring this work.

Robinson, Harriet Jane Hanson. Loom and Spindle : or, Life among the Early Mill Girls : with a

 Sketch of "The Lowell Offering" and Some of Its Contributors. Rev. ed., Press Pacifica, 

1976.

Harriet Hanson Robinson, National Parks Service. November 22nd 2019. Accessed October 31st 2020. https://www.nps.gov/lowe/learn/historyculture/robinson.htm.