Lowell Mills Girls: Exploring the Early Strikes of 1834 and 1836
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Description
This walking tour explored the events behind labor strikes that were led by women employed at the Lowell Mills.
1. The Lowell Mills: The Mill Girls
In 1835 the town of Lowell, Massachusetts opened its first large industrial textile mill along the Merrimack River. Called the Boott Cotton Mills, its success instituted a chain reaction for 10 other major textile corporations to open 50 factories along the river, making Lowell one of the most successfully industrialized cities in the American Industrial Revolution. There were many factors that made the textile industry in this area very profitable, such as technological advancements, but another reason was the cheap labor available in the area. Men, women, and children were all used at this time as employees of the factories. They were willing to work long, grueling hours to make any sort of wage because this was a time where any money was better than no money. Women were the original workers of the mills, known as the “Mill Girls,” made history from their work in the factories and their lives outside them as well. Women worked in these factories until their closure in the mid 1920’s, when legislation restricting working hours hindered the company’s profits and caused their relocation to the south.
2. Lowell Mills Girls: Bootts Mills
Bootts cotton mill was one of the many textile factories in the Lowell and Chelmsford areas that employed the young women known as the Lowell Mills Girls. The Lowell Mills girls are remembered for their participation in the 1834 and 1836 labor strikes that paved the way for future labor reform and women's suffrage.
3. Lowell Mills Girls: Boarding Houses
The factory workers of the Lowell mills were required to live in company housing and comply with strict rules and moral codes to maintain their employment and boarding. Maintained by widowed matrons and their families, these boarding houses were where the Lowell mills girls would have organized their labor strikes in 1834 and 1836.
4. Lowell Mills Girls: Bank Run
Lowell Savings Bank was incorporated in 1829 and was used by many of the factory workers in the area for their deposits. At the time of the strike, factory girls comprised about half of its depositors worth roughly $100,000. In February of 1834, hundreds of the the Lowell Mills Girls withdrew their deposits in a display of their economic power.
5. Lowell Mills Girls: Chapel Hill Procession and Speakers
Harriet Hanson Robinson's account of the 1836 walk out when she was eleven years old in "The Loom and Spindle" details the procession of the Lowell Mills Girls from the factories up Chapel Hill in Lowell for public speeches regarding their wages, labor conditions, and the price of their room and board. Robinson's experiences informed her views which led her to play a role in the fight for women's suffrage.
