The boarding houses where the Lowell Mills girls lived during the hours they were not at work were strictly maintained by older women, typically widows, who lived in the houses with their own children for terms for four, eight, or twelve years. Their role was described parental by Henry Thomas, who cataloged the living and working conditions in Lowell after concerns were raised about sickness and death among the workers. His account "Lowell, As It Is and Was" was collected mainly from the factory corporations, supervisors, and matrons directly. Therefore, the catalog differs from first hand accounts written by factory girls in publications like "The Lowell Offering."Women would often join boarding houses with others from her town in New England and then find work in a factory along with her peers. This made for a very communal recruitment and hiring process, further forging a tight knit, if homogenous, community.There were strict moral codes and social norms in the boarding houses that maintained an orderly living environment. Workers were required to abstain from alcohol at all times. Some of the rules included proper time and attendance, mandatory boarding in company housing, constant church attendance, no stealing textiles, and strict curfews and meal times were enforced. Doors locked at 10, meals can be taken from30-45 minutes depending on the time of year.Socially, the girls spent all their leisure time together as well. Issues of the “Lowell Offering” give some insight into how their time was spent as well as how peers enforced their moral policies. With any suspicion of immorality, the rest of the girls would shun a worker both in the factory and socially in the boarding houses. This kind of peer pressure may have been helpful in community organizing for the girls in order to walk out. The close living and working quarters and need to conform to the community helped created an environment where such organization was possible.

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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.

Lowell Mills Girls: Boarding Houses 

This walking tour explored the events behind labor strikes that were led by women employed at the Lowell Mills.

Lowell Mills Girls: Exploring the Early Strikes of 1834 and 1836

Women were given the opportunity to work because of the American Industrial Revolution’s demand for labor. As industries were becoming more technologically advanced, productivity increased. In the Lowell textile mills, the development of new spinning machines in the large factories increased productivity of turning raw cotton into fine cloth. Women were the first ones to work in the mills, because in Waltham, Massachusetts a group of Yankee Women had proved to be a source of cheap and good workers on the farms. The companies were prepared to provide food and housing to their women employees. As the demand for their high-end product increased, the number of workers required increased. Women got more opportunities over time after the fight against child labor arose, and therefore someone needed to take their place.           At this time, women were a marginalized population, and even more so were the women that immigrated to Lowell to find a job in the factories they had heard about. The Mill Girls worked and lived closely together and formed lasting friendship bonds, and it gave them a sense that they had value in society as a group. Their jobs required 12–14-hour days of grueling work. The factories were hot, the machines were dangerous, and the roar of the machines was deafening. Even in these unfavorable conditions, the women that worked needed the wage and housing to sustain themselves and their families and endured it.	On multiple occasions, the Mill Girls rose and fought against the workplace injustices they endured. The women were underestimated, and when their pay was cut in 1834, they “turned-out”, and went on strike against their bosses. They did not accomplish anything financially, even when they did it again in 1836. This Union for Working Women shifted into political action when they realized they could not accomplish anything directly with their bosses. They fought for legislation for 10-day work hours, and again it proved to be ineffective. Even with their persistent resistance they did not get fired, for their labor was too valuable to the company owners. Although the women could not change their current situations with their protest, they set examples for women in the future of fighting for their rights.	Without women in the textile workforce, the American Industrial Revolution would not have progressed as quickly and effectively as it did. Due to companies being able to exploit their women employees and subject them to long hours and low wages, they were able to profit exceptionally. The large textile companies that took up residence in Lowell provided schools, churches, libraries, and housing for these workers. In the little time they had off, women had access to all these things. The population of Lowell increased from 2500 to around 33,000 after the industrialization of the town. The success the textile industry saw here was cause for expansion. The factories were powered by the hydropower of the Merrimack River, and it eventually led to the building of 7 more canals to power each facility.	The Lowell Mills closed in the 1920’s once Massachusetts passed legislation limiting working hours and increasing minimum wage for the factory workers. Unlike the past, these laws were enforced and in return caused a decline in company profits. The industry responded by moving their factories to the South where no such laws were in place, and they could profit as they were before. The Mill Girls were out of work, and after that the mills never re opened. In Lowell today, the buildings have been re-purposed. Some buildings became apartments, and there is even a museum open. The museum commemorating the history of the mills is called the “Boott Cotton Mills Museum,” after the first company to open. At this museum you will find history of the controversial child labor as well as economic information, and the technological advancements. However, to learn about the women that worked in the mills you must go to a separate museum, the Mogan Cultural Center. It details history the immigrants of Lowell, and there is where you find a history of 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.

The Lowell Mills: The Mill Girls

Boott Mills and others like it in the area such as Merrimack, Appleton, Hamilton, Lawrence, Tremont, and Suffolk, employed thousands of young women as loom operators. Combined, these factories were known as the Lowell Mills and are remembered for their contribution to the development of industrial capitalism in New England. The conditions in the factories were greuling, hours were long, and wages paid on a per piece basis. The community based approach of living, training, and working together helped the women build a strong community that fostered solidarity through the challenging conditions in the factories. Job training in the mills relied on partnerships among women, with a new hire acting as a spare hand for a more seasoned worker. This training set up allowed the workers to forge strong bonds early on in their careers at the mills. Wages were paid depending on output, so workers would often mind each other’s spinning wheels in order to grant each other small bouts of leave or time off.  The workforce was compromised mainly of women between the ages of 15 and 30. Hamilton Company payroll records indicate that 85% of the employees were women between the ages of 15 and 30. Any men that worked in the mills were in different rooms, mainly in the repair shops and in all the supervisory roles in the factory. The women were also ethnically homogenous, hailing from the farms near Lowell.  By 1834 the factory girls, as they were known, planned their first "walk-out" to protest a 12.5% cut in wages. This strike lasted only a few days and was unsuccessful, but allowed the factory girls to better strategize for their next walk out. In 1836, in response to more proposed wage cuts, they walked out again in much larger numbers and this time for months. They strategically planned for some girls to all walk out of specific rooms in the mill at the same time. If all the spinners left the room at the same time, the entire factory would grind to a halt. This, too, ultimately failed. However, the community building and strategic planning would be put to use later for the factory girls.

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. 

Lowell Mills Girls: Bootts Mills

The boarding houses where the Lowell Mills girls lived during the hours they were not at work were strictly maintained by older women, typically widows, who lived in the houses with their own children for terms for four, eight, or twelve years. Their role was described parental by Henry Thomas, who cataloged the living and working conditions in Lowell after concerns were raised about sickness and death among the workers. His account "Lowell, As It Is and Was" was collected mainly from the factory corporations, supervisors, and matrons directly. Therefore, the catalog differs from first hand accounts written by factory girls in publications like "The Lowell Offering." Women would often join boarding houses with others from her town in New England and then find work in a factory along with her peers. This made for a very communal recruitment and hiring process, further forging a tight knit, if homogenous, community.There were strict moral codes and social norms in the boarding houses that maintained an orderly living environment. Workers were required to abstain from alcohol at all times. Some of the rules included proper time and attendance, mandatory boarding in company housing, constant church attendance, no stealing textiles, and strict curfews and meal times were enforced. Doors locked at 10, meals can be taken from30-45 minutes depending on the time of year. Socially, the girls spent all their leisure time together as well. Issues of the “Lowell Offering” give some insight into how their time was spent as well as how peers enforced their moral policies. With any suspicion of immorality, the rest of the girls would shun a worker both in the factory and socially in the boarding houses. This kind of peer pressure may have been helpful in community organizing for the girls in order to walk out. The close living and working quarters and need to conform to the community helped created an environment where such organization was possible.

The Lowell Mills Girls wages were paid on a by piece basis in most cases. In turn, many worked long grueling hours in order to earn more money, as it was common for the girls to be supporting family members at home. On average, women were earning about one dollar and ninety cents per week after boarding costs. Their 1834 bank run at Lowell Savings Bank indicates that they were well aware of their economic power. Despite lower wages and higher boarding costs than the men at the factories, they had power in their numbers. With 800 women participating in the first strike and many withdrawing all their deposits from the bank, this sent a clear message to the corporations.

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.

Lowell Mills Girls: Bank Run

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.

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.

Lowell Mills Girls: Exploring the Early Strikes of 1834 and 1836

Lowell Mills Girls: Boarding Houses

Introduction

Images

Backstory and Context

Sources

Additional Information