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Lowell Mill Girls
The Lowell Mill Girls were young women workers in the early nineteenth century who went to work in Industrial Corporation in Lowell, Massachusetts. Most of these girls came from families who worked in farms. These girls all vary in ages, some were as young as ten, but the majority were girls who were fifteen to twenty-five. The girls who worked here had the lowest wage among employments of women. The working hours extended from five o’clock in the morning to seven in the evening, with two half an hour break for breakfast and dinner. Their wage was two dollars a week. During this time, women came to the mills for various reasons. Those reasons may include helping to pay for their brother’s education, to support their parents, or just to earn money from them self. One of the perks of working here was that they offered these girls education. During this time men were the one who were encouraged to go to college while women stayed home and did house work. Although this factory was mostly female industry there were a few men that work there. For the most part they were treated equal, they both had to endure the same factory lifestyle in some aspects.

Life at the Boardinghouse
Many of the mill girls in Lowell lived in boardinghouses. These boarding houses were own by the corporation and ran by female keeper. One house usually consisted of eight units, with about twenty to forty women living in each unit. Life in the boarding house was different than home for most of these girls, they usually had to share rooms with three other women, two in each bed. This was important because of these arrangements, these girls became close and the boardinghouses became their center of organization. The girls where required to have curfews and to attend church. They were expected to be in their best behavior always.

Working Conditions
In the factories there would often be floods, fires and machinery malfunctions, and the owners of the mill would ignore the conditions. There was a horrid accent that happened to one of the girls. The young girl was engaged “in carrying rags when she fell through a trap-door onto the whirling machinery below... The ribs were torn on the right side from the back-bone, the body was almost cut into two.” The benefits of working in the mills was that during this time women, this job paid women the highest wage. The wages were higher for men even if they were doing the same job as the women. Working at the mills allowed women to earn their own money without depending on a man.

"Turn Out" of 1836
In October of, 1836, Lowell announced that there was going to be a wage cut. This enraged many of the mills girls, these girls marched to several mills to encourage others to join them. They made and signed petition claiming “We will not go back into the mills to work unless our wages are continued.” The mills were shut down and the girls went to on Chapel Hill. This strike did not give them the result that that wanted, the corporation did not agree with their terms. The mill girls went back to work accepting the reduce rate. This strike was just only the beginning of many, which they later succeeded in.

1840 and The "Ten Hour Movement"
The ten hour movement became one of the most significant of all strikes compose by the Lowell female workers. Going against the threats of being blacklisted from the mills, many of these women went on strike to protest wage cuts and proposed that working hours should be reduced from third-teen hours a day to ten. One of the most influencer woman in this movement was Sarah Bagley, who who was a member of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association. She once stated: "Let oppression shrug her shoulders,

And a haughty tyrant frown,

And I itt le upstart Ignorance,

In mockery look down.

Yet I value not the feeble threats

of Tories in disquise,

While the flag of Inderpendence

O'er our noble nation flies."


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