The Lowell Mill Girls
Subtitle: Life in the Factory (Perspectives on History Series)
Contributors: Joanne B. Weisman (Editor)
Edition: 2nd edition
Publisher: Discovery Enterprises, Limited (MA)
Published: March 1997
Language: eng
Format: Paperback
Number of pages: 48
ISBN-13: 9781878668066
Subjects: Massachusetts; Labor; History - General History; Business & Economics; History: American; Women textile workers; Lowell; General; Juvenile literature
Description: This collection of essays and short stories is designed to provide a glimpse of life in the factory for the women who worked in the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in the 1840s. The book, which contains two primary sources, and three secondary sources, begins with a brief introduction to the history of Lowell and continues with an overview of the mill girls' lives. A fictional account of life in Lowell as seen through the eyes of Adeleen Blake is told in a letter to her cousin Hannah: it was written by Shirley Gifford and illustrated by Susan Lippman. A story entitled "The Spirit of Discontent," by Almira, a Lowell mill girl, illustrates both the benefits and disadvantages of the daily life of the mill girl. "Some Beauties of Our Factory System--Otherwise, Lowell Slavery," attributed to Amelia Sargent, is a strong and dramatic call to action and reform in the mills.