Beata Konhle
History 1700-017
10.20.2013
PSI Paper
Primary source: Harriet Hanson Robinson “Loom and Spindle; or, Life Among the Early Mill
Girls”, 1898.
Harriet Hanson Robinson wrote her memoir in 1898 in which she described in detail the
life of women workers in the textile mills of Lowell, Massachusetts in 1836. At that time
Robison was 11 years old and was part of the female workforce. She was an eyewitness to all of
the events that were described in her book. That makes her autobiography a primary source
and the same time a creditable source of information about social, political and economic
conditions in the United State’s early industrial period.
In 1832 the village of Lowell became the biggest center of textile manufacturers.
Demand for factory workers was high and couldn’t be satisfied by males. Factory owners were
hoping to attract women by offering a fair wage and accommodation. Word of mouth helped to
bring women ready to work from all over New England. Those women came from farms but
some of them even from prosperous families. Some of them were looking for more freedom
and independence, others to earn money. Some of the women workers even came because
they heard about accessible libraries.
Among those female workers were single girls, married women and widows. All of them
stayed in housing provided by the factories. Robinson gives vivid pictures of the nature of those
boarding houses, the living conditions, rules and events that took place. She talks about how
living in the houses heavily influenced the girls, and played a large role in their life educations.
Working and living together resulted in a tight bond between mill girls, a community that
enriched all of them. This lifestyle also enriched their families at home. The girls were very
focused on reading and learning. Books and newspapers that they read were then sent on to
their farmhouse homes. In this way their education helped them to educate parents and
siblings far away. The mills and the boarding houses pressured the girls to live by high moral
standards, and even attend religious services weekly. Women in their spare time were studying
poetry, classic literature and reading newspapers. They had a chance to learn and absorb
political and historic knowledge that later they drew upon as they fought for workers rights and
suffrage.
In 1836 over a thousand female workers went on strike. They were protesting against a
cut in their hourly wage. They took their frustration and resistance into the streets of Lowell.
This was a seminal moment in history, for the first time women organized and fought for their
rights. And for the first time in the town of Lowell a women stood up and spoke publicly. Those
actions and a common identity among the female workers empowered them to act and fight.
Robinson’s memoir is a great source of information and we can learn a lot about not only
the women’s jobs and lifestyle, but the overall culture of the time. The author says that women
in the 1800s didn’t have property rights and couldn’t vote. They were second class citizens and
totally dependent on men. The role of woman was to say at home and raise children. This
memoir shows us that the industrial revolution helped to create a new social group, “working
women”. Work and education the keys to awareness and independence for women. This new
age brought economic, political and social changes.
The author points out how society’s view of the factory girls changed overtime from a
“degrading occupation” to a respectable way of life. Those women were proud of their work
and of the support they gave each other. Robinson also talks about the respectful relations
between the employed and employers. Factory female workers were treated with respect.
The 1836 strike was an awakening for the women. This protest showed them they had a
voice in the financial and political environment they worked in. These actions can be viewed as
the first step in women finding their public voice. This voice led to the fight for ending slavery,
the right to vote, and even to prohibition; all movements fueled by political women fighting for
what they believed in.
We also learn that women had limited access to education in those days, including
access to books and newspapers. The boarding houses in Lowell played an important role in
exposing women to the world of ideas through reading, and helped to shape those female’s
beliefs. And the money they earned while learning and growing was sometimes used to pay for
an education for a brother or other male relative. It would be easy to underestimate the impact
this special time in history had on our nation. The direct benefit to the girls and the indirect
benefit to their families and children helped to shape our country as we industrialized and over
time grew into a knowledge based society.