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The Lowell mill girls were young female workers who came to work in textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts during the Industrial Revolution in the United States. The workers initially recruited by the corporations were daughters of New England farmers, typically between the ages of 15 and 35. [ 1 ]
Eventually, cheaper and less organized foreign labor replaced the mill girls. Even by the time of the founding of Lawrence in 1845, there were questions being raised about the viability of this model. [6] One of the leading causes of this transition to foreign labor and the demise of the Lowell system was the coming of the Civil War.
By the 1850s, the Lowell system was considered a failed experiment and the mills began using more and more immigrant and child labor. In the 1890s, the South emerged as the center of U.S. textile manufacturing; not only was cotton grown locally in the South, it had fewer labor unions and heating costs were cheaper.
Lowell was a planned mill town. Under the Lowell System, the company recruited young women (15-35) from New England farms to work in the mills. The companies built boardinghouses managed by older women, often widows to provide meals and safe places to live.
However, labor and political pressure on the Lowell textile corporations was so great that in 1847 the mills shortened the workday by 30 minutes. As the labor reform movement persisted the Lowell textile companies again reduced the hours of labor to eleven in 1853 and ten in 1874. [2] Bagley was also involved with other social justice movements.
Lowell, Massachusetts Mill Women's Strike. [6] 1834 (United States) Manayunk, Pennsylvania Textile Strike. [6] 1835 (United States) Carpenters, masons, and stone-cutters began a strike as part of the Ten-Hour Movement among skilled workers. [6] They drafted a strike circular in Boston outlining their demands and seeking assistance from other ...
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The Lowell Offering was a monthly periodical collected contributed works of poetry and fiction by the female textile workers (young women [age 15–35] known as the Lowell Mill Girls) of the Lowell, Massachusetts textile mills of the early American Industrial Revolution. It began in 1840 and lasted until 1845.