Mill Girls Stand Up to Factory Owners, 1834

Lowell's first large "turn out" by mill girls came in February 1834, when factory owners announced a 15 percent wage cut. Newspaper accounts played up the spectacle of young women, thought to be docile, taking to the streets in protest. After four days, the strike fizzled when the inexperienced workers realized that the owners could easily replace them. But lessons were learned, and a later Lowell "turn out," in 1836, was sustained for several months.

DOCUMENT 1

The Lowell Journal Reports the Strike, February 18, 1834

A town newspaper favorable to the factory owners characterized the work stoppage as a delusional farce led by a small number of "wicked girls."

THE FACTORY GIRLS. — It has become known, from rumor, that a considerable number of the girls employed in the mills of this town turned out on Friday last, to prevent a reduction in wages. ...It was proposed, some time since, to make a very small reduction in the wages of all of the hands on the first of March, and notices to that effect were posted in the mills. …

Upon this, several wicked and malicious girls ...undertook to get up a turn out, with a view to threaten the agents with an entire stoppage of the works, in order to exact the higher rates of wages. ...On Friday and Saturday from 800 to 1000 girls revolted under the most laughable delusions, that mischief could invent. The first day, processions were formed of about 700 girls, who listened to sundry stimulative exhortations, ...and marched through the streets, ankle-deep in mud. ...Saturday became a day of repentance to many; and they would gladly have returned to their business, but for a pledge, cunningly devised, that each who did so, should forfeit five dollars to the rebels. The Sabbath afforded opportunity for a little more cool reflection, and on Monday morning, a large concourse attended by a parcel of idle men and boys, heard another speech. ...The result of the whole matter is, that a few of the ring-leaders are refused entrance into the mills, and most of the disaffected, having learned the truth, and becoming sensible of the wicked misrepresentations of which they had nearly been the victims, are returning to their work, ready to take a diminished price, and continue to labor at wages which will give them from one and a half, to two and a half dollars per week, more than their board. — This, to be sure, is not so much as they have had in past times, nor so much as we hope they will soon have again, but it is more than they can get in any other occupation in New England.

SOURCE: The Lowell Journal, February 18, 1834, as reprinted in the New-York Spectator, March 6, 1834. Gale Database, "Nineteenth-Century U.S. Newspapers."

DOCUMENT 2

Anonymous Mill Girls, "Union Is Power"

A position paper, quickly drafted, framed the strikers' goals in terms of "rights" and appealed to the patriotic spirit of the American Revolution to justify their actions.

Our present object is to have union and exertion, and we remain in possession of our own unquestionable rights. We circulate this paper, wishing to obtain the names of all who imbibe the spirit of our patriotic ancestors, who preferred privation to bondage, and parted with all that renders life desirable — and even life itself — to procure independence for their children. The oppressing hand of avarice would enslave us; and to gain their object, they very gravely tell us of the pressure of the times; this we are already sensible of, and deplore it. If any are in want of assistance, the Ladies will be compassionate, and assist them; but we prefer to have the disposing of our charities in our own hands; and as we are free, we would remain in possession of what kind Providence has bestowed upon us, and remain daughters of freemen still.

All who patronize this effort, we wish to have discontinue their labors until terms of reconciliation are made.

Resolved, That we will not go back into the mills to work unless our wages are continued to us as they have been.

Resolved, That none of us will go back unless they receive us all as one.

SOURCE: Printed in The Man, February 22, 1834. Published in New York City by G. H. Evans. American Periodicals Series Online.

DOCUMENT 3

A Strike Leader Speaks Out, Mid-March 1834

A month later, one of the leaders explained that the strike was caused not only by reduced wages but also by anger at the insolence of wealthy factory owners. Her remarks were published in The Man, a New York paper friendly to workingmen's issues.

The Lowell Girls have been censured in no measured terms by the Federal press of the east, for the "turn out." ...One of the girls has turned round on her accusers, and while she does not outstep the modesty of her sex, her spirit would do credit to any parentage in these or other days. Hear the yankee girl:

"We do not estimate our Liberty by dollars and cents; consequently it was not the reduction of wages alone which caused the excitement, but that haughty, overbearing disposition — that purse proud insolence, which was becoming more and more apparent — that spirit of tyranny so manifest at present among the avaricious and wealthy manufacturers of this and the old country.

"I have only to add, that if the proprietors and agents are not satisfied with alluring us from our homes — from the peaceful abodes of our childhood, under the false promises of a great reward, and then casting us upon the world, ...merely because we would not be slaves — ...let them bring down upon us the whole influence of the rich and noble, the proud and the mighty, all piled upon the United States Bank — steep us in poverty to the very dregs, but we beseech them not to asperse our characters, or stigmatize us as disorderly persons. Grant us this favor, and give us the privilege of breathing the air of freedom in its purity, and we will be content."

SOURCE: The Man, March 20, 1834. Published in New York City by G. H. Evans. American Periodicals Series Online.

Questions for Analysis and Debate

Does the Lowell Journal adequately explain how a few "ringleaders" could motivate over eight hundred female workers to engage in street protests?

Why do the strikers invoke Revolutionary-era ideals of independence and liberty and the phrase "daughters of freemen"? Do these young women feel subordinate and deferential to the factory owners? Were they in fact subordinates?

How did the Lowell Journal excuse the wage reduction? What did the strike leader mean by "purse proud insolence"? What are the class dimensions of this episode?

CONNECT TO THE BIG IDEA

How was the "turn out" of female workers at Lowell an unintended consequence of the "market revolution"?