13. Women and Industrialization
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The backbone of every economy is the labor of women, both paid and unpaid. It was the Industrial Revolution, however, that first made this distinction and created a value system that favored "salary" work over unpaid domestic labor. Women's labors varied by class, but women everywhere worked and their work fueled industrialization.
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Factory Girls, Wikimedia Commons
The Second Industrial Revolution began before the Civil War and continued into the 20th century. Women were involved as laborers and investors from the very beginning. Women's jobs varied considerably by race and class. Respectable work was really only available to educated middle class women, which included teaching, writing, and nursing. American women from working class families found gainful employment in factories, thanks to technological innovations that allowed for mass production, especially in the food and textile industries. Factory work sometimes offered higher wages than domestic work, so young women sought factory jobs. This wasn’t always the case though. Some factories paid women very little, so their entire family had to work to survive. Some cities offered better paid jobs as domestics compared to other southern cities, so women did the math and did domestic work. Women of color found limited opportunities for work in the factories, thus they primarily worked in domestic service or owned their own businesses. Although essential to the mills, women were paid less, worked long hours, and efforts to improve their condition were thwarted not only by their bosses and the male dominated government, but also by other male unions that worked to protect their wages at the expense of women workers. But women, of course, fought back.
Female Teacher, Public Domain
Respectable Jobs:
Coming out of the early republic, it was clear that a democracy required women’s labor to raise and educate the electorate. Mothers took on the responsibility of raising smart and moral boys, who would make good decisions for the country. They raise their daughters to be teachers and morally pure.
Therefore, one of the best ways women could earn a wage in the first half of the 19th century was as a teacher and writer, especially on topics of moral importance. Female teachers were held to strict moral standards and expected to maintain a respectable image. They were often subjected to moral scrutiny and faced societal pressures regarding their appearance, conduct, and personal relationships. Any behavior deemed inappropriate or deviating from expected norms could result in criticism or dismissal. Female teachers received significantly lower salaries compared to their male counterparts. They were often paid less for performing the same job, reflecting the prevalent gender-based wage discrimination of the time. This wage disparity persisted despite women's qualifications and experience. Men typically occupied administrative roles and held higher-paying positions, while women were predominantly employed as lower-paid teachers in primary schools (this remains true today).
Teaching was often viewed as a temporary occupation for unmarried women, seen as a way to acquire some income or secure future marriage prospects. Female teachers were required to sign contracts that included "marriage clauses" which stipulated that they must resign if they got married. Such restrictions were intended to ensure that married women would prioritize their domestic duties and conform to societal expectations. Once married, it was expected that female teachers would leave the profession to focus on their roles as wives and mothers. This perception reinforced the notion that teaching was not a long-term career path for women and justified their lower pay. As a result, their authority was sometimes questioned or undermined due to societal beliefs about women's perceived weaknesses and inability to exert control over students, particularly older boys.
Coming out of the early republic, it was clear that a democracy required women’s labor to raise and educate the electorate. Mothers took on the responsibility of raising smart and moral boys, who would make good decisions for the country. They raise their daughters to be teachers and morally pure.
Therefore, one of the best ways women could earn a wage in the first half of the 19th century was as a teacher and writer, especially on topics of moral importance. Female teachers were held to strict moral standards and expected to maintain a respectable image. They were often subjected to moral scrutiny and faced societal pressures regarding their appearance, conduct, and personal relationships. Any behavior deemed inappropriate or deviating from expected norms could result in criticism or dismissal. Female teachers received significantly lower salaries compared to their male counterparts. They were often paid less for performing the same job, reflecting the prevalent gender-based wage discrimination of the time. This wage disparity persisted despite women's qualifications and experience. Men typically occupied administrative roles and held higher-paying positions, while women were predominantly employed as lower-paid teachers in primary schools (this remains true today).
Teaching was often viewed as a temporary occupation for unmarried women, seen as a way to acquire some income or secure future marriage prospects. Female teachers were required to sign contracts that included "marriage clauses" which stipulated that they must resign if they got married. Such restrictions were intended to ensure that married women would prioritize their domestic duties and conform to societal expectations. Once married, it was expected that female teachers would leave the profession to focus on their roles as wives and mothers. This perception reinforced the notion that teaching was not a long-term career path for women and justified their lower pay. As a result, their authority was sometimes questioned or undermined due to societal beliefs about women's perceived weaknesses and inability to exert control over students, particularly older boys.
Sarah Josepha Hale, Wikimedia Commons
Women writers emerged to provide poetry, children’s stories, advice, columns, for other women, and novels. New Hampshire’s Sarah Josepha Hale became the editor of Godey's Lady's Book after her husband died in order to provide for her children. She was famous for authoring "Mary had a Little Lamb," and writing an advice column to women, in which she ironically told them not to have ambition and to keep to the home. Of course, she herself wrote widely, and had a very public life. In fact, many of these women who became published, are noted for their enthusiasm behind a proper woman’s place. Catherine Beecher, who is a palm at abolitionist, who spoke publicly on behalf of Black people. While she supported abolition, she didn’t think women should step outside their spear in order to achieve it.
But then, of course, there was Fanny Wright, also known as the "talking lady" in a time before it was respectable for women to speak in public. She did not care about what was proper. Not only was she a prolific writer, but she traveled around the country giving speeches. Throngs of people came to hear her talk, although mostly to see the spectacle. Wright believed in equality for all people and was an outspoken critic of social injustices. She advocated for women's suffrage, advocating for equal rights and opportunities for women in both the political and social spheres. Wright also strongly opposed slavery and was actively involved in the abolitionist movement before the Civil War. She promoted labor reform, arguing for fair wages, improved working conditions, and shorter workdays. Wright believed in the importance of education and sought to establish educational institutions that provided equal opportunities for both men and women. Wright shaped cultural conversations before the Civil War and pushed the needle for women.
In the middle of the century women also became journalists and reported on everything from society to war. One of the most famous American journalists of the period was Margaret Fuller. Fuller wrote about abolition, and it was a War correspondent. Fuller sought to challenge traditional gender roles and expand opportunities for women. She emphasized the importance of women's education and their active participation in society. In her influential book, "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," published in 1845, Fuller examined the social, political, and cultural constraints placed on women and called for their liberation and equality. Tragically, Margaret Fuller's life was cut short when she, along with her husband and young child, died in a shipwreck in 1850. However, her contributions to literature, feminism, and social reform left a lasting impact. Fuller's writings and ideas continue to be studied and celebrated, highlighting her significance as a pioneering feminist and intellectual of her time.
The world of business was rapidly changing and the haves were getting far ahead of the have-nots. It became deeply important to ensure the economy was competitive and that a few industrial leaders didn't dominate everyone by forming monopolies and setting prices. At the end of the century, Ida Tarbell became the first investigative journalist, well known for her exposé of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. Published in a number of installments for McClure’s Magazine, this meticulously researched piece revealed the brutal policies that Standard Oil used to force rivals out of business, including her father. Tarbell later compiled those pieces into a two volume book in 1904. As a result of her investigative reporting, the federal government brought a case against Standard Oil for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act which prevented the formation of Monopolies and the Supreme Court ordered the break-up of the oil company into 34 separate companies. Rockefeller hated Tarbell whom he dismissed as an angry lady, but she won and protected the US from being overrun by monopolies. Tarbell continued to write and worked for American Magazine, penning a series of articles against the women’s movement and especially suffrage, in an apparent contradiction of her own public career. These articles were also later made into a book in 1912.
But of course, most of these women were middle class. And the bulk of the industrial revolution was built on the back of lower class women.
But then, of course, there was Fanny Wright, also known as the "talking lady" in a time before it was respectable for women to speak in public. She did not care about what was proper. Not only was she a prolific writer, but she traveled around the country giving speeches. Throngs of people came to hear her talk, although mostly to see the spectacle. Wright believed in equality for all people and was an outspoken critic of social injustices. She advocated for women's suffrage, advocating for equal rights and opportunities for women in both the political and social spheres. Wright also strongly opposed slavery and was actively involved in the abolitionist movement before the Civil War. She promoted labor reform, arguing for fair wages, improved working conditions, and shorter workdays. Wright believed in the importance of education and sought to establish educational institutions that provided equal opportunities for both men and women. Wright shaped cultural conversations before the Civil War and pushed the needle for women.
In the middle of the century women also became journalists and reported on everything from society to war. One of the most famous American journalists of the period was Margaret Fuller. Fuller wrote about abolition, and it was a War correspondent. Fuller sought to challenge traditional gender roles and expand opportunities for women. She emphasized the importance of women's education and their active participation in society. In her influential book, "Woman in the Nineteenth Century," published in 1845, Fuller examined the social, political, and cultural constraints placed on women and called for their liberation and equality. Tragically, Margaret Fuller's life was cut short when she, along with her husband and young child, died in a shipwreck in 1850. However, her contributions to literature, feminism, and social reform left a lasting impact. Fuller's writings and ideas continue to be studied and celebrated, highlighting her significance as a pioneering feminist and intellectual of her time.
The world of business was rapidly changing and the haves were getting far ahead of the have-nots. It became deeply important to ensure the economy was competitive and that a few industrial leaders didn't dominate everyone by forming monopolies and setting prices. At the end of the century, Ida Tarbell became the first investigative journalist, well known for her exposé of John D. Rockefeller’s Standard Oil Company. Published in a number of installments for McClure’s Magazine, this meticulously researched piece revealed the brutal policies that Standard Oil used to force rivals out of business, including her father. Tarbell later compiled those pieces into a two volume book in 1904. As a result of her investigative reporting, the federal government brought a case against Standard Oil for violating the Sherman Antitrust Act which prevented the formation of Monopolies and the Supreme Court ordered the break-up of the oil company into 34 separate companies. Rockefeller hated Tarbell whom he dismissed as an angry lady, but she won and protected the US from being overrun by monopolies. Tarbell continued to write and worked for American Magazine, penning a series of articles against the women’s movement and especially suffrage, in an apparent contradiction of her own public career. These articles were also later made into a book in 1912.
But of course, most of these women were middle class. And the bulk of the industrial revolution was built on the back of lower class women.
Ida Tarbell, Wikimedia Commons
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Popular Cartoon of Standard Oil's Monopoly, Wikimedia Commons
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Lowell Mill Ad, Public Domain
Lowell Mill Girls:
Most people point to the Lowell Mills as a major turning point both for labor in general, and for women. Millwork popped up along rivers all throughout New England. The mills attracted women from poor farms in the region. As industrialization led to mechanized farm equipment, it essentially freed up the labor of daughters on a farm. Thus, girls left home for a wage and to support their families. In this time, departing from the protection and oversight of their families and doing less respectable work for women could hinder their reputations as "good" women. The promise of a wage was persuasive however and the mills worked to counter the negative narratives about the reputations of their women.
In reality, discussion of their reputation was less important than how overworked these women were. A bell schedule managed their entire lives. Girls wore plain and practical garments that wouldn't catch in the machines. Mill girls worked an average of almost 13 hours per day. Girls despised the confinement in their dormitories, the constant noise from machines, the lint-filled air, and regretted the lost opportunities for education.
The mills promoted themselves to parents and young women with promises that they would have engaging cultural experiences at the boarding houses. The women also began publishing The Lowell Offering from 1840 to 1845. It contained the work produced by some women, including poems and autobiographical sketches, published anonymously or acknowledged only by their initials. The mill owners controlled what appeared in the magazine, so the articles highlighted the girls femininity and tended to be positive. The Lowell Offering stopped being published when women began to strike in 1845.
The danger of mill work was readily known to the girls, they saw it. One girl who worked at the Lowell Mills wrote home, "Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day a man was killed by the [railroad] cars... Last Tuesday we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest I got me a pair of rubbers and a pair of 50.cts shoes…"
In 1834, the Lowell Mill owners decided to reduce the wages of the mill girls and they finally reached their breaking point. They organized to push back against the wage cuts. The mill girls went on strike, marching to various mills to encourage others to join their cause. They congregated at an outdoor rally and signed a petition stating their refusal to return to work unless their wages were maintained. The strikers sang:
"Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh ! I cannot be a slave,
I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty
That I cannot be a slave."
In their first attempt at strike, the bosses emerged victorious. The management possessed enough power and financial resources to quash the strike. Within a week, the mills were operating almost at full capacity. Things seemed to calm until they cut wages again in 1836. The second strike was better organized and caused more disruption to mill operations. Nonetheless, the bosses maintained control.
Although these were significant setbacks, the mill girls refused to surrender. In the 1840s, they adopted a different strategy—political action. They established the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association to advocate for a shorter workday of ten hours. Despite women's inability to vote in Massachusetts or anywhere else in the country, the mill girls persisted. They conducted extensive petition campaigns, gathering over 2,000 signatures on a petition in 1845, and more than double that number the following year, urging the Massachusetts state legislature to pass a law limiting the workday in mills to ten hours.
Their efforts did not cease. They established chapters in other mill towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, published "Factory Tracts" to expose the deplorable conditions in the mills, and provided testimony before a state legislative committee. Furthermore, they actively campaigned against a state representative who staunchly opposed their cause and soundly defeated him. In 1847, New Hampshire became the first state to pass a law mandating a ten-hour workday, but its enforcement was not effective.
Most people point to the Lowell Mills as a major turning point both for labor in general, and for women. Millwork popped up along rivers all throughout New England. The mills attracted women from poor farms in the region. As industrialization led to mechanized farm equipment, it essentially freed up the labor of daughters on a farm. Thus, girls left home for a wage and to support their families. In this time, departing from the protection and oversight of their families and doing less respectable work for women could hinder their reputations as "good" women. The promise of a wage was persuasive however and the mills worked to counter the negative narratives about the reputations of their women.
In reality, discussion of their reputation was less important than how overworked these women were. A bell schedule managed their entire lives. Girls wore plain and practical garments that wouldn't catch in the machines. Mill girls worked an average of almost 13 hours per day. Girls despised the confinement in their dormitories, the constant noise from machines, the lint-filled air, and regretted the lost opportunities for education.
The mills promoted themselves to parents and young women with promises that they would have engaging cultural experiences at the boarding houses. The women also began publishing The Lowell Offering from 1840 to 1845. It contained the work produced by some women, including poems and autobiographical sketches, published anonymously or acknowledged only by their initials. The mill owners controlled what appeared in the magazine, so the articles highlighted the girls femininity and tended to be positive. The Lowell Offering stopped being published when women began to strike in 1845.
The danger of mill work was readily known to the girls, they saw it. One girl who worked at the Lowell Mills wrote home, "Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day a man was killed by the [railroad] cars... Last Tuesday we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest I got me a pair of rubbers and a pair of 50.cts shoes…"
In 1834, the Lowell Mill owners decided to reduce the wages of the mill girls and they finally reached their breaking point. They organized to push back against the wage cuts. The mill girls went on strike, marching to various mills to encourage others to join their cause. They congregated at an outdoor rally and signed a petition stating their refusal to return to work unless their wages were maintained. The strikers sang:
"Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh ! I cannot be a slave,
I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty
That I cannot be a slave."
In their first attempt at strike, the bosses emerged victorious. The management possessed enough power and financial resources to quash the strike. Within a week, the mills were operating almost at full capacity. Things seemed to calm until they cut wages again in 1836. The second strike was better organized and caused more disruption to mill operations. Nonetheless, the bosses maintained control.
Although these were significant setbacks, the mill girls refused to surrender. In the 1840s, they adopted a different strategy—political action. They established the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association to advocate for a shorter workday of ten hours. Despite women's inability to vote in Massachusetts or anywhere else in the country, the mill girls persisted. They conducted extensive petition campaigns, gathering over 2,000 signatures on a petition in 1845, and more than double that number the following year, urging the Massachusetts state legislature to pass a law limiting the workday in mills to ten hours.
Their efforts did not cease. They established chapters in other mill towns in Massachusetts and New Hampshire, published "Factory Tracts" to expose the deplorable conditions in the mills, and provided testimony before a state legislative committee. Furthermore, they actively campaigned against a state representative who staunchly opposed their cause and soundly defeated him. In 1847, New Hampshire became the first state to pass a law mandating a ten-hour workday, but its enforcement was not effective.
Lowell Mill Girls, Wikimedia Commons
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Lowell Mill Girls, Wikimedia Commons
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Immigrant Inspections, Library of Congress
Migration:
In the late 1800s, the American population grew enormously from both internal migration and external immigration. The internal movement of peoples resulted from demographic shifts as Americans moved from poor rural regions in the south and midwest to find jobs in the industrialized cities in the north. New immigrants made even more competitive the battle over jobs and further put power in the hands of factory owners.
Most immigrants arrived at Ellis Island in New York or Angel Island in California. Upon arrival, female immigrants, like their male counterparts, underwent the rigorous process of immigration inspection and documentation. They were subjected to medical examinations, interviews, and screenings to determine they were healthy and eligible to enter the US. This process aimed to ensure public health and safety, but it could be overwhelming and intimidating for many women, especially if they faced language barriers.
Female immigrants often sought employment in the factories. They worked in sweatshops and domestic service, among other sectors. These jobs provided economic opportunities, but the working conditions were frequently harsh, with long hours, low wages, and unsafe environments. Immigrant women faced exploitation and discrimination, often receiving lower wages than their male counterparts or native-born workers. Female immigrants had to navigate the process of cultural adaptation in a new country. They had to learn a new language, adjust to different social norms, and adapt to unfamiliar customs and practices. This transition could be challenging and isolating, particularly for those who faced discrimination or prejudice based on their ethnicity or nationality. Female immigrants often settled in neighborhoods with other people from their home country. They relied on social support and help in navigating the challenges of life in a new country.
In the late 1800s, the American population grew enormously from both internal migration and external immigration. The internal movement of peoples resulted from demographic shifts as Americans moved from poor rural regions in the south and midwest to find jobs in the industrialized cities in the north. New immigrants made even more competitive the battle over jobs and further put power in the hands of factory owners.
Most immigrants arrived at Ellis Island in New York or Angel Island in California. Upon arrival, female immigrants, like their male counterparts, underwent the rigorous process of immigration inspection and documentation. They were subjected to medical examinations, interviews, and screenings to determine they were healthy and eligible to enter the US. This process aimed to ensure public health and safety, but it could be overwhelming and intimidating for many women, especially if they faced language barriers.
Female immigrants often sought employment in the factories. They worked in sweatshops and domestic service, among other sectors. These jobs provided economic opportunities, but the working conditions were frequently harsh, with long hours, low wages, and unsafe environments. Immigrant women faced exploitation and discrimination, often receiving lower wages than their male counterparts or native-born workers. Female immigrants had to navigate the process of cultural adaptation in a new country. They had to learn a new language, adjust to different social norms, and adapt to unfamiliar customs and practices. This transition could be challenging and isolating, particularly for those who faced discrimination or prejudice based on their ethnicity or nationality. Female immigrants often settled in neighborhoods with other people from their home country. They relied on social support and help in navigating the challenges of life in a new country.
Samuel Gompers, AFL Leadership, Wikimedia Commons
Male Unions:
Sadly male union leaders were not great allies to their sisters in the labor movement. The shift from agrarian economy to factory based systems caused laborers to fight to protect their status and worth in the industrial system. Laborers were categorized by “skilled” and “unskilled” labor. Skilled work required apprenticeships and years of experience. Unskilled jobs could be learned when you got the job and usually required a lot of manual labor. For women, these categories existed, but they were also relegated to “women’s work." This category of work that females could do had not really existed until the industrial revolution and stuck around for a really long time. What genitalia had to do with the ability to do these jobs remains unclear. Male union leaders worked to keep their wages high at the expense of women’s wages. Under served by male leadership, women activists were forced to create their own union, specifically advocated for their interests.
For example, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886, has a dark history of discrimination against women. The AFL had a policy of excluding women from membership in affiliated trade unions. Even within industries where women were allowed to work, the AFL often supported and maintained wage differentials between male and female workers. This practice perpetuated gender-based wage discrimination, with women typically receiving lower wages than their male counterparts for performing the same or similar work.
The AFL did not actively support or prioritize organizing efforts among female workers. Its focus was primarily on organizing male-dominated industries and trades, often neglecting the organizing needs and concerns of women in sectors where they predominated, such as garment manufacturing or domestic service. The AFL's policies and campaigns often prioritized the interests and concerns of male workers, focusing primarily on issues such as higher wages, shorter work hours, and workplace safety. While these were important goals for all workers, the specific challenges and needs of women, such as maternity leave, child labor, and workplace harassment, were often overlooked or given less attention.
The AFL leadership resisted calls for gender equality within the labor movement. Some leaders held traditional views that regarded women as "homemakers" or "helpmates" rather than full participants in the workforce. They wrongly viewed women’s work as "extra," or less essential to the income of the family. This was just not the case in most lower class homes. Women’s labor allowed meals to be put on the table, and every penny counted.
It is worth noting that the AFL's discriminatory practices were not universal among all affiliated unions or individual union members. Some unions within the AFL did admit women as members, and there were instances of successful organizing efforts among women workers, often led by women themselves or in collaboration with sympathetic male unionists. However, these efforts were often met with resistance and opposition from the AFL's leadership and certain union factions.
Sadly male union leaders were not great allies to their sisters in the labor movement. The shift from agrarian economy to factory based systems caused laborers to fight to protect their status and worth in the industrial system. Laborers were categorized by “skilled” and “unskilled” labor. Skilled work required apprenticeships and years of experience. Unskilled jobs could be learned when you got the job and usually required a lot of manual labor. For women, these categories existed, but they were also relegated to “women’s work." This category of work that females could do had not really existed until the industrial revolution and stuck around for a really long time. What genitalia had to do with the ability to do these jobs remains unclear. Male union leaders worked to keep their wages high at the expense of women’s wages. Under served by male leadership, women activists were forced to create their own union, specifically advocated for their interests.
For example, the American Federation of Labor (AFL), founded in 1886, has a dark history of discrimination against women. The AFL had a policy of excluding women from membership in affiliated trade unions. Even within industries where women were allowed to work, the AFL often supported and maintained wage differentials between male and female workers. This practice perpetuated gender-based wage discrimination, with women typically receiving lower wages than their male counterparts for performing the same or similar work.
The AFL did not actively support or prioritize organizing efforts among female workers. Its focus was primarily on organizing male-dominated industries and trades, often neglecting the organizing needs and concerns of women in sectors where they predominated, such as garment manufacturing or domestic service. The AFL's policies and campaigns often prioritized the interests and concerns of male workers, focusing primarily on issues such as higher wages, shorter work hours, and workplace safety. While these were important goals for all workers, the specific challenges and needs of women, such as maternity leave, child labor, and workplace harassment, were often overlooked or given less attention.
The AFL leadership resisted calls for gender equality within the labor movement. Some leaders held traditional views that regarded women as "homemakers" or "helpmates" rather than full participants in the workforce. They wrongly viewed women’s work as "extra," or less essential to the income of the family. This was just not the case in most lower class homes. Women’s labor allowed meals to be put on the table, and every penny counted.
It is worth noting that the AFL's discriminatory practices were not universal among all affiliated unions or individual union members. Some unions within the AFL did admit women as members, and there were instances of successful organizing efforts among women workers, often led by women themselves or in collaboration with sympathetic male unionists. However, these efforts were often met with resistance and opposition from the AFL's leadership and certain union factions.
Nannie Helen Burroughs, Library of Congress
Nannie Helen Burroughs:
The Lowell mill girls strikes were only the beginning for women's unionization and resistance to industrial greed. In the city of Atlanta, Black washerwomen successfully went on strike in 1881 for better wages, they also created a network among white laundry workers as well to stabilize costs and to notify others about harsh or unfair employers.
In the early 20th century, Nannie Helen Burroughs established the National Trade School for Women and Girls, which was the largest school for Black women and girls in Washington, DC, in 1909. The city of Washington, DC offered a number of better paid domestic jobs, but Burroughs wanted her school to prepare Black women for careers outside of domestic service. The educational program at the National Trade School offered general education, as well as vocational training in domestic service, dressmaking, and business and social service. In 1917, Burroughs co-founded the National Association of Women Wage Earners (NAWE) to organize Black domestic workers into a national union for better wages and conditions. The organization sought recognition from the AFL and soon opened up membership to Black female business owners in the DC area. The organization recognized that other labor groups did not actively recruit and help Black workers, so they did so for themselves. There were 23 chapters in the states of VA, FLA, CT, MA, KY, NY, and PA with a membership of 5-10,000 members. This was a short-lived organization, but demonstrated that it was possible to organize domestic workers when it was widely believed impossible to do so.
The Lowell mill girls strikes were only the beginning for women's unionization and resistance to industrial greed. In the city of Atlanta, Black washerwomen successfully went on strike in 1881 for better wages, they also created a network among white laundry workers as well to stabilize costs and to notify others about harsh or unfair employers.
In the early 20th century, Nannie Helen Burroughs established the National Trade School for Women and Girls, which was the largest school for Black women and girls in Washington, DC, in 1909. The city of Washington, DC offered a number of better paid domestic jobs, but Burroughs wanted her school to prepare Black women for careers outside of domestic service. The educational program at the National Trade School offered general education, as well as vocational training in domestic service, dressmaking, and business and social service. In 1917, Burroughs co-founded the National Association of Women Wage Earners (NAWE) to organize Black domestic workers into a national union for better wages and conditions. The organization sought recognition from the AFL and soon opened up membership to Black female business owners in the DC area. The organization recognized that other labor groups did not actively recruit and help Black workers, so they did so for themselves. There were 23 chapters in the states of VA, FLA, CT, MA, KY, NY, and PA with a membership of 5-10,000 members. This was a short-lived organization, but demonstrated that it was possible to organize domestic workers when it was widely believed impossible to do so.
Knights of Labor Women Delegates, Library of Congress
Mother Jones:
The radical Mary Harris “Mother” Jones proved to be a champion for workers and human rights with her activism from the late 19th to early 20th century. Born into a poor family in Ireland in the 1830s, Harris faced a tragic early life. She witnessed her grandfather’s execution, soldiers destroying her childhood, and brutal treatment of Irish rebels by British soldiers. Tragedy followed her into adulthood in the US, when her husband and four children perished from yellow fever and then she lost her home and livelihood and possessions in the Great Chicago fire. Soon after, she got involved as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. She co-founded the IWW, hoping that all workers would be unified to fight together. She became known as the “most dangerous woman in America,” for her ability to organize and recruit new members to the union cause, and for organizing walkouts and sustaining strikes. Harris captivated audiences for her “motherly” approach from her dress to the speeches she delivered. She urged workers to exercise independence, and to fight for themselves and others. When workers rallied and engaged in strikes, “Mother” Jones was there to boost morale, tend to the sick and injured, to take a turn on the picket line. “Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living,” she was noted for saying. Jones was arrested numerous times for her participation in strikes. She traveled thousands of miles for her work and spent her 60s-80s on the road, often at the center of labor actions, from the mining camps in the west and in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, garment workers, and steel workers.
The radical Mary Harris “Mother” Jones proved to be a champion for workers and human rights with her activism from the late 19th to early 20th century. Born into a poor family in Ireland in the 1830s, Harris faced a tragic early life. She witnessed her grandfather’s execution, soldiers destroying her childhood, and brutal treatment of Irish rebels by British soldiers. Tragedy followed her into adulthood in the US, when her husband and four children perished from yellow fever and then she lost her home and livelihood and possessions in the Great Chicago fire. Soon after, she got involved as an organizer for the Knights of Labor and the United Mine Workers. She co-founded the IWW, hoping that all workers would be unified to fight together. She became known as the “most dangerous woman in America,” for her ability to organize and recruit new members to the union cause, and for organizing walkouts and sustaining strikes. Harris captivated audiences for her “motherly” approach from her dress to the speeches she delivered. She urged workers to exercise independence, and to fight for themselves and others. When workers rallied and engaged in strikes, “Mother” Jones was there to boost morale, tend to the sick and injured, to take a turn on the picket line. “Pray for the dead, but fight like hell for the living,” she was noted for saying. Jones was arrested numerous times for her participation in strikes. She traveled thousands of miles for her work and spent her 60s-80s on the road, often at the center of labor actions, from the mining camps in the west and in Pennsylvania and West Virginia, garment workers, and steel workers.
Muller Vs. Oregon, Britannica
Muller v. Oregon:
The Muller v. Oregon (1908) case firmly established the legal precedence for protective legislation. In 1903, the state of Orgeon passed a law that made it illegal for employers to keep female factory and laundry workers on the job for more than ten hours a day. Laundry owner Curt Muller, convicted of violating the Oregon law, challenged its constitutionality, and claimed that it violated his right to freedom of contract under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court heard the case in January 1908. Louis Brandeis, representing the state of Oregon, prepared a lengthy brief, arguing that the state could curb the freedom of contract to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. The Brandeis Brief used “facts” to demonstrate that women had “special physical organization” (anatomical and physiological differences) and were “fundamentally weaker” than men (according to physicians at that time). According to Brandeis, long hours were not only dangerous to the physical health of women, who could suffer from “pelvic disorders” that would jeopardize their ability to give birth; but they might also succumb to lax moral behavior as well. The argument ends with the reasonableness of the ten-hour day for working women as good for the welfare of the country. Six weeks later, the Supreme Court upheld the Oregon law, making women wards of the state. Many states already had some protective laws on the books, and more would do so after the Muller decision. By 1914, twenty-seven states regulated some aspect of women’s work, from how many hours, to night work, limits on carrying weights, and working in dangerous or morally hazardous places (bars/saloons, meter readers for the gas and electric companies, streetcar conductors, and elevator operators for instance). By 1920, fifteen states passed minimum wage laws to protect the moral health of working women. Most male union officials supported protective legislation for women because it limited women's competitiveness in the labor market.
One of the unintended consequences of the protective laws played a role in the garment strikes in Lawrence, MA in 1912. Massachusetts legislators, in response to reformers and the AFL, successfully lobbied for the maximum work week to be reduced from 56 to 54 hours for women and children. When the law went into effect on January 1, 1912, thousands of workers at the American Woolen Company, many of whom were women, walked off the job in protest of losing money from their paychecks on January 11.
The Muller v. Oregon (1908) case firmly established the legal precedence for protective legislation. In 1903, the state of Orgeon passed a law that made it illegal for employers to keep female factory and laundry workers on the job for more than ten hours a day. Laundry owner Curt Muller, convicted of violating the Oregon law, challenged its constitutionality, and claimed that it violated his right to freedom of contract under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. The Supreme Court heard the case in January 1908. Louis Brandeis, representing the state of Oregon, prepared a lengthy brief, arguing that the state could curb the freedom of contract to protect the health and welfare of its citizens. The Brandeis Brief used “facts” to demonstrate that women had “special physical organization” (anatomical and physiological differences) and were “fundamentally weaker” than men (according to physicians at that time). According to Brandeis, long hours were not only dangerous to the physical health of women, who could suffer from “pelvic disorders” that would jeopardize their ability to give birth; but they might also succumb to lax moral behavior as well. The argument ends with the reasonableness of the ten-hour day for working women as good for the welfare of the country. Six weeks later, the Supreme Court upheld the Oregon law, making women wards of the state. Many states already had some protective laws on the books, and more would do so after the Muller decision. By 1914, twenty-seven states regulated some aspect of women’s work, from how many hours, to night work, limits on carrying weights, and working in dangerous or morally hazardous places (bars/saloons, meter readers for the gas and electric companies, streetcar conductors, and elevator operators for instance). By 1920, fifteen states passed minimum wage laws to protect the moral health of working women. Most male union officials supported protective legislation for women because it limited women's competitiveness in the labor market.
One of the unintended consequences of the protective laws played a role in the garment strikes in Lawrence, MA in 1912. Massachusetts legislators, in response to reformers and the AFL, successfully lobbied for the maximum work week to be reduced from 56 to 54 hours for women and children. When the law went into effect on January 1, 1912, thousands of workers at the American Woolen Company, many of whom were women, walked off the job in protest of losing money from their paychecks on January 11.
William Wood, Wikimedia Commons
Wage-earners at American Woolen could not afford to lose any of their pay, since they lived in dire circumstances in the company town controlled by the company’s president, William Wood. Workers lived in crowded dingy company tenements and their workplace conditions proved not to be any better. Workers had to pay for drinking water, and were docked pay for being a minute late to work. Infant mortality rates were high in the company tenements and the accident rate on the job was high as well. The work pace increased and in spite of a $3 million profit margin in 1911, Wood refused to raise worker’s wages for two fewer hours of work. While the difference in the pay amount seemed small, thirty to forty cents, for the workers that was the equivalent to four loaves of bread, which was significant to these workers who lived paycheck to paycheck.
Like the earlier shirtwaist strikes, the strike in Lawrence received a lot of attention due to the cooperation of the Polish, Italian, German, Lithuanian, and Syrian workers, and the presence and support from the IWW. Many IWW activists were present in the town during the strike. "It was the spirit of the workers that was dangerous," wrote labor reporter Mary Heaton Vorse. "They are always marching and singing. The crowds flowing perpetually into the mills had waked and opened their months to sing."
Publicity came when the striking workers sent their children to sympathetic families in New York City and Vermont, when the strike conditions worsened. American Woolen used their own security force and relied on the local police to battle with the workers.
Like the earlier shirtwaist strikes, the strike in Lawrence received a lot of attention due to the cooperation of the Polish, Italian, German, Lithuanian, and Syrian workers, and the presence and support from the IWW. Many IWW activists were present in the town during the strike. "It was the spirit of the workers that was dangerous," wrote labor reporter Mary Heaton Vorse. "They are always marching and singing. The crowds flowing perpetually into the mills had waked and opened their months to sing."
Publicity came when the striking workers sent their children to sympathetic families in New York City and Vermont, when the strike conditions worsened. American Woolen used their own security force and relied on the local police to battle with the workers.
Pearl McGill
The first group of children to leave on the “children’s exodus” paraded in the streets of NYC with pro-strike banners. When the next group of children and mothers arrived at the train station on Feb. 24th, many of them were beaten and taken into custody. They tore children from their parents, threw women and children into a patrol wagon, and detained 30. One woman testified: "The children, two by two in an orderly procession with the parents near, were about to make their way to the train when the police...closed in on us with their clubs, beating with no thought of the children who were in desperate danger of being trampled to death. The mothers and the children were thus hurled in a mass and bodily dragged to a military truck and even then clubbed, irrespective of the cries of the mothers and children."
Pearl McGill, went to Lawrence after the strike began, through her position as a speaker for the WTUL. McGill, who first gained recognition for her activism in the button workers strike in Muscatine, Iowa in 1911. Congress ended up investigating the strike because of the publicity received in early March 1912. Faced with negative publicity, the American Woolen Company negotiated a settlement with the strikers. Employees received a pay increase between 5 to 25 percent depending on the job, the bonus system put in place for fast work pace changed to minimize the impact of sickness or absence. Those who participated in the strike faced no reprisals from the company as well. The strike lasted nine weeks.
Pearl McGill, went to Lawrence after the strike began, through her position as a speaker for the WTUL. McGill, who first gained recognition for her activism in the button workers strike in Muscatine, Iowa in 1911. Congress ended up investigating the strike because of the publicity received in early March 1912. Faced with negative publicity, the American Woolen Company negotiated a settlement with the strikers. Employees received a pay increase between 5 to 25 percent depending on the job, the bonus system put in place for fast work pace changed to minimize the impact of sickness or absence. Those who participated in the strike faced no reprisals from the company as well. The strike lasted nine weeks.
Women's Trade Union League with Eleanor Roosevelt, Wikimedia Commons
Garment Workers Strikes:
Between 1909 and 1919, hundreds of thousands of young women in the garment industry from large and smaller cities in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois organized, struck, raised their wages, and in many shops won the right to unionize. Better machines and innovations in the garment trades meant work sped up at the same time that foremen engaged in humiliating practices on the job. Manufacturers did not keep large inventories, so they rushed workers to complete orders when they arrived, which meant there were slack periods when more than a third of the workers were laid-off. The subcontracting or “sweating” system also played a role in creating poor working conditions and low wages. Large manufacturers hired contractors, who provided sewing machines and a physical location for work, often in crowded warehouses with inadequate or safe partitions. The garment workers’ anger built up and led them to band together to fight against these practices. These workers also needed enforceable labor laws to protect them. At the time, the men who ran most of the existing labor unions did not believe it was possible to organize these un- and semiskilled workers. The young women proved that wrong.
The “Uprising of the 20,000” (or more) was one in a series of crucial struggles of working class women to gain better work conditions and pay increases. New industrial unions emerged to support them, such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). The International Workers of the World (IWW also known as the Wobblies), also competed with the AFL for the allegiance of industrial workers. Working class militancy, of which women played a huge role, spread from the textile industry to other sectors of the US economy. Garment activists such as Rose Schneiderman, Clara Lemlich, Pauline Newman, and Pearl McGill all played a role in organizing, striking, and speaking in support of striking workers. These young women embraced what has been called “industrial feminism,” where workplace issues created anger and a bond between the garment workers that aided in organizing and working together to resist their employers.
The working women found support from the Women’s Trade Union League. Founded in 1903 by a coalition of female trade unionists, settlement house residents, and social reformers. The WTUL wanted to improve the situation of women workers through organizing them into trade unions, lobbying for legislation to control hours and work conditions, and educating the workers of the special problems of women workers. Rose Schneiderman developed a close relationship with the wealthier women who led the WTUL. This organization began investigating conditions in the garment factories and realized that there were safety issues and concerns about factory practices. The League had a number of chapters in industrial cities and tried to steer the young women from the radical influence, such as from the Socialist Party or the IWW.
Between 1909 and 1919, hundreds of thousands of young women in the garment industry from large and smaller cities in New York, Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, Ohio, and Illinois organized, struck, raised their wages, and in many shops won the right to unionize. Better machines and innovations in the garment trades meant work sped up at the same time that foremen engaged in humiliating practices on the job. Manufacturers did not keep large inventories, so they rushed workers to complete orders when they arrived, which meant there were slack periods when more than a third of the workers were laid-off. The subcontracting or “sweating” system also played a role in creating poor working conditions and low wages. Large manufacturers hired contractors, who provided sewing machines and a physical location for work, often in crowded warehouses with inadequate or safe partitions. The garment workers’ anger built up and led them to band together to fight against these practices. These workers also needed enforceable labor laws to protect them. At the time, the men who ran most of the existing labor unions did not believe it was possible to organize these un- and semiskilled workers. The young women proved that wrong.
The “Uprising of the 20,000” (or more) was one in a series of crucial struggles of working class women to gain better work conditions and pay increases. New industrial unions emerged to support them, such as the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU) and the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America (ACWA). The International Workers of the World (IWW also known as the Wobblies), also competed with the AFL for the allegiance of industrial workers. Working class militancy, of which women played a huge role, spread from the textile industry to other sectors of the US economy. Garment activists such as Rose Schneiderman, Clara Lemlich, Pauline Newman, and Pearl McGill all played a role in organizing, striking, and speaking in support of striking workers. These young women embraced what has been called “industrial feminism,” where workplace issues created anger and a bond between the garment workers that aided in organizing and working together to resist their employers.
The working women found support from the Women’s Trade Union League. Founded in 1903 by a coalition of female trade unionists, settlement house residents, and social reformers. The WTUL wanted to improve the situation of women workers through organizing them into trade unions, lobbying for legislation to control hours and work conditions, and educating the workers of the special problems of women workers. Rose Schneiderman developed a close relationship with the wealthier women who led the WTUL. This organization began investigating conditions in the garment factories and realized that there were safety issues and concerns about factory practices. The League had a number of chapters in industrial cities and tried to steer the young women from the radical influence, such as from the Socialist Party or the IWW.
Clara Lemlich, National Park Services
Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire:
Clara Lemlich, a Ukrainian immigrant, had been working to organize the shirtwaist workers for several years before she called for a general strike in New York City Nov. 22, 1909. In her extemporaneous speech she said, “The working woman needs bread, but she needs roses, too.” The following day, thousands of garment workers took to the streets in protest.
Employers tried to divide the workforce along ethnic lines, but it largely failed due to a collective identity and increased militancy among the young women. These young women led the strike, were responsible for the size of the strike, and the spirit of the strike. They faced beatings from company guards, the local police, and the company trying to besmirch their image by hiring prostitutes to walk on the picket line. The ILGWU and the WTUL helped support the workers, raising funds for bail when the strikers were arrested and serving on the picket lines. One journalist commented that he could not tell the difference between the workers and the women of the WTUL. The Socialist Party also helped, walking the picket lines and providing mentors, publicity, and funds to help the striking workers.
Clara Lemlich, a Ukrainian immigrant, had been working to organize the shirtwaist workers for several years before she called for a general strike in New York City Nov. 22, 1909. In her extemporaneous speech she said, “The working woman needs bread, but she needs roses, too.” The following day, thousands of garment workers took to the streets in protest.
Employers tried to divide the workforce along ethnic lines, but it largely failed due to a collective identity and increased militancy among the young women. These young women led the strike, were responsible for the size of the strike, and the spirit of the strike. They faced beatings from company guards, the local police, and the company trying to besmirch their image by hiring prostitutes to walk on the picket line. The ILGWU and the WTUL helped support the workers, raising funds for bail when the strikers were arrested and serving on the picket lines. One journalist commented that he could not tell the difference between the workers and the women of the WTUL. The Socialist Party also helped, walking the picket lines and providing mentors, publicity, and funds to help the striking workers.
Tailors on Strike, Wikimedia Commons
The shirtwaist strike was not just in NYC. When Philadelphia garment workers found out that New York manufacturers sent their work for the Philadelphia shirtwaist factories to complete, the young immigrant women walked off the job in their own strike against this action, and their own grievances against the garment factory owners. The Philadelphia strike doesn’t get the same attention now as the New York uprising, but in 1909 and 1910 it did. The ILGWU and the WTUL also played a big part in helping the striking PA garment workers. Rose Schneiderman spoke in Philadelphia in her role at the WTUL, and Margaret Dreier Robins, the president of the WTUL arrived to help four days after the strike in Philadelphia began. The WTUL set up a headquarters near the largest factory and raised money and awareness to provide daily lunches for the strikers and general funds to help the workers. The radical labor agitator, Mary Harris “Mother” Jones also came to Philadelphia to boost morale among the strikers as well. She implored the young women to rely on themselves and not wealthy women, like Alva Belmont, widow of Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont, or Anne Morgan, daughter of J.P. Morgan. Both women used their considerable fortunes to aid the working women through the WTUL, but both women thought that many of the strike actions were too radical and didn't like their connections to socialism.
The NYC shirtwaist strike lasted about eleven weeks and a majority of the shirtwaist factories settled with the workers, particularly in the small shops. The women gained better pay, union recognition, a 52 hour work week, and provision of tools and materials without fees. The ILGWU ranks swelled as about 85% of the shirtwaist workers joined the union. The Philadelphia strikers made similar demands and the smaller shops settled with the garment workers sooner than the large manufacturers as well. The Philadelphia strike lasted about seven weeks.
These strikes did not resolve all of the issues faced by the garment workers. Then, as a result of the failure to effectively bargain with the bosses, on March 25, 1911 a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and 146 workers lost their lives, most of whom were young Italian and Jewish immigrant women. Within a short span of time, the fire engulfed the entire eighth floor of the ten-story building, but the women were trapped because the doors to the stairs were locked by the bosses to prevent them from taking frequent bathroom breaks, and the elevator couldn't hold everyone so they had to wait while it went up and down. The bosses on the upper floors escaped to another building without alerting people on other floors. Women fled to the fire escape outside, but it collapsed under the weight of so many women trying to evacuate. Two dozen women died from the fall. Bystanders, attracted by the rising smoke and the commotion of fire trucks rushing to the scene, watched with helpless horror as numerous workers cried out for help from the windows on the ninth floor. Desperate firefighters operated a rescue ladder, which ascended slowly towards the sky, but it was too short! It only made it to the sixth floor. With the fire rapidly advancing, the workers, driven by fear, started jumping and falling to their deaths on the sidewalk below. Some workers perished in the inferno, while others tragically fell down the open elevator shaft.
The NYC shirtwaist strike lasted about eleven weeks and a majority of the shirtwaist factories settled with the workers, particularly in the small shops. The women gained better pay, union recognition, a 52 hour work week, and provision of tools and materials without fees. The ILGWU ranks swelled as about 85% of the shirtwaist workers joined the union. The Philadelphia strikers made similar demands and the smaller shops settled with the garment workers sooner than the large manufacturers as well. The Philadelphia strike lasted about seven weeks.
These strikes did not resolve all of the issues faced by the garment workers. Then, as a result of the failure to effectively bargain with the bosses, on March 25, 1911 a fire broke out at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory and 146 workers lost their lives, most of whom were young Italian and Jewish immigrant women. Within a short span of time, the fire engulfed the entire eighth floor of the ten-story building, but the women were trapped because the doors to the stairs were locked by the bosses to prevent them from taking frequent bathroom breaks, and the elevator couldn't hold everyone so they had to wait while it went up and down. The bosses on the upper floors escaped to another building without alerting people on other floors. Women fled to the fire escape outside, but it collapsed under the weight of so many women trying to evacuate. Two dozen women died from the fall. Bystanders, attracted by the rising smoke and the commotion of fire trucks rushing to the scene, watched with helpless horror as numerous workers cried out for help from the windows on the ninth floor. Desperate firefighters operated a rescue ladder, which ascended slowly towards the sky, but it was too short! It only made it to the sixth floor. With the fire rapidly advancing, the workers, driven by fear, started jumping and falling to their deaths on the sidewalk below. Some workers perished in the inferno, while others tragically fell down the open elevator shaft.
Triangle Workers on the Sidewalk, Wikimedia Commons
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Triangle Fire, Wikimedia Commons
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Frances Perkins, Wikimedia Commons
This devastating incident remained New York's deadliest workplace disaster for a period of 90 years. In the long term, the fire resulted in massive public demonstrations and calls for factory inspections and improved safety standards for the workers. One of the results of the strikes and factory fires included state protective legislation. The Women’s Trade Union League and the National Consumers’ League both sought legislative redress for workplace issues, when it appeared that they could not halt the exclusions of women from organized labor leadership, even with the successes of the garment strikes of 1909-1910. The wealthier women involved in these organizations did not adequately understand the appeal that radicalism had among the working women. The working women often resented the savior role that the wealthier women projected in their efforts, as “allies” knew better than the workers what they needed. The WTUL and Consumers’ League sought societal support for establishing maximum hours, minimum wages, limits on night work or work in morally dangerous places, as well as weight and height restrictions.
Also, Frances Perkins was present at the scene of the tragic fire and personally witnessed the horrific events and the devastating loss of life. This experience deeply affected her and played a pivotal role in shaping her future advocacy for workers' rights and safety. In the aftermath of the fire, Perkins became increasingly involved in labor and reform movements. She dedicated her career to advocating for workers' rights, improved workplace conditions, and labor legislation. Her commitment eventually led her to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States.
Conclusion:
Working women faced challenges from every direction. Laws that might improve their workplace situation limited their competitive edge in the market with men. Women from other classes weren't always allies and this limited their financial and political bargaining.
By the end of this era so much remained in question. Could women find equity in the labor market? What could be done to improve working conditions? Would the vote improve women's ability to advocate for better wages? Would wealthy women join them in the battle? Would women's labor continue to be devalued?
Also, Frances Perkins was present at the scene of the tragic fire and personally witnessed the horrific events and the devastating loss of life. This experience deeply affected her and played a pivotal role in shaping her future advocacy for workers' rights and safety. In the aftermath of the fire, Perkins became increasingly involved in labor and reform movements. She dedicated her career to advocating for workers' rights, improved workplace conditions, and labor legislation. Her commitment eventually led her to serve as the U.S. Secretary of Labor under President Franklin D. Roosevelt, making her the first woman to hold a cabinet position in the United States.
Conclusion:
Working women faced challenges from every direction. Laws that might improve their workplace situation limited their competitive edge in the market with men. Women from other classes weren't always allies and this limited their financial and political bargaining.
By the end of this era so much remained in question. Could women find equity in the labor market? What could be done to improve working conditions? Would the vote improve women's ability to advocate for better wages? Would wealthy women join them in the battle? Would women's labor continue to be devalued?
Draw your own conclusions
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Learn how to teach with inquiry.
Many of these lesson plans were sponsored in part by the Library of Congress Teaching with Primary Sources Eastern Region Program, coordinated by Waynesburg University, the History and Social Studies Education Faculty at Plymouth State University, and the Patrons of the Remedial Herstory Project. |
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Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- The National Women's History Museum has lesson plans on women's history.
- The Guilder Lehrman Institute for American History has lesson plans on women's history.
- The NY Historical Society has articles and classroom activities for teaching women's history.
- Unladylike 2020, in partnership with PBS, has primary sources to explore with students and outstanding videos on women from the Progressive era.
- The Roy Rosenzweig Center for History and New Media has produced recommendations for teaching women's history with primary sources and provided a collection of sources for world history. Check them out!
- The Stanford History Education Group has a number of lesson plans about women in US History.
Period Specific Lesson Plans from Other Organizations
- National Women’s History Museum: On the Eve of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire, what were the conditions in the sweatshops of Manhattan in 1911 and how were individuals seeking change? The story of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire is multidimensional. The tragedy, which caused the death of 146 garment workers, highlighted many of the issues that defined urban life in turn-of-the-century America. These topics include, but are not limited to labor unions, immigration, industrialization, and factory girls working in sweatshop conditions in Manhattan’s garment district. March 25, 1911 became a benchmark moment in the Progressive Era that ultimately resulted in drastic changes in labor standards for factories across New York City, and later the nation. However, with the horrifying death toll, mostly young immigrant women, it is a story that highlights early 20th century labor activism, the power of big business, and the emerging voice of women, still silenced at the voting booths. Through this tragic event, we can learn about not only the women who died but the movement that they provoked and the conditions of labor that they forever changed.
- Gilder Lehrman: How did the Industrial Revolution impact the lives of women and what were the causes and effects of the fire? Dramatic change characterized the rapid industrialization of nineteenth-century America. The economy, politics, society and specifically women were all affected. In the early stages of this economic revolution, manufacturing was moved to factories in newly developing urban areas. Young women began working in the textile industry as early as 1820. Later on as goods were increasingly produced by machines run by unskilled labor, the number of women in the industrial workforce grew. Women entered the ranks of industrial workforce as seamstresses who produced ready-made clothing in the city sweatshops. One event, the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire, helps us to understand the experience of these women.
- Unladylike: Learn about the pioneering industrial engineer and psychologist, Lillian Moller Gilbreth, in this digital short from Unladylike2020. Using video, vocabulary and discussion questions, students learn about how her innovations improved American’s lives in both factories and the home.
- Unladylike: Learn about Susan La Flesche Picotte, the first American Indian physician and the first to found a private hospital on an American Indian reservation, in this video from the Unladylike2020 series. Susan La Flesche Picotte grew up on the Omaha Reservation in Nebraska against the backdrop of the Dawes Act of 1887 which sought to force indigenous tribes onto reservations and foster their assimilation into white society. Neither of her parents spoke English, but they encouraged her pursuit of an Anglo-American education. Picotte graduated from Women’s Medical College in 1889 and returned to the Omaha reservation to spend her career making house calls on foot, horse, and horse-drawn buggy across its 1,350 square miles. Also a fierce community leader, Picotte worked tirelessly to help her tribe combat the theft of American Indian land and public health crises including the spread of tuberculosis and alcoholism. Support materials include discussion questions, research project ideas, and primary source analysis.
- Unladylike: Learn about Annie Smith Peck, one of the first women in America to become a college professor and who took up mountain climbing in her forties, in this video from Unladylike2020. Peck gained international fame in 1895 when she first climbed the Matterhorn in the Swiss Alps -- not for her daring ascent, but because she undertook the climb wearing pants rather than a cumbersome skirt. Fifteen years later, at age 58, Peck was the first mountaineer ever to conquer Mount Huascarán in Peru, one of the highest peaks in the Western Hemisphere. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and teaching tips for extending learning through research projects.
- Voices of Democracy: There is a chasm in history classes between the Civil War and World War I in which it is difficult to engage students. If the Progressive Era is taught strictly through the historical facts—of unions, poor working conditions, Theodore Roosevelt’s reforms, and so on—students may have a difficult time envisioning the era’s importance to American history. This speech by Mary Harris ‘Mother’ Jones helps draw students into the Progressive Era in two ways. First, Jones’s vivid and cantankerous personality certainly draws students’ attention. She represents an important female voice during an era before women had the right to vote. Secondly, Jones’s speech provides an illustrative entry point to help students understand the working conditions that triggered the Progressive Movement, the intensity of the disputes between workers and their employers, and the formation of labor unions in the United States.
- National Womens History Museum: This lesson sees to explore the multifaceted and nuanced ways in which Helen Keller is remembered. By starting with an entry level text, students will be exposed to the way in which Keller is taught to elementary and middle school students. From there, students will seek to rewrite the story on Helen Keller using primary sources via a jigsaw activity to generate meaning. Students will consider the role of historical memory and consider the ways in which some of the ideas and beliefs of historical actors are ignored by history.
- Stanford History Education Group: Some historians have characterized Progressive reformers as generous and helpful. Others describe the reformers as condescending elitists who tried to force immigrants to accept Christianity and American identities. In this structured academic controversy, students read documents written by reformers and by an immigrant to investigate American attitudes during the Progressive Era.
- National History Day: Dorothea Lynde Dix (1802-1887) was born in Hampden, Maine, to a poor family. At age 12 she went to live with her grandmother in Boston. When she was only 14, Dix founded a school in Worcester, Massachusetts. After a 20-year career as a teacher and writer, in 1841 Dix visited a jail in East Cambridge, Massachusetts, and was appalled by the conditions. Many of the prisoners were mentally ill, and they were treated terribly by being ill-fed and abused. Dix took it upon herself to report these condition to the Massachusetts Legislature in 1843, documenting the poor conditions faced by hundreds of mentally ill men and women. Her action led to the successful passage of a bill to reform the way the state treated prisoners and people with mental illness. Dix canvassed the country working for prison reform and improved conditions for the mentally ill. Eventually her crusade became international. She even lobbied the pope in person about conditions in Italy. During the Civil War Dix served without pay as superintendent of nurses for the Union Army in the U.S. Sanitary Commission. She died on July 17, 1887, in a Trenton, New Jersey, hospital that she had founded.
- National History Day: Ida B. Wells (1862-1931) was born to slave parents in Holly Springs, Mississippi, on July 16, 1862, two months before President Abraham Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. As a young girl, Wells watched her parents work as political activists during Reconstruction. In 1878, tragedy struck as Wells lost both of her parents and a younger brother in a yellow fever epidemic. To support her younger siblings, Wells became a teacher, eventually moving to Memphis, Tennessee. In 1884, Wells found herself in the middle of a heated lawsuit. After purchasing a first-class train ticket, Wells was ordered to move to a segregated car. She refused to give up her seat and was forcibly removed from the train. Wells filed suit against the railroad and won. This victory was short lived, however, as the Tennessee Supreme Court overturned the lower court ruling in 1887. In 1892, Wells became editor and co-owner of The Memphis Free Speech and Headlight. Here, she used her skills as a journalist to champion the causes for African American and women’s rights. Among her most known works were those on behalf of anti-lynching legislation. Until her death in 1931, Ida B. Wells dedicated her life to what she referred to as a “crusade for justice.”
- Unladylike: Examine the life and legacy of the health, labor, and immigrant rights reformer Grace Abbott in this resource from Unladylike2020. Born into a progressive family of abolitionists and suffragettes in Nebraska, Abbott made it her life’s work to help those in need—focusing on fighting for the rights of children, recent immigrants, and new mothers and their babies. Support materials include a digital short, vocabulary and discussion questions.
- PBS and DPLA: This collection uses primary sources to explore settlement houses during the Progressive Era. Digital Public Library of America Primary Source Sets are designed to help students develop their critical thinking skills and draw diverse material from libraries, archives, and museums across the United States. Each set includes an overview, ten to fifteen primary sources, links to related resources, and a teaching guide. These sets were created and reviewed by the teachers on the DPLA's Education Advisory Committee.
- Unladylike: Learn about Martha “Mattie” Hughes Cannon, an accomplished physician, suffragist, and the first woman state senator in the United States, elected in 1896 in the state of Utah. This digital short from Unladylike2020 features the story of an immigrant child from Wales, UK, who moved with her family at age 2 to Utah, became a physician, opened her own medical practice, married into a plural marriage, fled the country in exile, returned and then ran for state office—and won—when most women in the United States did not have the right to vote. In this resource, students explore the life and times of Hughes Cannon using video, discussion questions, and analysis of primary sources and informational texts to learn more about the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and how women’s roles evolved throughout its history.
- Unladylike: Williamina Fleming was a trailblazing astronomer and discoverer of hundreds of stars who paved the way for women in science. Learn about her contributions to the fields of astronomy and astrophysics with this digital short from Unladylike 2020. Support materials include discussion questions, vocabulary, and a quote analysis activity for students.
- Unladylike: Learn about the life and scientific achievements of botanist, explorer and environmentalist Ynés Mexía, in this digital short from Unladylike2020. Using video, discussion questions, classroom activities, and teaching tips, students learn about the historical period in which Mexía lived and her impact on science and the environmental movement.
- Unladylike: In this video from Unladylike2020, learn how Rose Schneiderman, an immigrant whose family settled in the tenements of New York City’s Lower East Side, became one of the most important labor leaders in American history. A socialist and feminist, she fought to end dangerous working conditions for garment workers, and worked to help New York State grant women the right to vote in 1917. Utilizing video, discussion questions, vocabulary, and teaching tips, students learn about Schneiderman’s role in creating a better life for workers in the United States. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
- Unladylike: Learn about Maggie Lena Walker, the first African American woman to found a bank in the United States in this digital short from Unladylike2020. Utilizing a video, discussion questions and vocabulary, students will learn how Walker helped to improve the lives of African Americans and women at the turn of the 20th century by providing financial empowerment, social services, and civil rights leadership. Sensitive: This resource contains material that may be sensitive for some students. Teachers should exercise discretion in evaluating whether this resource is suitable for their class.
Temperance and Intersectionality
Frances Willard: The Race Problem
As President of the Woman’s Christian Temperance Union, Frances Willard was known for her work to prevent the negative impact of alcohol on society, especially women and children, and her lifelong mission to advance women’s rights. In 1890, Frances Willard had traveled to Atlanta for a WCTU convention. While there, she gave an interview to a pro-prohibition newspaper, the New York Voice, about Southern politics. In the interview, Willard blamed black voters for the defeat of prohibition bills in the South, even though there was no evidence to suggest they were responsible. Below is a transcription of the article.
THE RACE PROBLEM.
MISS WILLARD ON THE POLITICAL PUZZLE OF THE SOUTH
"If I were Black and Young No Steamer Could Revolve Its Wheels Fast Enough to Convey Me to the Dark Continent" -Suffrage, With an Educational Qualification, Solves the Problem for the South
A reporter recently interviewed Miss Willard, with the following result. His question was: "What do you think of the race problem and the Force Bill?"
"I was born an abolitionist," said Miss Willard, "taught to read out of the 'Slave's Friend,' my father and mother were educated in Oberlin College. So far as I know, I have not an atom of race prejudice. With me the color of the heart and not the skin is what settles a human being's status. It seems to me that Africa, the youngest of the continents, will some day be the greatest. Centuries from now, the poetic, musical, kindly, institutional people may lead the civilization of the globe. If I were black and young, no steamer could revolve its wheels fast enough to convey me to the dark continent. I should go where my color was the correct thing, and leave these pale faces to work out their own destiny; and I should build in my life to make my color fashionable by as much as one owe individuality could do it. You know that matchless lecture of Wendell Philips on Toussaint L'Ouverture! Nothing in it was so inspiring to me as the climax with which he closes. I read it with tearful eyes when I was a farmer's daughter on the prairies. It is to be remembered that this great St. Dominican chief was of unmixed Negro blood. Such as he are prophecies. They only betoken what race shall yet become, even as a genius is but the beckoning hand and smiling face that points all her brothers and sisters onward, for a time shall come when every human being shall be a greater genius than any human being has yet been. Let me quote Wendell Phillips: "You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read history not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But 50 years hence, when truth gets a hearing, the muse of history will put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, Hamden for England, LaFayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consumate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown as the ripe fruit of our noonday, then dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the solider, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture!"
"Now as to the 'race problem' in its minified, current meaning. I am a true lover of the Southern people. Have spoken and worked in perhaps 200 of their towns and cities, have been taken into their love and confidence at scores of hospitable firesides. Have heard tham pour out their hearts in the splendid frankness of their impetuous natures; and I have said to them at such times, 'When I go North there will be no work wafted to you from pen or voice that is not loyal to what we are saying here and now.' Going South, a woman, a temperance woman -three great barriers to their good will yonder- I was received by them with a confidence that was one of the most delightful surprises of my life, I think we have wronged the South, though we did not mean to do so. The reason was, in part, that we had irreparably wronged ourselves by putting so safeguard on the ballot-box at the North that would sift out alien illiterates. They rule our cities to-day, the saloon is their palace, and the toddy stick their scepter. It is not fair that they should vote, nor is it fair that a plantation Negro, who can neither read, nor write, whose ideas are bounded by the fence of his own field and the price of his own mule, should be entrusted with the ballot. We ought to have put an educational test upon that ballot from the first. The Anglo-Saxon race will never submit to be dominated by the Negro so long as his aptitude reaches no higher than the personal liberty of the saloon and the power of appreciating the amount of liquor that a dollar will buy New England would no more submit to this than South Carolina. 'Better whiskey and more of it has been the rallying cry of great dark-faced mobs in the Southern localities where Local Option was snowed under by the colored vote, Temperance has no enemy like that, for it unreasoning and unreachable. To-night it promises in a great congregation, a vote for temperance at the polls to-morrow; but to-morrow twenty five cents changes that vote in favor of the liquor seller.
'I pity the Southerners; and I believe the great mass of them are as conscientious, and kindly-intentioned toward the colored man, as an equal member of white church members at the North. Would be demagogues lead the colored people to destruction. Half drunken white rouges murder them at the polls, or intimidate them so that they do not vote. But the better class of people must not be blamed for this, and a more thoroughly American population than the Christian people of the South does not exist. They have the traditions, the kindness, the probity, the courage of our forefathers, The problem on their hands is immeasurable. The colored race multiples like the locusts of Egypt. The grog shop is its center of power, The safety of woman, of childhood, of the home, in menaced in a thousand localities at this moment, so that men dare not go beyond the sight of their own roof-tree. How little we know of all this, seated in comfort and affluence here at the North, descanting upon the right of every man 'to cast one ballot and have it fairly counted,' that well-worn shibboleth invoked once more to dodge a living issue.
"The fact that illiterate colored men will not vote at the South until the white population chooses to have them do so, and under similar conditions they would not at the North But every evil tends to its own cure in a Republic. See what this one of the Force bill is leading the Southerners to do. Look at Mississippi, with its Constitutional Convention. The wise measures there proposed may not carry, but they have at least been recommended by the Suffrage Committee to the convention, and they provide that women in Mississippi, who meet certain educational test, shall have the ballot, and shall vote at polling places separate from those of men. If the convention has the whit and wisdom to adopt this measure, Mississippi will be controlled by white people and delivered from the shot-gun policy of its political adventurers and whiskey-logged roughs. I hold that this measure simply sets a key for the colored people of Mississippi, which will bring them on into civilization dater than those of any other State, unless the other State shall get the eyes open wide enough to see that their safety lies in thus arming guards.
"What an incentive to the young colored women of that commonwealth to store their brains with ideas, for when they reach the standard set, (which is not an especially difficult one, and the colored youth have just as bright brains as the white,) they will come into the ranks of voters, the only condition being one of merit, not complexion. Man's extremity is God's opportunity, and it now looks as if the South would solve its own terrific color question by a method the mast fortunate for the development of the colored race that could possibly be devised. For whatever sets a high standard for the mothers, the whole race will shortly reach.
"When in the South I often speak in the academies and colleges devoted to the education of the Negro, and I studiously interrogate their teachers, many of them graduates of Yale, Princeton, and our own Northwestern University at Evanston, as to the ability displayed by these young people. Invariably they answer that it is just as great as was shown by their white students at the North. Nothing gives me a deeper sense of the inspiration that to talk to a chapel full of these devoted students, with their bright eyes, intelligent faces, and warm, sympathetic spirits. They are to be the leaders of their race. They are to bring it on in America to all that Christianity and education can win for any race, and in Africa they are to build up a great republic, founded upon the live of God and humanity, where they can profit by the experiments so laboriously wrought out by older civilizations, can discard the evil, and develop the good."
Willard, Frances. “The Race Problem.” Voice. Last modified October 23, 1890. Retrieved from https://scalar.usc.edu/works/willard-and-wells/the-voice-interview.
Questions:
THE RACE PROBLEM.
MISS WILLARD ON THE POLITICAL PUZZLE OF THE SOUTH
"If I were Black and Young No Steamer Could Revolve Its Wheels Fast Enough to Convey Me to the Dark Continent" -Suffrage, With an Educational Qualification, Solves the Problem for the South
A reporter recently interviewed Miss Willard, with the following result. His question was: "What do you think of the race problem and the Force Bill?"
"I was born an abolitionist," said Miss Willard, "taught to read out of the 'Slave's Friend,' my father and mother were educated in Oberlin College. So far as I know, I have not an atom of race prejudice. With me the color of the heart and not the skin is what settles a human being's status. It seems to me that Africa, the youngest of the continents, will some day be the greatest. Centuries from now, the poetic, musical, kindly, institutional people may lead the civilization of the globe. If I were black and young, no steamer could revolve its wheels fast enough to convey me to the dark continent. I should go where my color was the correct thing, and leave these pale faces to work out their own destiny; and I should build in my life to make my color fashionable by as much as one owe individuality could do it. You know that matchless lecture of Wendell Philips on Toussaint L'Ouverture! Nothing in it was so inspiring to me as the climax with which he closes. I read it with tearful eyes when I was a farmer's daughter on the prairies. It is to be remembered that this great St. Dominican chief was of unmixed Negro blood. Such as he are prophecies. They only betoken what race shall yet become, even as a genius is but the beckoning hand and smiling face that points all her brothers and sisters onward, for a time shall come when every human being shall be a greater genius than any human being has yet been. Let me quote Wendell Phillips: "You think me a fanatic to-night, for you read history not with your eyes, but with your prejudices. But 50 years hence, when truth gets a hearing, the muse of history will put Phocion for the Greek, and Brutus for the Roman, Hamden for England, LaFayette for France, choose Washington as the bright, consumate flower of our earlier civilization, and John Brown as the ripe fruit of our noonday, then dipping her pen in the sunlight, will write in the clear blue, above them all, the name of the solider, the statesman, the martyr, Toussaint L'Ouverture!"
"Now as to the 'race problem' in its minified, current meaning. I am a true lover of the Southern people. Have spoken and worked in perhaps 200 of their towns and cities, have been taken into their love and confidence at scores of hospitable firesides. Have heard tham pour out their hearts in the splendid frankness of their impetuous natures; and I have said to them at such times, 'When I go North there will be no work wafted to you from pen or voice that is not loyal to what we are saying here and now.' Going South, a woman, a temperance woman -three great barriers to their good will yonder- I was received by them with a confidence that was one of the most delightful surprises of my life, I think we have wronged the South, though we did not mean to do so. The reason was, in part, that we had irreparably wronged ourselves by putting so safeguard on the ballot-box at the North that would sift out alien illiterates. They rule our cities to-day, the saloon is their palace, and the toddy stick their scepter. It is not fair that they should vote, nor is it fair that a plantation Negro, who can neither read, nor write, whose ideas are bounded by the fence of his own field and the price of his own mule, should be entrusted with the ballot. We ought to have put an educational test upon that ballot from the first. The Anglo-Saxon race will never submit to be dominated by the Negro so long as his aptitude reaches no higher than the personal liberty of the saloon and the power of appreciating the amount of liquor that a dollar will buy New England would no more submit to this than South Carolina. 'Better whiskey and more of it has been the rallying cry of great dark-faced mobs in the Southern localities where Local Option was snowed under by the colored vote, Temperance has no enemy like that, for it unreasoning and unreachable. To-night it promises in a great congregation, a vote for temperance at the polls to-morrow; but to-morrow twenty five cents changes that vote in favor of the liquor seller.
'I pity the Southerners; and I believe the great mass of them are as conscientious, and kindly-intentioned toward the colored man, as an equal member of white church members at the North. Would be demagogues lead the colored people to destruction. Half drunken white rouges murder them at the polls, or intimidate them so that they do not vote. But the better class of people must not be blamed for this, and a more thoroughly American population than the Christian people of the South does not exist. They have the traditions, the kindness, the probity, the courage of our forefathers, The problem on their hands is immeasurable. The colored race multiples like the locusts of Egypt. The grog shop is its center of power, The safety of woman, of childhood, of the home, in menaced in a thousand localities at this moment, so that men dare not go beyond the sight of their own roof-tree. How little we know of all this, seated in comfort and affluence here at the North, descanting upon the right of every man 'to cast one ballot and have it fairly counted,' that well-worn shibboleth invoked once more to dodge a living issue.
"The fact that illiterate colored men will not vote at the South until the white population chooses to have them do so, and under similar conditions they would not at the North But every evil tends to its own cure in a Republic. See what this one of the Force bill is leading the Southerners to do. Look at Mississippi, with its Constitutional Convention. The wise measures there proposed may not carry, but they have at least been recommended by the Suffrage Committee to the convention, and they provide that women in Mississippi, who meet certain educational test, shall have the ballot, and shall vote at polling places separate from those of men. If the convention has the whit and wisdom to adopt this measure, Mississippi will be controlled by white people and delivered from the shot-gun policy of its political adventurers and whiskey-logged roughs. I hold that this measure simply sets a key for the colored people of Mississippi, which will bring them on into civilization dater than those of any other State, unless the other State shall get the eyes open wide enough to see that their safety lies in thus arming guards.
"What an incentive to the young colored women of that commonwealth to store their brains with ideas, for when they reach the standard set, (which is not an especially difficult one, and the colored youth have just as bright brains as the white,) they will come into the ranks of voters, the only condition being one of merit, not complexion. Man's extremity is God's opportunity, and it now looks as if the South would solve its own terrific color question by a method the mast fortunate for the development of the colored race that could possibly be devised. For whatever sets a high standard for the mothers, the whole race will shortly reach.
"When in the South I often speak in the academies and colleges devoted to the education of the Negro, and I studiously interrogate their teachers, many of them graduates of Yale, Princeton, and our own Northwestern University at Evanston, as to the ability displayed by these young people. Invariably they answer that it is just as great as was shown by their white students at the North. Nothing gives me a deeper sense of the inspiration that to talk to a chapel full of these devoted students, with their bright eyes, intelligent faces, and warm, sympathetic spirits. They are to be the leaders of their race. They are to bring it on in America to all that Christianity and education can win for any race, and in Africa they are to build up a great republic, founded upon the live of God and humanity, where they can profit by the experiments so laboriously wrought out by older civilizations, can discard the evil, and develop the good."
Willard, Frances. “The Race Problem.” Voice. Last modified October 23, 1890. Retrieved from https://scalar.usc.edu/works/willard-and-wells/the-voice-interview.
Questions:
- Who is Frances Willard and why might she be a credible source for information on the treatment of white women in the south?
- What claims does Willard make about black men?
- What evidence does she provide to support these claims?
- Does Willard have any incentives to be dishonest?
- Willard ran a temperance organization, should she take a stand on lynching when it is unrelated?
Ida B. Wells-Barnett: On Temperance
Ida B. Wells was an educator and journalist who began her civil rights activism in response to racist incidents she had experienced. In 1892, after one of her close friends was murdered by a white mob in Memphis, Tennessee, she began to investigate the circumstances surrounding lynchings, which had become horrifyingly common in the South. The conventional wisdom at the time was that white mobs murdered black men after they had raped white women. Wells's research proved that this was not true; allegations of rape were rarely involved, but the belief that they were reduced white sympathy for black victims of lynchings.
Wells began reporting on her findings. She showed that lynchings were not misguided vigilante justice against men who had committed crimes--what she called “the old threadbare lie that negro men rape white women.” Instead, they were a way for white people to systematically use violence and fear to oppress black people.
Wells embarked on a wide-ranging anti-lynching campaign to draw attention to and stop the killings. She became frustrated, however, by the reluctance of influential white reformers to support her work. One of those reformers was Frances Willard.
All things considered, our race is probably not more intemperate than other races. By reason, though, of poverty, ignorance, and consequent degradation as a mass, we are behind in general advancement. We can, therefore, less afford to equal other races in that which still further debases, degrades and impoverishes, when we lack so much of being their equal and noble manhood and womanhood parentheses intellectual, moral, and physical,) in houses, lands, gold and most things whatsoever which tend to elevate and ennoble a people. The treatment of the temperance question will be from a race and economic standpoint.
Racist, as individuals, make name and place for themselves by emulating the virtues of those who have made themselves great and powerful. The history of such nations teaches us that temperance is one of the cardinal virtues necessary to success. What headway are we making in cultivating this virtue?
Miss Francis E. Willard, president of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, lately told the world that the center of power of the race is the saloon; that white men for this reason are afraid to leave their homes; that the Negro in the late prohibition campaign, sold his vote for twenty-five cents, etc.
Miss Willard’s statements possess the small pro rata of truth of all such sweeping statements. It is well known that the Negro's greatest injury is done to himself.
In his wildest moments he seldom molests others than his own, and this article is a protest against such wholesale self-injury.
Our color stands as a synonym for weakness, poverty and ignorance. It says to other nationalities: “This man belongs to a race possessing little of the power or influence which comes through riches, intellect, or even organization. We may proscribe, insult, ignore and oppress him as we please; he cannot help himself.”
The Anglo-Saxon every avenue of life puts in practice this line of reasoning; and as intemperance is one of the strongest foes to intellectual, material, and moral advancement, it is like playing with fire to take that in the mouth which steals away the brains, and thus gives judges and juries the excuse for filling the convict camps of Georgia alone with fifteen hundred Negroes out of the sixteen hundred convicts in them, most of whom are young men—the flower of the race, physically speaking.
At the close of the year, when farmers receive pay for the year's work, thousands of dollars, which might flow into honorable channels of trade and build up race enterprises, are spent for liquor to inflame the blood and incite to evil deeds. That which is not directly spent for liquor is lost or wasted; and thus, year in and out, one of the most useful factors in race progress—The farmer—is kept at a dead level, without money, without ambition, and consequently at the mercy of the landholder.
The belief is widespread that our people will patronize the saloon as they do no other enterprise. Desiring to secure some of the enormous profits flowing into Anglo-Saxon coffers, many of our young men are entertaining the nefarious traffic for the money it brings and thus every year sacrificing to the Moloch of intemperance hundreds of our young men. Intemperance is general and organized. In the cities it beguiles from every street corner and is found in many homes.
What shall be done to neutralize this power which tempts our young manhood and robs us of their time, talents, labor and money? Throughout the length and breadth of our land there exists little organized effort among ourselves against it. What can we do?
The convention of Educators of Colored Youth in Atlanta, GA., last December, in discussing the relative mortality of the race, took ground that intemperance was chiefly the cause of our alarming morality. The presidents of the schools and colleges in that convention assembled represented thousands of students who are to be the teachers of the race. The subject of temperance and her twin sister, frugality, should not be left for them to touch upon as an abstract matter, or in an incidental or spasmodic manner. An earnest, constant, systematic course of instruction from an economic standpoint in these schools, on this subject, which the students are in turn to impart to the people, is of vital importance, would be far-reaching and beneficial in its results; That association can wield a great power for the spread of temperance.
The National Press Association (representing over one hundred newspapers) which met in Cincinnati last month, speaking weekly to a constituency of perhaps a million readers, as an organized body can revolutionize public sentiment by showing how intemperance is sapping our physical and financial resources. The writer knows one secular journal which has lost many dollars by refusing to advertise saloons. That is the action of one sheet. There is needed however harmonious and consistent combination of agitation and effort from the entire body.
Nor must the ministers of the gospel, the most potent agents, who directly reach the masses, cease to preach temperance in their lives and pulpits, line upon line, and precept upon precept.
The Negro’s greatest lack is his seeming incapacity for organization for his own protection and elevation. Yet every reader of these lines, who loves his race and feels the force of these statements, and make himself a committee of one to influence someone else. One person does not make a race, but the nation is made-up of a multiplicity of units. Not one grain of sand, but countless millions of them, side by side, make the ocean bed. A single stream does not form the “Father of Waters,” but the conjunctive force of 100 streams in the bottom of the Mississippi basin, swells to the broad artery of commerce, which courses the length of this continent, and sweeps the resistless current to the sea. So, too, an organized combination of all these agencies for humanities good will sweep the country with a wave of public sentiment which shall make the liquor traffic unprofitable and dishonorable, and remove one of the principal stumbling blocks to race progress.
Wells-Barnett. “Temperance and Race Progress.” AME Church Review. Last modified 1891. Retrieved from https://scalar.usc.edu/works/willard-and-wells/ida-b-wells-temperance?path=timeline.
Wells began reporting on her findings. She showed that lynchings were not misguided vigilante justice against men who had committed crimes--what she called “the old threadbare lie that negro men rape white women.” Instead, they were a way for white people to systematically use violence and fear to oppress black people.
Wells embarked on a wide-ranging anti-lynching campaign to draw attention to and stop the killings. She became frustrated, however, by the reluctance of influential white reformers to support her work. One of those reformers was Frances Willard.
All things considered, our race is probably not more intemperate than other races. By reason, though, of poverty, ignorance, and consequent degradation as a mass, we are behind in general advancement. We can, therefore, less afford to equal other races in that which still further debases, degrades and impoverishes, when we lack so much of being their equal and noble manhood and womanhood parentheses intellectual, moral, and physical,) in houses, lands, gold and most things whatsoever which tend to elevate and ennoble a people. The treatment of the temperance question will be from a race and economic standpoint.
Racist, as individuals, make name and place for themselves by emulating the virtues of those who have made themselves great and powerful. The history of such nations teaches us that temperance is one of the cardinal virtues necessary to success. What headway are we making in cultivating this virtue?
Miss Francis E. Willard, president of the National Women's Christian Temperance Union, lately told the world that the center of power of the race is the saloon; that white men for this reason are afraid to leave their homes; that the Negro in the late prohibition campaign, sold his vote for twenty-five cents, etc.
Miss Willard’s statements possess the small pro rata of truth of all such sweeping statements. It is well known that the Negro's greatest injury is done to himself.
In his wildest moments he seldom molests others than his own, and this article is a protest against such wholesale self-injury.
Our color stands as a synonym for weakness, poverty and ignorance. It says to other nationalities: “This man belongs to a race possessing little of the power or influence which comes through riches, intellect, or even organization. We may proscribe, insult, ignore and oppress him as we please; he cannot help himself.”
The Anglo-Saxon every avenue of life puts in practice this line of reasoning; and as intemperance is one of the strongest foes to intellectual, material, and moral advancement, it is like playing with fire to take that in the mouth which steals away the brains, and thus gives judges and juries the excuse for filling the convict camps of Georgia alone with fifteen hundred Negroes out of the sixteen hundred convicts in them, most of whom are young men—the flower of the race, physically speaking.
At the close of the year, when farmers receive pay for the year's work, thousands of dollars, which might flow into honorable channels of trade and build up race enterprises, are spent for liquor to inflame the blood and incite to evil deeds. That which is not directly spent for liquor is lost or wasted; and thus, year in and out, one of the most useful factors in race progress—The farmer—is kept at a dead level, without money, without ambition, and consequently at the mercy of the landholder.
The belief is widespread that our people will patronize the saloon as they do no other enterprise. Desiring to secure some of the enormous profits flowing into Anglo-Saxon coffers, many of our young men are entertaining the nefarious traffic for the money it brings and thus every year sacrificing to the Moloch of intemperance hundreds of our young men. Intemperance is general and organized. In the cities it beguiles from every street corner and is found in many homes.
What shall be done to neutralize this power which tempts our young manhood and robs us of their time, talents, labor and money? Throughout the length and breadth of our land there exists little organized effort among ourselves against it. What can we do?
The convention of Educators of Colored Youth in Atlanta, GA., last December, in discussing the relative mortality of the race, took ground that intemperance was chiefly the cause of our alarming morality. The presidents of the schools and colleges in that convention assembled represented thousands of students who are to be the teachers of the race. The subject of temperance and her twin sister, frugality, should not be left for them to touch upon as an abstract matter, or in an incidental or spasmodic manner. An earnest, constant, systematic course of instruction from an economic standpoint in these schools, on this subject, which the students are in turn to impart to the people, is of vital importance, would be far-reaching and beneficial in its results; That association can wield a great power for the spread of temperance.
The National Press Association (representing over one hundred newspapers) which met in Cincinnati last month, speaking weekly to a constituency of perhaps a million readers, as an organized body can revolutionize public sentiment by showing how intemperance is sapping our physical and financial resources. The writer knows one secular journal which has lost many dollars by refusing to advertise saloons. That is the action of one sheet. There is needed however harmonious and consistent combination of agitation and effort from the entire body.
Nor must the ministers of the gospel, the most potent agents, who directly reach the masses, cease to preach temperance in their lives and pulpits, line upon line, and precept upon precept.
The Negro’s greatest lack is his seeming incapacity for organization for his own protection and elevation. Yet every reader of these lines, who loves his race and feels the force of these statements, and make himself a committee of one to influence someone else. One person does not make a race, but the nation is made-up of a multiplicity of units. Not one grain of sand, but countless millions of them, side by side, make the ocean bed. A single stream does not form the “Father of Waters,” but the conjunctive force of 100 streams in the bottom of the Mississippi basin, swells to the broad artery of commerce, which courses the length of this continent, and sweeps the resistless current to the sea. So, too, an organized combination of all these agencies for humanities good will sweep the country with a wave of public sentiment which shall make the liquor traffic unprofitable and dishonorable, and remove one of the principal stumbling blocks to race progress.
Wells-Barnett. “Temperance and Race Progress.” AME Church Review. Last modified 1891. Retrieved from https://scalar.usc.edu/works/willard-and-wells/ida-b-wells-temperance?path=timeline.
Ida b. Wells-Barnett: "Southern Horrors"
THE OFFENSE
Wednesday evening May 24, 1892, the city of Memphis was filled with excitement. Editorials in the daily papers of that date caused a meeting to be held in the Cotton Exchange Building; a committee was sent for the editors of the Free Speech an Afro-American journal published in that city, and the only reason the open threats of lynching that were made were not carried out was because they could not be found. The cause of all this commotion was the following editorial published in the Free Speech May 21, 1892, the Saturday previous.
Eight negroes lynched since last issue of the Free Speech one at Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday morning where the citizens broke(?) into the penitentiary and got their man; three near Anniston, Ala., one near New Orleans; and three at Clarksville, Ga., the last three for killing a white man, and five on the same old racket—the new alarm about raping white women. The same programme of hanging, then shooting bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter.
Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women.
The Daily Commercial of Wednesday following, May 25, contained the following leader:
Those negroes who are attempting to make the lynching of individuals of their race a means for arousing the worst passions of their kind are playing with a dangerous sentiment. The negroes may as well understand that there is no mercy for the negro rapist and little patience with his defenders. A negro organ printed in this city, in a recent issue publishes the following atrocious paragraph: "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful they will overreach themselves, and public sentiment will have a reaction; and a conclusion will be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women."
The fact that a black scoundrel is allowed to live and utter such loathsome and repulsive calumnies is a volume of evidence as to the wonderful patience of Southern whites. But we have had enough of it.
There are some things that the Southern white man will not tolerate, and the obscene intimations of the foregoing have brought the writer to the very outermost limit of public patience. We hope we have said enough.…
…The editor of the Free Speech has no disclaimer to enter, but asserts instead that there are many white women in the South who would marry colored men if such an act would not place them at once beyond the pale of society and within the clutches of the law. The miscegnation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women…
THE BLACK AND WHITE OF IT
The Cleveland Gazette of January 16, 1892, publishes a case in point. Mrs. J.S. Underwood, the wife of a minister of Elyria, Ohio, accused an Afro-American of rape. She told her husband that during his absence in 1888, stumping the State for the Prohibition Party, the man came to the kitchen door, forced his way in the house and insulted her. She tried to drive him out with a heavy poker, but he overpowered and chloroformed her, and when she revived her clothing was torn and she was in a horrible condition. She did not know the man but could identify him. She pointed out William Offett, a married man, who was arrested and, being in Ohio, was granted a trial.
The prisoner vehemently denied the charge of rape, but confessed he went to Mrs. Underwood's residence at her invitation and was criminally intimate with her at her request. This availed him nothing against the sworn testimony of a ministers wife, a lady of the highest respectability. He was found guilty, and entered the penitentiary, December 14, 1888, for fifteen years. Some time afterwards the woman's remorse led her to confess to her husband that the man was innocent.
These are her words:
I met Offett at the Post Office. It was raining. He was polite to me, and as I had several bundles in my arms he offered to carry them home for me, which he did. He had a strange fascination for me, and I invited him to call on me. He called, bringing chestnuts and candy for the children. By this means we got them to leave us alone in the room. Then I sat on his lap. He made a proposal to me and I readily consented. Why I did so, I do not know, but that I did is true. He visited me several times after that and each time I was indiscreet. I did not care after the first time. In fact I could not have resisted, and had no desire to resist.
When asked by her husband why she told him she had been outraged, she said: "I had several reasons for telling you. One was the neighbors saw the fellows here, another was, I was afraid I had contracted a loathsome disease, and still another was that I feared I might give birth to a Negro baby. I hoped to save my reputation by telling you a deliberate lie." Her husband horrified by the confession had Offett, who had already served four years, released and secured a divorce.
There are thousands of such cases throughout the South, with the difference that the Southern white men in insatiate fury wreak their vengeance without intervention of law upon the Afro-Americans who consort with their women. A few instances to substantiate the assertion that some white women love the company of the Afro-American will not be out of place. Most of these cases were reported by the daily papers of the South.
Wells-Barnett, Ida. B. “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” Originally printed 1892. New York Age Print. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14975/14975-h/14975-h.htm.
Questions:
Wednesday evening May 24, 1892, the city of Memphis was filled with excitement. Editorials in the daily papers of that date caused a meeting to be held in the Cotton Exchange Building; a committee was sent for the editors of the Free Speech an Afro-American journal published in that city, and the only reason the open threats of lynching that were made were not carried out was because they could not be found. The cause of all this commotion was the following editorial published in the Free Speech May 21, 1892, the Saturday previous.
Eight negroes lynched since last issue of the Free Speech one at Little Rock, Ark., last Saturday morning where the citizens broke(?) into the penitentiary and got their man; three near Anniston, Ala., one near New Orleans; and three at Clarksville, Ga., the last three for killing a white man, and five on the same old racket—the new alarm about raping white women. The same programme of hanging, then shooting bullets into the lifeless bodies was carried out to the letter.
Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that Negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful, they will overreach themselves and public sentiment will have a reaction; a conclusion will then be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women.
The Daily Commercial of Wednesday following, May 25, contained the following leader:
Those negroes who are attempting to make the lynching of individuals of their race a means for arousing the worst passions of their kind are playing with a dangerous sentiment. The negroes may as well understand that there is no mercy for the negro rapist and little patience with his defenders. A negro organ printed in this city, in a recent issue publishes the following atrocious paragraph: "Nobody in this section of the country believes the old thread-bare lie that negro men rape white women. If Southern white men are not careful they will overreach themselves, and public sentiment will have a reaction; and a conclusion will be reached which will be very damaging to the moral reputation of their women."
The fact that a black scoundrel is allowed to live and utter such loathsome and repulsive calumnies is a volume of evidence as to the wonderful patience of Southern whites. But we have had enough of it.
There are some things that the Southern white man will not tolerate, and the obscene intimations of the foregoing have brought the writer to the very outermost limit of public patience. We hope we have said enough.…
…The editor of the Free Speech has no disclaimer to enter, but asserts instead that there are many white women in the South who would marry colored men if such an act would not place them at once beyond the pale of society and within the clutches of the law. The miscegnation laws of the South only operate against the legitimate union of the races; they leave the white man free to seduce all the colored girls he can, but it is death to the colored man who yields to the force and advances of a similar attraction in white women. White men lynch the offending Afro-American, not because he is a despoiler of virtue, but because he succumbs to the smiles of white women…
THE BLACK AND WHITE OF IT
The Cleveland Gazette of January 16, 1892, publishes a case in point. Mrs. J.S. Underwood, the wife of a minister of Elyria, Ohio, accused an Afro-American of rape. She told her husband that during his absence in 1888, stumping the State for the Prohibition Party, the man came to the kitchen door, forced his way in the house and insulted her. She tried to drive him out with a heavy poker, but he overpowered and chloroformed her, and when she revived her clothing was torn and she was in a horrible condition. She did not know the man but could identify him. She pointed out William Offett, a married man, who was arrested and, being in Ohio, was granted a trial.
The prisoner vehemently denied the charge of rape, but confessed he went to Mrs. Underwood's residence at her invitation and was criminally intimate with her at her request. This availed him nothing against the sworn testimony of a ministers wife, a lady of the highest respectability. He was found guilty, and entered the penitentiary, December 14, 1888, for fifteen years. Some time afterwards the woman's remorse led her to confess to her husband that the man was innocent.
These are her words:
I met Offett at the Post Office. It was raining. He was polite to me, and as I had several bundles in my arms he offered to carry them home for me, which he did. He had a strange fascination for me, and I invited him to call on me. He called, bringing chestnuts and candy for the children. By this means we got them to leave us alone in the room. Then I sat on his lap. He made a proposal to me and I readily consented. Why I did so, I do not know, but that I did is true. He visited me several times after that and each time I was indiscreet. I did not care after the first time. In fact I could not have resisted, and had no desire to resist.
When asked by her husband why she told him she had been outraged, she said: "I had several reasons for telling you. One was the neighbors saw the fellows here, another was, I was afraid I had contracted a loathsome disease, and still another was that I feared I might give birth to a Negro baby. I hoped to save my reputation by telling you a deliberate lie." Her husband horrified by the confession had Offett, who had already served four years, released and secured a divorce.
There are thousands of such cases throughout the South, with the difference that the Southern white men in insatiate fury wreak their vengeance without intervention of law upon the Afro-Americans who consort with their women. A few instances to substantiate the assertion that some white women love the company of the Afro-American will not be out of place. Most of these cases were reported by the daily papers of the South.
Wells-Barnett, Ida. B. “Southern Horrors: Lynch Law in All Its Phases.” Originally printed 1892. New York Age Print. Retrieved from https://www.gutenberg.org/files/14975/14975-h/14975-h.htm.
Questions:
- What claims does Wells-Barnett make about black men?
- What evidence does she provide to support these claims?
- Does Wells-Barnett have any incentives to be dishonest?
Asian women and the United States
The New York Tribune: Picture Brides Landed on Fire Trap Island
Below is a transcription of a newspaper article documenting the conditions at the Pacific Immigration Station.
Picture Brides Landed On a Fire Trap Island
Congressmen Find Deplorable Conditions at Pacific Immigration Station
Special Dispatch to The Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO, July 17.
Angel Island, where the immigrants arriving by way of the Pacific are housed in large numbers, to-day was declared a fire trap and the health menace by members of the Congressional Committee on Immigration who made a tour of inspection.
"It is a rotten, dirty hole, the worst I have ever seen," said Representative Isaac Siegel, who has been a member of the committee three years and has visited all the receiving stations maintained by the Immigration Department.
"A fire trap" was the comment of Representative John C. Kleczka.
The Congressmen visited the island primarily to inspect the forty-two Japanese "picture brides" who arrived on the Shinyo Maru yesterday.
The building in which immigrants are housed are of wooden construction. Two men on guard at night. In case of fire scores of lives would be in danger, members of the committee said.
The only water on the island, the investigators found had to be brought on barges, The sanitary conditions were characterized as "deplorable."
Before proceeding to Alcatraz Island, where military prisoners are kept, the committee witnessed the picturesque meeting of the "picture brides" with the husbands they had never seen before....
Picture Brides Landed On a Fire Trap Island: Congressmen Find Deplorable Conditions at Pacific Immigration Station; 7/18/1910; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85. Retrieved from https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/picture-brides-landed-on-a-fire-trap-island-congressmen-find-deplorable-conditions-at-pacific-immigration-station.
Questions:
Picture Brides Landed On a Fire Trap Island
Congressmen Find Deplorable Conditions at Pacific Immigration Station
Special Dispatch to The Tribune
SAN FRANCISCO, July 17.
Angel Island, where the immigrants arriving by way of the Pacific are housed in large numbers, to-day was declared a fire trap and the health menace by members of the Congressional Committee on Immigration who made a tour of inspection.
"It is a rotten, dirty hole, the worst I have ever seen," said Representative Isaac Siegel, who has been a member of the committee three years and has visited all the receiving stations maintained by the Immigration Department.
"A fire trap" was the comment of Representative John C. Kleczka.
The Congressmen visited the island primarily to inspect the forty-two Japanese "picture brides" who arrived on the Shinyo Maru yesterday.
The building in which immigrants are housed are of wooden construction. Two men on guard at night. In case of fire scores of lives would be in danger, members of the committee said.
The only water on the island, the investigators found had to be brought on barges, The sanitary conditions were characterized as "deplorable."
Before proceeding to Alcatraz Island, where military prisoners are kept, the committee witnessed the picturesque meeting of the "picture brides" with the husbands they had never seen before....
Picture Brides Landed On a Fire Trap Island: Congressmen Find Deplorable Conditions at Pacific Immigration Station; 7/18/1910; Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, Record Group 85. Retrieved from https://www.docsteach.org/documents/document/picture-brides-landed-on-a-fire-trap-island-congressmen-find-deplorable-conditions-at-pacific-immigration-station.
Questions:
- What do you believe the term "picture brides" means?
- From the text, what can you assume about the experiences of women immigrating to the US?
Congress: The Page Act of 1875
FORTY-THIRD CONGRESS. SESS. II. CH. 141. 1875. CHAP. 141.-
An act supplementary to the acts in relation to immigration.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in determining whether the immigration of any subject of China, Japan, or any Oriental country, to the United States, is free and voluntary . . . it shall be the duty of the consul-general. . . to ascertain whether such immigrant has entered into a contract or agreement for a term of service within the United States, for lewd and immoral purposes; and if there be such contract or agreement, the said consul-general or consul shall not deliver the required permit or certificate...
Immigration History Editors. “Page Act.” Immigration History. Last modified N.D. https://immigrationhistory.org/item/page-act/.
Questions:
An act supplementary to the acts in relation to immigration.
Be it enacted by the Senate and House of Representatives of the United States of America in Congress assembled, That in determining whether the immigration of any subject of China, Japan, or any Oriental country, to the United States, is free and voluntary . . . it shall be the duty of the consul-general. . . to ascertain whether such immigrant has entered into a contract or agreement for a term of service within the United States, for lewd and immoral purposes; and if there be such contract or agreement, the said consul-general or consul shall not deliver the required permit or certificate...
Immigration History Editors. “Page Act.” Immigration History. Last modified N.D. https://immigrationhistory.org/item/page-act/.
Questions:
- What is the purpose of this act?
The Lowell factory girls
Numerous: Song of the Factory Girls
The following song was popular among working girls in the mid 1800s.
O sing me a song of the Factory Girl
So merry and glad and free
The bloom on her cheeks, of health it speaks!
O a happy creature is she!
"Song of the Factory Girls," in Foner, Philip S., ed. The Factory Girls: A Collection of Writings on Life and Struggles in the New England Factories of the 1840's by the Factory Girls Themselves, and the Story, in Their Own Words, of the First Trade Unions of Women Workers in the United States. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1977.
O sing me a song of the Factory Girl
So merry and glad and free
The bloom on her cheeks, of health it speaks!
O a happy creature is she!
"Song of the Factory Girls," in Foner, Philip S., ed. The Factory Girls: A Collection of Writings on Life and Struggles in the New England Factories of the 1840's by the Factory Girls Themselves, and the Story, in Their Own Words, of the First Trade Unions of Women Workers in the United States. Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1977.
The Daily Pheonix: The ‘Benefits’ of Factory Life for Women
In the early 1800s, rural areas were short on work and girls needed to work outside of the home and often
in cities to support their families. Yet girls and women leaving the safety of the domestic sphere roused
public concern both for protecting their womanhood and for making sure there wasn’t too much
competition for male laborers. Even as late as the 1870s, newspapers like the Daily Phoenix weighed in.
Here they quote a doctor, Jennie Collins, describes the conditions at Lowell.
We have not one woman too many in Massachusetts; in the next place, they are more
healthy than men, and both facts can be proved by the report of the city hospital, which received
2,088 men, and in the same period only 1,113 women although they are double in number, with
half the pay.
The next error of Dr. Ames, is the statement that manufacturing and kindred trade crafts
are injurious to health and morals in a greater degree than other modes of life. This is
contradicted by the records at the State House that will bear testimony that out of 150,000
women, only one in seventy-five chargeable to the State for support in sickness or old age, is
from factories or shops.
As for their morals, another record will show that out of the appalling number of poor
girls who are led away from rectitude and seek redress from the State, very rarely one comes
from the factory or work-shop. A significant fact for themselves and their surroundings.
The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), May. 7 1875. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84027008/1875-
05-07/ed-1/.
Questions:
in cities to support their families. Yet girls and women leaving the safety of the domestic sphere roused
public concern both for protecting their womanhood and for making sure there wasn’t too much
competition for male laborers. Even as late as the 1870s, newspapers like the Daily Phoenix weighed in.
Here they quote a doctor, Jennie Collins, describes the conditions at Lowell.
We have not one woman too many in Massachusetts; in the next place, they are more
healthy than men, and both facts can be proved by the report of the city hospital, which received
2,088 men, and in the same period only 1,113 women although they are double in number, with
half the pay.
The next error of Dr. Ames, is the statement that manufacturing and kindred trade crafts
are injurious to health and morals in a greater degree than other modes of life. This is
contradicted by the records at the State House that will bear testimony that out of 150,000
women, only one in seventy-five chargeable to the State for support in sickness or old age, is
from factories or shops.
As for their morals, another record will show that out of the appalling number of poor
girls who are led away from rectitude and seek redress from the State, very rarely one comes
from the factory or work-shop. A significant fact for themselves and their surroundings.
The Daily Phoenix. (Columbia, SC), May. 7 1875. https://www.loc.gov/item/sn84027008/1875-
05-07/ed-1/.
Questions:
- Does this text depict a positive experience for women working in factories?
Lucy Larcom: A New England Girlhood
"A New England Girlhood" is the autobiography of poet Lucy Larcom. Arriving in Lowell, Massachusetts, in the 1830s after the death of her shipmaster father, eleven-year-old Lucy Larcom went to work in a textile mill to help support her family. Her mother also worked there as a Matron in the boarding house.
My grandfather came to see my mother once at about this time and visited the mills. When he had entered our room, and looked around for a moment, he took off his hat and made a low bow to the girls, first toward the right, and then toward the left. We were familiar with his courteous habits, partly due to his French descent; but we had never seen anybody bow to a room full of mill girls in that polite way, and some one of the family afterwards asked him why he did so. He looked a little surprised at the question, but answered promptly and with dignity, “I always take off my hat to ladies.”
His courtesy was genuine. Still, we did not call ourselves ladies. We did not forget that we were working-girls, wearing coarse aprons suitable to our work, and that there was some danger of our becoming drudges. I know that sometimes the confinement of the mill became very wearisome to me. In the sweet June weather I would lean far out of the window, and try not to hear the unceasing clash of sound inside. Looking away to the hills, my whole stifled being would cry out “Oh, that I had wings!” Still I was there from choice… And I was every day making discoveries about life, and about myself… I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough.
Larcom, Lucy. A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory. United States: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1889.
Questions:
My grandfather came to see my mother once at about this time and visited the mills. When he had entered our room, and looked around for a moment, he took off his hat and made a low bow to the girls, first toward the right, and then toward the left. We were familiar with his courteous habits, partly due to his French descent; but we had never seen anybody bow to a room full of mill girls in that polite way, and some one of the family afterwards asked him why he did so. He looked a little surprised at the question, but answered promptly and with dignity, “I always take off my hat to ladies.”
His courtesy was genuine. Still, we did not call ourselves ladies. We did not forget that we were working-girls, wearing coarse aprons suitable to our work, and that there was some danger of our becoming drudges. I know that sometimes the confinement of the mill became very wearisome to me. In the sweet June weather I would lean far out of the window, and try not to hear the unceasing clash of sound inside. Looking away to the hills, my whole stifled being would cry out “Oh, that I had wings!” Still I was there from choice… And I was every day making discoveries about life, and about myself… I defied the machinery to make me its slave. Its incessant discords could not drown the music of my thoughts if I would let them fly high enough.
Larcom, Lucy. A New England Girlhood, Outlined from Memory. United States: Houghton, Mifflin Company, 1889.
Questions:
- How did Larcom’s grandfather view gender roles in this period?
- Why does Lucy Larcom, a mill girl herself, emphasize the distinction between “ladies” and “working-girls”?
Unknown: Timetable of the Lowell Mills
Timetable of the Lowell Mills, 1868.
Arranged to make the working time 66 hours per week. The STANDARD TIME will be marked at noon, by the BELL of the MERRIMACK MANUFRATURING COMPANY.
Breakfast at 6 AM
Commence Work, at 6:30 AM
Dinner, at 12 PM
Commence Work, After Dinner, at 12:45 PM
Stop Work, except on Saturday evenings at 6:45 PM
BELLS.
Morning Bells.
First Bell, 4:30 AM
Second Bell, 5:30 AM
Third Bell, 6:20 AM
Dinner Bells.
Ring Out, 12 PM
Ring In, 12:35 PM
Evening Bells.
Ring Out, 6:30 PM...Except on Saturday Evenings.
SATURDAY EVNING BELL, 5 PM
YARD GATES will be opened at the first stroke of the bells for entering or leaving the Mills.
Speed Gate commence hoisting three minutes before commencing work.
“Timetable of the Lowell Mills.” 1868.
Questions:
Arranged to make the working time 66 hours per week. The STANDARD TIME will be marked at noon, by the BELL of the MERRIMACK MANUFRATURING COMPANY.
Breakfast at 6 AM
Commence Work, at 6:30 AM
Dinner, at 12 PM
Commence Work, After Dinner, at 12:45 PM
Stop Work, except on Saturday evenings at 6:45 PM
BELLS.
Morning Bells.
First Bell, 4:30 AM
Second Bell, 5:30 AM
Third Bell, 6:20 AM
Dinner Bells.
Ring Out, 12 PM
Ring In, 12:35 PM
Evening Bells.
Ring Out, 6:30 PM...Except on Saturday Evenings.
SATURDAY EVNING BELL, 5 PM
YARD GATES will be opened at the first stroke of the bells for entering or leaving the Mills.
Speed Gate commence hoisting three minutes before commencing work.
“Timetable of the Lowell Mills.” 1868.
Questions:
- What time of day do the mill-girls begin work?
- What time of day do the mill-girls stop work?
- How much of a break do they get for breakfast?
- Do these seem like reasonable working hours to you? Explain.
- This timetable is from AFTER a period of worker strikes. Does it surprise you that these were an improvement on the hours they were supposed to work?
Hamilton Manufacturing Company: Boarding House Rules
All persons in the employ of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company are to observe the regulations of the room where they are employed. They are not to be absent from their work without the consent of the over-seer, except in cases of sickness, and then they are to send him word of the cause of their absence. They are to board in one of the houses of the company and give information at the counting room, where they board, when they begin, or, whenever they change their boarding place; and are to observe t he regulations of their boarding-house.
Those intending to leave the employment of the company are to give at least two weeks' notice thereof to their overseer.
All persons entering into the employment of the company are considered as engaged for twelve months, and those who leave sooner, or do not comply with all these regulations, will not be entitled to a regular discharge.
The company will not employ any one who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath [Sunday], or known to be guilty of immorality.
A physician will attend once in every month at the counting-room, to vaccinate all who may need it, free of expense.
Any one who shall take from the mills or the yard, any yarn, cloth or other article belonging to the company, will be considered guilty of stealing and be liable to prosecution.
Payment will be made monthly, including board and wages. The accounts will be made up to the last Saturday but one in every month, and paid in the course of the following week.
These regulations are considered part of the contract, with which all persons entering into the employment of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, engage to comply.
Avery, John. “Boarding House Rules.” From the Handbook to Lowell 1848. https://libguides.uml.edu/c.php?g=529205&p=3619725.
Questions:
Those intending to leave the employment of the company are to give at least two weeks' notice thereof to their overseer.
All persons entering into the employment of the company are considered as engaged for twelve months, and those who leave sooner, or do not comply with all these regulations, will not be entitled to a regular discharge.
The company will not employ any one who is habitually absent from public worship on the Sabbath [Sunday], or known to be guilty of immorality.
A physician will attend once in every month at the counting-room, to vaccinate all who may need it, free of expense.
Any one who shall take from the mills or the yard, any yarn, cloth or other article belonging to the company, will be considered guilty of stealing and be liable to prosecution.
Payment will be made monthly, including board and wages. The accounts will be made up to the last Saturday but one in every month, and paid in the course of the following week.
These regulations are considered part of the contract, with which all persons entering into the employment of the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, engage to comply.
Avery, John. “Boarding House Rules.” From the Handbook to Lowell 1848. https://libguides.uml.edu/c.php?g=529205&p=3619725.
Questions:
- What rule surprises you most?
- Do you think these rules are unreasonable?
Anonymous: A Factory Girl
The mill promoted themselves to parents and young women with promises that they would have engaging cultural experiences at the boarding houses. The women also began publishing The Lowell Offering from 1840 to 1845. It contained the work produced by some women, including poems and autobiographical sketches, published anonymously or acknowledged only by their initials. The mill owners controlled what appeared in the magazine, so the articles highlighted the girls femininity and tended to be positive. The Lowell Offering stopped being published when women began to strike in 1845. When the magazine promoted the cause of a workday shortened to 10 hours, tensions between workers and management became inflamed and the magazine was shut down.
It has been asserted that to put ourselves under the influence and restraints of corporate bodies, is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and to that love of independence which we ought to cherish. . . . We are under restraints, but they are voluntarily assumed; and we are at liberty to withdraw from them, whenever they become galling or irksome. Neither have I ever discovered that any restraints were imposed upon us but those which were necessary for the peace and comfort of the whole, and for the promotion of the design for which we are collected, namely, to get money, as much of it and as fast as we can; and it is because our toil is so unremitting, that the wages of factory girls are higher than those of females engaged in most other occupations. It is these wages which, in spite of toil, restraint, discomfort, and prejudice, have drawn so many worthy, virtuous, intelligent, and well-educated girls to Lowell, and other factories; and it is the wages which are in great degree to decide the characters of the factory girls as a class. . . .
Mr. Brownson may rail as much as he pleases against the real injustice of capitalists against operatives, and we will bid him God speed, if he will but keep truth and common sense upon his side. Still, the avails of factory labor are now greater than those of many domestics, seamstresses, and school-teachers; and strange would it be, if in money-loving New England, one of the most lucrative female employments should be rejected because it is toilsome, or because some people are prejudiced against it. Yankee girls have too much independence for that. . . . And now, if Mr. Brownson is a man, he will endeavor to retrieve the injury he has done; . . . though he will find error, ignorance, and folly among us, (and where would he find them not?) yet he would not see worthy and virtuous girls consigned to infamy, because they work in a factory.
A Factory Girl, "Factory Girls," Lowell Offering, December 1840.
Questions:
It has been asserted that to put ourselves under the influence and restraints of corporate bodies, is contrary to the spirit of our institutions, and to that love of independence which we ought to cherish. . . . We are under restraints, but they are voluntarily assumed; and we are at liberty to withdraw from them, whenever they become galling or irksome. Neither have I ever discovered that any restraints were imposed upon us but those which were necessary for the peace and comfort of the whole, and for the promotion of the design for which we are collected, namely, to get money, as much of it and as fast as we can; and it is because our toil is so unremitting, that the wages of factory girls are higher than those of females engaged in most other occupations. It is these wages which, in spite of toil, restraint, discomfort, and prejudice, have drawn so many worthy, virtuous, intelligent, and well-educated girls to Lowell, and other factories; and it is the wages which are in great degree to decide the characters of the factory girls as a class. . . .
Mr. Brownson may rail as much as he pleases against the real injustice of capitalists against operatives, and we will bid him God speed, if he will but keep truth and common sense upon his side. Still, the avails of factory labor are now greater than those of many domestics, seamstresses, and school-teachers; and strange would it be, if in money-loving New England, one of the most lucrative female employments should be rejected because it is toilsome, or because some people are prejudiced against it. Yankee girls have too much independence for that. . . . And now, if Mr. Brownson is a man, he will endeavor to retrieve the injury he has done; . . . though he will find error, ignorance, and folly among us, (and where would he find them not?) yet he would not see worthy and virtuous girls consigned to infamy, because they work in a factory.
A Factory Girl, "Factory Girls," Lowell Offering, December 1840.
Questions:
- Why do you think “A Factory Girl” remains anonymous?
- Is she concerned about the way women are treated in the Lowell factories? Why or why not?
Mary Paul: Letter to her father
Mary Paul was one of thousands of Lowell mill "girls." She grew up in northern Vermont, one of four children born to Bela and Marry Briggs Paul. She worked in the mills from 1845 through 1848, joining her father in Claremont, New Hampshire.
Lowell Dec 21st 1845
Dear Father,
I received your letter on Thursday the 14th with much pleasure. I am well which is one comfort. My life and health are spared while others are cut off. Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day a man was killed by the [railroad] cars. Another had nearly all of his ribs broken. Another was nearly killed by falling down and having a bale of cotton fall on him. Last Tuesday we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest I got me a pair of rubbers and a pair of 50.cts shoes… Perhaps you would like something about our regulations about going in and coming out of the mill. At 5 o'clock in the morning the bell rings for the folks to get up and get breakfast. At half past six it rings for the girls to get up and at seven they are called into the mill. At half past 12 we have dinner are called back again at one and stay till half past seven.,, I get along very well with my work. I can doff as fast as any girl in our room… I think that the factory is the best place for me and if any girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell…
“Mary Paul Letters.” Vermont Historical Society. Montpelier, Vermont. Retrieved from https://www.albany.edu/history/history316/MaryPaulLetters.html.
Lowell Dec 21st 1845
Dear Father,
I received your letter on Thursday the 14th with much pleasure. I am well which is one comfort. My life and health are spared while others are cut off. Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down it being very icy. The same day a man was killed by the [railroad] cars. Another had nearly all of his ribs broken. Another was nearly killed by falling down and having a bale of cotton fall on him. Last Tuesday we were paid. In all I had six dollars and sixty cents paid $4.68 for board. With the rest I got me a pair of rubbers and a pair of 50.cts shoes… Perhaps you would like something about our regulations about going in and coming out of the mill. At 5 o'clock in the morning the bell rings for the folks to get up and get breakfast. At half past six it rings for the girls to get up and at seven they are called into the mill. At half past 12 we have dinner are called back again at one and stay till half past seven.,, I get along very well with my work. I can doff as fast as any girl in our room… I think that the factory is the best place for me and if any girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell…
“Mary Paul Letters.” Vermont Historical Society. Montpelier, Vermont. Retrieved from https://www.albany.edu/history/history316/MaryPaulLetters.html.
Harriet Robbinson: Lowell Girls Strike
This text is a recollection about the Lowell Mill Girls Strike from Harriet Robinson, a founder of the Massachusetts chapter of the National Women's Suffrage Association.
One of the girls stood on a pump, and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.
Cutting down the wages was not their only grievance, nor the only cause of this strike… It was estimated that as many as twelve or fifteen hundred girls turned out, and walked in procession through the streets. They had neither flags nor music, but sang songs, a favorite (but rather inappropriate) one being a parody on “I won't be a nun.”
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh ! I cannot be a slave,
I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty
That I cannot be a slave. …
I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed; I had been an ardent listener to what was said against this attempt at "oppression" on the part of the corporation, and naturally I took sides with the strikers. When the day came on which the girls were to turn out, those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, "Would you? " or "Shall we turn out?" and not one of them having the courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, "I don't care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;'' and I marched out, and was followed by the others.
As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I have ever been since…
Robinson, Harriet Hanson. Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1898. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/blackboard/robinson.html.
Questions:
One of the girls stood on a pump, and gave vent to the feelings of her companions in a neat speech, declaring that it was their duty to resist all attempts at cutting down the wages. This was the first time a woman had spoken in public in Lowell, and the event caused surprise and consternation among her audience.
Cutting down the wages was not their only grievance, nor the only cause of this strike… It was estimated that as many as twelve or fifteen hundred girls turned out, and walked in procession through the streets. They had neither flags nor music, but sang songs, a favorite (but rather inappropriate) one being a parody on “I won't be a nun.”
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh ! I cannot be a slave,
I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of liberty
That I cannot be a slave. …
I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed; I had been an ardent listener to what was said against this attempt at "oppression" on the part of the corporation, and naturally I took sides with the strikers. When the day came on which the girls were to turn out, those in the upper rooms started first, and so many of them left that our mill was at once shut down. Then, when the girls in my room stood irresolute, uncertain what to do, asking each other, "Would you? " or "Shall we turn out?" and not one of them having the courage to lead off, I, who began to think they would not go out, after all their talk, became impatient, and started on ahead, saying, with childish bravado, "I don't care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;'' and I marched out, and was followed by the others.
As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I have ever been since…
Robinson, Harriet Hanson. Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls. New York: T.Y. Crowell, 1898. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/blackboard/robinson.html.
Questions:
- According to Harriet Robinson, what caused the strike of 1836 and how did it unfold?
Lowell Factory Girls Association: Constitution
In 1836, the workers at the Lowell Mills had had enough: they organized themselves into the Lowell Factory Girls Association, and were dedicated to providing the laborers some degree of power to negotiate through union. In their union, they formed the constitution below.
Preamble
Whereas we, the undersigned, residents of Lowell, moved by a love of honest industry and the expectation of a fair and liberal recompense, have left our homes, our relatives and youthful associates, and come hither, and subjected ourselves to all the danger and inconvenience, which necessarily attend young and unprotected females, when among strangers, and in a strange land; and however humble the condition of Factory Girls (as we are termed) may seem, we firmly and fearlessly (though we trust with a modesty becoming our sex) claim for ourselves that love of moral and intellectual culture, that admiration of, and desire to attain and preserve pure, elevated, and refined characters; a true reverence for the divine principle which bids us render to everyone his due; a due appreciation of those great and cardinal principles of our government, of justice and humanity, which enjoins on us “to live and let live”—that chivalrous and honorable feeling, which with equal force, forbids us to invade others’ rights, or suffer others, upon any consideration, to invade ours; and at the same time, that utter abhorrence and detestation of whatever is mean, sordid, dishonorable, or unjust—all of which can alone, in our estimation, entitle us to be called the daughters of freemen, or of republican America.
And, whereas, we believe that those who have preceded us have been, we know that ourselves are, and that our successors are liable to be, assailed in various ways by the wicked and unprincipled, and cheated out of just, legal, and constitutional dues by ungenerous, illiberal, and avaricious capitalists[1]—and convinced that “union is power,” and that as the unprincipled consult and advise, that they may the more easily decoy and seduce—and the capitalists that they may the more effectually defraud—we (being the weaker) claim it to be our undeniable right to associate and concentrate our power, that we may the more successfully repel their equally base and iniquitous aggressions.
And, whereas, impressed with this belief, and conscious that our cause is a common one, and our conditions similar, we feel it our imperative duty to stand by each other through weal and woe; to administer to each other’s wants, to prevent each other’s backsliding—to comfort each other in sickness and advise each other in health, to incite each other to the love and attainment of those excellences, which can alone constitute the perfection of the female character—unsullied virtue, refined tastes, and cultivated intellects—and in a word, do all that in us lies, to make each other worthy [of] ourselves, our country and Creator.
Therefore, for the better attainment of those objects, we associate ourselves together, and mutually pledge to each other, a female’s irrefragable[2] vow, to stand by, abide by, and be governed by the following
Provisions
Article 1st. It shall be denominated the LOWELL FACTORY GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION.
Art. 2d. Any female of good moral character, and who works in any one of the mills in this city, may become a member of this Association by subscribing to this Constitution.
Art. 3d. The officers of the Association shall be, a President, Vice President, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, a Collector, and a Prudential Committee, two of whom shall be elected from each corporation in this city.
Art. 4th. The officers shall be chosen by the vote of the Association; that is, by the vote of a majority of the members present.
Art. 5th. The duties of the President, Vice President, Secretaries, Treasurer, and Collector shall be the same as usually appertain to such offices. The duties of the Prudential Committee shall be to watch over the interests of the Association generally; to recommend to the Association, for their consideration and adoption, such by-laws, and measures as in their opinion the well-being of the Association may require: and also to ascertain the necessities of any of its members, and report the same, as soon as may be, to the Association. And whenever, in the opinion of the Committee, there are necessities so urgent as to require immediate relief, they shall forthwith report the same to the President, who shall immediately draw upon the Treasurer for the sum recommended, and which sum the Committee shall forthwith apply to the relief of the necessitous.
Art. 6th. The Treasurer and Collector shall be subject to the supervision of the Prudential Committee, to whom they shall be accountable, and to whom they shall give such security for the faithful discharge of their duties as the Committee shall require.
Art. 7th. All moneys shall be raised by vote of a majority of the Association, or of the members present, and shall be assessed equally on all the members.
Art. 8th. All the officers shall hold their office for the term of one year, with the privilege of resigning, and subject to be removed by vote of the Association, for good cause.
Art. 9th. The Association shall meet once in three months, and may be convened oftener, if occasion require, by the President, upon a petition of twenty of the members first petitioning her for that purpose.
Art. 10th. It shall forever be the policy of the members of this Association, to bestow their patronage, so far as is practicable, upon such persons as befriend, but never upon such as oppose our cause.
Art. 11th. The Association shall have power to make all necessary by-laws, which shall be consistent with these provisions, and such by-laws, when made, shall be binding upon all the members.
Art. 12th. Any member may dissolve her connection with the Association by giving two weeks’ notice to the Recording Secretary; and any members shall be expelled from the Association by a vote of a majority of the members present, for any immoral conduct or behavior unbecoming respectable and virtuous females.
Art. 13th. This Constitution may be altered or amended at any time by a vote of two-thirds of the members present.
Questions:
Preamble
Whereas we, the undersigned, residents of Lowell, moved by a love of honest industry and the expectation of a fair and liberal recompense, have left our homes, our relatives and youthful associates, and come hither, and subjected ourselves to all the danger and inconvenience, which necessarily attend young and unprotected females, when among strangers, and in a strange land; and however humble the condition of Factory Girls (as we are termed) may seem, we firmly and fearlessly (though we trust with a modesty becoming our sex) claim for ourselves that love of moral and intellectual culture, that admiration of, and desire to attain and preserve pure, elevated, and refined characters; a true reverence for the divine principle which bids us render to everyone his due; a due appreciation of those great and cardinal principles of our government, of justice and humanity, which enjoins on us “to live and let live”—that chivalrous and honorable feeling, which with equal force, forbids us to invade others’ rights, or suffer others, upon any consideration, to invade ours; and at the same time, that utter abhorrence and detestation of whatever is mean, sordid, dishonorable, or unjust—all of which can alone, in our estimation, entitle us to be called the daughters of freemen, or of republican America.
And, whereas, we believe that those who have preceded us have been, we know that ourselves are, and that our successors are liable to be, assailed in various ways by the wicked and unprincipled, and cheated out of just, legal, and constitutional dues by ungenerous, illiberal, and avaricious capitalists[1]—and convinced that “union is power,” and that as the unprincipled consult and advise, that they may the more easily decoy and seduce—and the capitalists that they may the more effectually defraud—we (being the weaker) claim it to be our undeniable right to associate and concentrate our power, that we may the more successfully repel their equally base and iniquitous aggressions.
And, whereas, impressed with this belief, and conscious that our cause is a common one, and our conditions similar, we feel it our imperative duty to stand by each other through weal and woe; to administer to each other’s wants, to prevent each other’s backsliding—to comfort each other in sickness and advise each other in health, to incite each other to the love and attainment of those excellences, which can alone constitute the perfection of the female character—unsullied virtue, refined tastes, and cultivated intellects—and in a word, do all that in us lies, to make each other worthy [of] ourselves, our country and Creator.
Therefore, for the better attainment of those objects, we associate ourselves together, and mutually pledge to each other, a female’s irrefragable[2] vow, to stand by, abide by, and be governed by the following
Provisions
Article 1st. It shall be denominated the LOWELL FACTORY GIRLS’ ASSOCIATION.
Art. 2d. Any female of good moral character, and who works in any one of the mills in this city, may become a member of this Association by subscribing to this Constitution.
Art. 3d. The officers of the Association shall be, a President, Vice President, a Recording Secretary, a Corresponding Secretary, a Treasurer, a Collector, and a Prudential Committee, two of whom shall be elected from each corporation in this city.
Art. 4th. The officers shall be chosen by the vote of the Association; that is, by the vote of a majority of the members present.
Art. 5th. The duties of the President, Vice President, Secretaries, Treasurer, and Collector shall be the same as usually appertain to such offices. The duties of the Prudential Committee shall be to watch over the interests of the Association generally; to recommend to the Association, for their consideration and adoption, such by-laws, and measures as in their opinion the well-being of the Association may require: and also to ascertain the necessities of any of its members, and report the same, as soon as may be, to the Association. And whenever, in the opinion of the Committee, there are necessities so urgent as to require immediate relief, they shall forthwith report the same to the President, who shall immediately draw upon the Treasurer for the sum recommended, and which sum the Committee shall forthwith apply to the relief of the necessitous.
Art. 6th. The Treasurer and Collector shall be subject to the supervision of the Prudential Committee, to whom they shall be accountable, and to whom they shall give such security for the faithful discharge of their duties as the Committee shall require.
Art. 7th. All moneys shall be raised by vote of a majority of the Association, or of the members present, and shall be assessed equally on all the members.
Art. 8th. All the officers shall hold their office for the term of one year, with the privilege of resigning, and subject to be removed by vote of the Association, for good cause.
Art. 9th. The Association shall meet once in three months, and may be convened oftener, if occasion require, by the President, upon a petition of twenty of the members first petitioning her for that purpose.
Art. 10th. It shall forever be the policy of the members of this Association, to bestow their patronage, so far as is practicable, upon such persons as befriend, but never upon such as oppose our cause.
Art. 11th. The Association shall have power to make all necessary by-laws, which shall be consistent with these provisions, and such by-laws, when made, shall be binding upon all the members.
Art. 12th. Any member may dissolve her connection with the Association by giving two weeks’ notice to the Recording Secretary; and any members shall be expelled from the Association by a vote of a majority of the members present, for any immoral conduct or behavior unbecoming respectable and virtuous females.
Art. 13th. This Constitution may be altered or amended at any time by a vote of two-thirds of the members present.
Questions:
- What words do the women use to describe themselves?
- Do they seem “fearless” or “humble” in their preamble?
- What do the “factory girls” consider to be the necessary virtues of the “daughters of freemen”?
- How does the constitution for the association reflect those virtues?
Unknown: Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is.
This anonymous author described her experience working in the Lowell Mills, choosing to only refer to herself as operative.
[L]et us go with that light-hearted, joyous young girl who is about for the first time to leave the home of her childhood; that home around which clusters so many beautiful and holy associations, pleasant memories, and quiet joys; to leave, too, a mother’s cheerful smile, a father’s care and protection; and wend her way toward this famed
“city of spindles,” this promised land of the imagination, in whose praise she has doubtless heard so much…
Follow her now as she enters that large gloomy looking building—she is in search of employment, and has been told that she might here obtain an eligible situation. She is sadly wearied with her journey, and withal somewhat annoyed by the noise, confusion, and strange faces all around her…
Here is the beginning of mischief; for in addition to the tyranous and oppressive rules which meet her astonished eyes, she finds herself compelled to remain for the space of twelve months in the very place she then occupies, however reasonable and just cause of complaint might be hers, or however strong the wish for dismission; thus, in fact, constituting herself a slave, a very slave to the caprices of him for whom she labors… she must still continue to toil on, long after Nature’s lamp has ceased to lend its aid… thus working on an average, at least twelve hours and… hasty meals, which is in winter simply one half hour at noon,—in the spring is allowed the same at morn, and during the summer is added 15 minutes to the half hour at noon. Then too, when she is at last released from her wearisome day’s toil, still may she not depart in peace. No! … subjected to the manifold inconveniences of a large crowded boarding-house, where too… she is obliged to sleep in a small comfortless, half ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants each, but no matter, she is an operative—it is all well enough for her; there is no “abuse” about it; no, indeed; so think our employers,—but do we think so? time will show.
“Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is. Number One.” Lowell, MA, 1845. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6217.
Guiding Questions:
[L]et us go with that light-hearted, joyous young girl who is about for the first time to leave the home of her childhood; that home around which clusters so many beautiful and holy associations, pleasant memories, and quiet joys; to leave, too, a mother’s cheerful smile, a father’s care and protection; and wend her way toward this famed
“city of spindles,” this promised land of the imagination, in whose praise she has doubtless heard so much…
Follow her now as she enters that large gloomy looking building—she is in search of employment, and has been told that she might here obtain an eligible situation. She is sadly wearied with her journey, and withal somewhat annoyed by the noise, confusion, and strange faces all around her…
Here is the beginning of mischief; for in addition to the tyranous and oppressive rules which meet her astonished eyes, she finds herself compelled to remain for the space of twelve months in the very place she then occupies, however reasonable and just cause of complaint might be hers, or however strong the wish for dismission; thus, in fact, constituting herself a slave, a very slave to the caprices of him for whom she labors… she must still continue to toil on, long after Nature’s lamp has ceased to lend its aid… thus working on an average, at least twelve hours and… hasty meals, which is in winter simply one half hour at noon,—in the spring is allowed the same at morn, and during the summer is added 15 minutes to the half hour at noon. Then too, when she is at last released from her wearisome day’s toil, still may she not depart in peace. No! … subjected to the manifold inconveniences of a large crowded boarding-house, where too… she is obliged to sleep in a small comfortless, half ventilated apartment containing some half a dozen occupants each, but no matter, she is an operative—it is all well enough for her; there is no “abuse” about it; no, indeed; so think our employers,—but do we think so? time will show.
“Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is. Number One.” Lowell, MA, 1845. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6217.
Guiding Questions:
- Why does the author of the “Factory Tracts” remain anonymous in the text itself, opting to only refer to themselves as an “operative”?
- What concerns her the most about the way women are treated in the Lowell factories?
- Why might it be controversial that they refer to themselves as “slaves”?
Numerous: Petitions from the Lowell Mill Girls
These are two of the many petitions sent by Lowell mill girls to garner support for their strike.
Sign the Petition!
Ten Hours, Ten Hours!!
Sign the Petition!
We have forwarded to some of our friends in different towns of Massachusetts, petitions asking the Legislature to prohibit incorporated companies for employing one set of hands more than ten hours per day. We hope our friends will be active in circulating them for signatures and have them all returned to the office of the Voice of Industry
--Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, January 15, 1845.
March Boldly
On Sisters, let us be encouraged to labor yet more abundantly! Let the thought that we are engaged in a good work nerve us on to duty. The battle is not to the strong, alone, nor the race to the swift—but to the righteousness of the cause. In the strength of Elijah's God, the God of Right, let us march boldly on to the conquest. Let us take no rest until the shout shall rend the earth and heavens— "Goliath is fallen!"
—Juliana Voice of Industry, June 12, 1846.
“Petition from the Lowell Mills.” Voice of Industry, January 15, 1845. Retrieved from http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-and-legislature.html.
Questions:
Sign the Petition!
Ten Hours, Ten Hours!!
Sign the Petition!
We have forwarded to some of our friends in different towns of Massachusetts, petitions asking the Legislature to prohibit incorporated companies for employing one set of hands more than ten hours per day. We hope our friends will be active in circulating them for signatures and have them all returned to the office of the Voice of Industry
--Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, January 15, 1845.
March Boldly
On Sisters, let us be encouraged to labor yet more abundantly! Let the thought that we are engaged in a good work nerve us on to duty. The battle is not to the strong, alone, nor the race to the swift—but to the righteousness of the cause. In the strength of Elijah's God, the God of Right, let us march boldly on to the conquest. Let us take no rest until the shout shall rend the earth and heavens— "Goliath is fallen!"
—Juliana Voice of Industry, June 12, 1846.
“Petition from the Lowell Mills.” Voice of Industry, January 15, 1845. Retrieved from http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-and-legislature.html.
Questions:
- What are the girls asking for?
- Based on the second petition, do the mill workers' complaints seem resolved by 1846?
Female Relationships in the 19th century
Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Letter to Susan B. Anthony
In the 19th century, women spoke and wrote to each other much differently than they do today. Letters were more intimate in many ways and expressed love openly– this does not mean they were “in-love”-- or does it? Elizabeth Cady Stanton was a heterosexual woman in a lasting marriage. This is a letter she wrote to her fellow suffrage leader, Susan B. Anthony:
Dear Susan,
I wish that I were as free as you and I would stump the state in a twinkling. But I am not, and what is more, I passed through a terrible scourging when last at my father’s. I cannot tell you how deep the iron entered my soul. I never felt more keenly the degradation of my sex. To think that all in me which my father would have felt a proper pride had I been a man, is deeply mortifying to him because I am a woman.
That thought has stung me to a fierce decision—to speak as soon as I can do myself credit. But the pressure on me just now is too great. Henry sides with my friends, who oppose me in all that is dearest to my heart. They are not willing that I should write even on the woman question. But I will both write and speak. I wish you to consider this letter strictly confidential.
Sometimes, Susan, I struggle in deep waters…
As ever your friend, sincere and steadfast.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Letter to Susan B. Anthony. Peterboro. September 10, 1855. Retrieved from “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Their Words,” http://www.rochester.edu/sba/suffrage-history/susan-b-anthony-and-elizabeth-cady-stanton-their-words/.
Dear Susan,
I wish that I were as free as you and I would stump the state in a twinkling. But I am not, and what is more, I passed through a terrible scourging when last at my father’s. I cannot tell you how deep the iron entered my soul. I never felt more keenly the degradation of my sex. To think that all in me which my father would have felt a proper pride had I been a man, is deeply mortifying to him because I am a woman.
That thought has stung me to a fierce decision—to speak as soon as I can do myself credit. But the pressure on me just now is too great. Henry sides with my friends, who oppose me in all that is dearest to my heart. They are not willing that I should write even on the woman question. But I will both write and speak. I wish you to consider this letter strictly confidential.
Sometimes, Susan, I struggle in deep waters…
As ever your friend, sincere and steadfast.
Stanton, Elizabeth Cady. Letter to Susan B. Anthony. Peterboro. September 10, 1855. Retrieved from “Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton: Their Words,” http://www.rochester.edu/sba/suffrage-history/susan-b-anthony-and-elizabeth-cady-stanton-their-words/.
Katharine Lee Bates: If you Could Come
Katharine Lee Bates, the honored poet of the anthem, "America the Beautiful," wrote the above poem after the death of her lover, colleague, and partner of twenty-five years: Katharine Coman. In her grief over the loss of her friend, Bates wrote one of the most anguished memorials to the love and comradeship between two women that has ever been written; it was published in a limited edition as Yellow Clover: A Book of Remembrance. It is obvious from the yearning desire that glows throughout the poems in Yellow Clover, however, that the two women were more than just friends.
IF YOU COULD COME
My love, my love, if you could come once more
From your high place,
I would not question you for heavenly lore,
But, silent, take the comfort of your face.
I would not ask you if those golden spheres
In love rejoice,
If only our stained star hath sin and tears,
But fill my famished hearing with your voice.
One touch of you were worth a thousand creeds.
My wound is numb
Through toil-pressed day, but all night long it bleeds
In aching dreams, and still you cannot come.
Schwarz, Judith. “‘Yellow Clover’: Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman.” Frontiers: A Journal of
Women Studies 4, no. 1 (1979): 59–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346671.
Bathes, Katharine Lee. Yellow clover; a book of remembrance. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1922.
IF YOU COULD COME
My love, my love, if you could come once more
From your high place,
I would not question you for heavenly lore,
But, silent, take the comfort of your face.
I would not ask you if those golden spheres
In love rejoice,
If only our stained star hath sin and tears,
But fill my famished hearing with your voice.
One touch of you were worth a thousand creeds.
My wound is numb
Through toil-pressed day, but all night long it bleeds
In aching dreams, and still you cannot come.
Schwarz, Judith. “‘Yellow Clover’: Katharine Lee Bates and Katharine Coman.” Frontiers: A Journal of
Women Studies 4, no. 1 (1979): 59–67. https://doi.org/10.2307/3346671.
Bathes, Katharine Lee. Yellow clover; a book of remembrance. New York: E.P. Dutton & Company, 1922.
Mathilde Franziska Anneke and Mary Booth: Letters
Mathilde Franziska Anneke and Mary were married to men, but from 1860 to 1864 they lived together in Zürich, Switzerland with three of their children. They shared their money and the work of raising the children. There is no evidence that anyone questioned the propriety of their relationship, and Anneke’s daughter later insisted that it was not romantic, but their letters were very intense.
Mary Booth to Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Zürich, 1862
Pardon me, my Dear, for writing you such a miserable little note saying I was unhappy. I am indeed very happy when I think of your sweet love. It glorifies every even[ing] and illuminates the darkest midnights. You are the morning-star of my soul, the beautiful auroral glow of my heart, the saintly lily of my dream, the deep dark rose bud unfolding in my bosom day by day, sweetening my life with your etheriel fragrance – dearest, you are the reality of my dreams, my life, my Love – I have no more sorrow – I have You – My dear and dearest friend – good night
Your Mary
Mary Booth to Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Zürich, December 24, 1862
I have but one little thing,
Scarcely worth the offering,
Yet this little thing I hold,
Never could be bought for gold –
Not for all the pearls and gems
In the world’s bright diadems. –
Though it be of little worth
It is all I have on Earth.
It may not be found, or bought,
Yet I give it all unsought. –
Take – and lay it on the shelf –
For it only is – myself!
Efford, Alison Clark and Viktorija Bilic, editors. Radical Relationships: The Civil War–Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke. Translated by Viktorija Bilic. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021. P. 155.
Mary Booth to Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Zürich, 1862
Pardon me, my Dear, for writing you such a miserable little note saying I was unhappy. I am indeed very happy when I think of your sweet love. It glorifies every even[ing] and illuminates the darkest midnights. You are the morning-star of my soul, the beautiful auroral glow of my heart, the saintly lily of my dream, the deep dark rose bud unfolding in my bosom day by day, sweetening my life with your etheriel fragrance – dearest, you are the reality of my dreams, my life, my Love – I have no more sorrow – I have You – My dear and dearest friend – good night
Your Mary
Mary Booth to Mathilde Franziska Anneke, Zürich, December 24, 1862
I have but one little thing,
Scarcely worth the offering,
Yet this little thing I hold,
Never could be bought for gold –
Not for all the pearls and gems
In the world’s bright diadems. –
Though it be of little worth
It is all I have on Earth.
It may not be found, or bought,
Yet I give it all unsought. –
Take – and lay it on the shelf –
For it only is – myself!
Efford, Alison Clark and Viktorija Bilic, editors. Radical Relationships: The Civil War–Era Correspondence of Mathilde Franziska Anneke. Translated by Viktorija Bilic. Athens: University of Georgia Press, 2021. P. 155.
Tarbell vs. Rockefeller
Numerous: Clash of Titans
Tarbell
[Mr. Rockefeller] was no ordinary man. He had the powerful imagination to see what might be done with the oil business if it could be centered in his hands — the intelligence to analyze the problem into its elements and to find the key to control. He had the essential element to all great achievement, a steadfastness to a purpose once conceived which nothing can crush.
Mr. Rockefeller was "good." There was no more faithful Baptist in Cleveland than he. Every enterprise of that church he had supported liberally from his youth. He gave to its poor. He visited its sick. He wept for its suffering… Yet he was willing to strain every nerve to obtain for himself special and illegal privileges from the railroads which were bound to ruin every man in the oil business not sharing them with him. Religious emotion and sentiments of charity, propriety and self-denial seem to have taken the place in him of notions of justice and regard for the rights of others.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Rockefeller
This sweetness that she tries to bring in, referring to these good qualities, and this praise that she brings in as to ability and perseverance and whatever traits which she concedes bring success, is simply covering up her wrath and her jealousy which were all the time present, but which she did not show all the time and which she thought she could bring out all the better by weaving this in as silken thread.
She makes a pretence of fairness, of the judicial attitude, and beneath that pretence she slips into her 'history' all sorts of evil and prejudicial stuff, calling it 'the record of the court,' where it is only a statement by a party at interest, and she hides the other side. She is very adroit and cunning; but even she has defeated herself. She has over-reached herself, and anyone who reads her book with care can see that she is dishonest, prejudiced, untruthful.
Poor woman! How she has degraded herself and failed of accomplishing her object to injure, to smirch, to overthrow the Standard Oil Company, to satisfy the petty spite against it because forsooth her father and brother could not compete in the oil business.
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
[Mr. Rockefeller] was no ordinary man. He had the powerful imagination to see what might be done with the oil business if it could be centered in his hands — the intelligence to analyze the problem into its elements and to find the key to control. He had the essential element to all great achievement, a steadfastness to a purpose once conceived which nothing can crush.
Mr. Rockefeller was "good." There was no more faithful Baptist in Cleveland than he. Every enterprise of that church he had supported liberally from his youth. He gave to its poor. He visited its sick. He wept for its suffering… Yet he was willing to strain every nerve to obtain for himself special and illegal privileges from the railroads which were bound to ruin every man in the oil business not sharing them with him. Religious emotion and sentiments of charity, propriety and self-denial seem to have taken the place in him of notions of justice and regard for the rights of others.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Rockefeller
This sweetness that she tries to bring in, referring to these good qualities, and this praise that she brings in as to ability and perseverance and whatever traits which she concedes bring success, is simply covering up her wrath and her jealousy which were all the time present, but which she did not show all the time and which she thought she could bring out all the better by weaving this in as silken thread.
She makes a pretence of fairness, of the judicial attitude, and beneath that pretence she slips into her 'history' all sorts of evil and prejudicial stuff, calling it 'the record of the court,' where it is only a statement by a party at interest, and she hides the other side. She is very adroit and cunning; but even she has defeated herself. She has over-reached herself, and anyone who reads her book with care can see that she is dishonest, prejudiced, untruthful.
Poor woman! How she has degraded herself and failed of accomplishing her object to injure, to smirch, to overthrow the Standard Oil Company, to satisfy the petty spite against it because forsooth her father and brother could not compete in the oil business.
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
- What do these sources have against each other?
Numerous: The Cleveland Massacre
Tarbell
There were at the time some 26 refineries in [Cleveland], some of them very large plants. All of them were feeling more or less the discouraging effects of the last three or four years of railroad discriminations in favor of the Standard Oil Company. To the owners [of the 26 refineries] Mr. Rockefeller went one by one, and explained the South Improvement Company. "You see," he told them, "this scheme is bound to work. It means absolute control by us of the oil business…But we are going to give everybody a chance to come in. You are to turn over your refinery… and I will give you Standard Oil Company stock or cash."… It was useless to resist, he told the hesitating: they would certainly be crushed if they did not accept his offer, and he pointed out in detail, and with gentleness, how beneficent the scheme really was.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Rockefeller
I do not remember just how many [refineries] there were [in Cleveland] -- say 25 or 30, more or less. Some of them were very little. … More than 75, and probably more than 80 per cent -- certainly a great number -- of the refiners at Cleveland were already crushed by the competition which had been steadily increasing up to this time. … They didn't collapse. They had collapsed before. That's the reason they were so glad to combine their interest if they so wished it … [They were] mighty glad to get somebody to come and find a way out. We were taking all the risks, putting up our good money. They were putting in their old junk. … When it was found how much of stock or money would be given in exchange for their plants we found no difficulty in proceeding rapidly with the negotiations, and nearly all came in…
What I did say [to them] was: "We here [in Cleveland] are at a disadvantage. Something should be done for our mutual protection. We think this is a good scheme. Think it over. We would be glad to consider it with you if you are so inclined."
There was no compulsion, no pressure, no 'crushing'. How could our company succeed if its members had been forced to join it and were working under the dash?
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
There were at the time some 26 refineries in [Cleveland], some of them very large plants. All of them were feeling more or less the discouraging effects of the last three or four years of railroad discriminations in favor of the Standard Oil Company. To the owners [of the 26 refineries] Mr. Rockefeller went one by one, and explained the South Improvement Company. "You see," he told them, "this scheme is bound to work. It means absolute control by us of the oil business…But we are going to give everybody a chance to come in. You are to turn over your refinery… and I will give you Standard Oil Company stock or cash."… It was useless to resist, he told the hesitating: they would certainly be crushed if they did not accept his offer, and he pointed out in detail, and with gentleness, how beneficent the scheme really was.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Rockefeller
I do not remember just how many [refineries] there were [in Cleveland] -- say 25 or 30, more or less. Some of them were very little. … More than 75, and probably more than 80 per cent -- certainly a great number -- of the refiners at Cleveland were already crushed by the competition which had been steadily increasing up to this time. … They didn't collapse. They had collapsed before. That's the reason they were so glad to combine their interest if they so wished it … [They were] mighty glad to get somebody to come and find a way out. We were taking all the risks, putting up our good money. They were putting in their old junk. … When it was found how much of stock or money would be given in exchange for their plants we found no difficulty in proceeding rapidly with the negotiations, and nearly all came in…
What I did say [to them] was: "We here [in Cleveland] are at a disadvantage. Something should be done for our mutual protection. We think this is a good scheme. Think it over. We would be glad to consider it with you if you are so inclined."
There was no compulsion, no pressure, no 'crushing'. How could our company succeed if its members had been forced to join it and were working under the dash?
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
- What happened in Cleveland?
- Would you characterize it as a massacre?
Numerous: Legacy of Standard Oil
Rockefeller
The Standard Oil Co. has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of upbuilders we ever had in this country — or in any country. All of which has inured to the benefit of the towns and cities the country over; not only in our country but the world over. And that is a very pleasant reflection now as I look back. I knew it at the time, though I realize it more keenly now.
We had vision, saw the vast possibilities of the oil industry, stood at the center of it, and brought our knowledge and imagination and business experience to bear in a dozen — 20, 30 directions. There was no branch of the business in which we did not make money.
It will be said: "Here was a force that reorganized business, and everything else followed it — all business, even the Government itself, which legislated against it."
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Tarbell
Mr. Rockefeller is a hypocrite. This man has for 40 years lent all the power of his great ability to perpetuating and elaborating a system of illegal and unjust discrimination by common carriers. He has done more than any other person to fasten on this country the most serious interference with free individual development which it suffers, an interference which, today, the whole country is struggling vainly to strike off, which it is doubtful will be cured, so deep-seated and so subtle is it, except by revolutionary methods.
It does not pay. Our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for the kind of influence he exercises.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
The Standard Oil Co. has been one of the greatest, if not the greatest, of upbuilders we ever had in this country — or in any country. All of which has inured to the benefit of the towns and cities the country over; not only in our country but the world over. And that is a very pleasant reflection now as I look back. I knew it at the time, though I realize it more keenly now.
We had vision, saw the vast possibilities of the oil industry, stood at the center of it, and brought our knowledge and imagination and business experience to bear in a dozen — 20, 30 directions. There was no branch of the business in which we did not make money.
It will be said: "Here was a force that reorganized business, and everything else followed it — all business, even the Government itself, which legislated against it."
Rockefeller, John D. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Tarbell
Mr. Rockefeller is a hypocrite. This man has for 40 years lent all the power of his great ability to perpetuating and elaborating a system of illegal and unjust discrimination by common carriers. He has done more than any other person to fasten on this country the most serious interference with free individual development which it suffers, an interference which, today, the whole country is struggling vainly to strike off, which it is doubtful will be cured, so deep-seated and so subtle is it, except by revolutionary methods.
It does not pay. Our national life is on every side distinctly poorer, uglier, meaner, for the kind of influence he exercises.
Tarbell, Ida. “The Rockefellers: Clash of Titans.” American Experience. PBS. Last modified 2020. https://www.pbs.org/wgbh/americanexperience/features/rockefellers-clash/.
Questions:
- Do you think Rockefellers tactics were unjust? Why or why not?
Remedial Herstory Editors. "13. WOMEN AND INDUSTRIALIZATION." The Remedial Herstory Project. July 13, 2023. www.remedialherstory.com.
Primary AUTHOR: |
Dr. Deanna Beachley and Kelsie Brook Eckert
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Primary ReviewerS: |
Dr. Linda Uppham-Bornstein
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Consulting TeamKelsie Brook Eckert, Project Director
Coordinator of Social Studies Education at Plymouth State University Dr. Barbara Tischler, Consultant Professor of History Hunter College and Columbia University Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine, Consultant Assistant Professor of History at La Sierra University Jacqui Nelson, Consultant Teaching Lecturer of Military History at Plymouth State University Dr. Deanna Beachley Professor of History and Women's Studies at College of Southern Nevada |
EditorsReviewersColonial
Dr. Margaret Huettl Hannah Dutton Dr. John Krueckeberg 19th Century Dr. Rebecca Noel Michelle Stonis, MA Annabelle L. Blevins Pifer, MA Cony Marquez, PhD Candidate 20th Century Dr. Tanya Roth Dr. Jessica Frazier Mary Bezbatchenko, MA Dr. Alicia Gutierrez-Romine Matthew Cerjak |
From the mid-18th century, new machines powered by steam and coal began to produce goods on a massive scale. This was known as the Industrial Revolution. Workers were poorly paid and their working conditions were harsh. Life was even harder for working women, who received lower wages and fewer rights than men. Some women, however, would not stand for the poor treatment of themselves or others.
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Written in engaging and accessible prose by experts in the field, this reference introduces readers to the "hidden" history of women in America from 1861 to 1899, bringing their achievements to light and helping them gain the recognition they deserve.
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Working Women, Literary Ladies explores the simultaneous entry of working-class women in the United States into wage-earning factory labor and into opportunities for mental and literary development. It is the first book to examine the fascinating exchange between the work and literary spheres for laboring women in the rapidly industrializing America of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries.
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How to teach with Films:
Remember, teachers want the student to be the historian. What do historians do when they watch films?
- Before they watch, ask students to research the director and producers. These are the source of the information. How will their background and experience likely bias this film?
- Also, ask students to consider the context the film was created in. The film may be about history, but it was made recently. What was going on the year the film was made that could bias the film? In particular, how do you think the gains of feminism will impact the portrayal of the female characters?
- As they watch, ask students to research the historical accuracy of the film. What do online sources say about what the film gets right or wrong?
- Afterward, ask students to describe how the female characters were portrayed and what lessons they got from the film.
- Then, ask students to evaluate this film as a learning tool. Was it helpful to better understand this topic? Did the historical inaccuracies make it unhelpful? Make it clear any informed opinion is valid.
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How The Industrial Revolution Changed Women's Lives
As winter sets in, the three farm dwellers must look further afield to earn money. Peter and Alex fish for crabs while Ruth hires herself out for domestic work. Ruth rides a bicycle and tries period cleaning techniques, including early vacuum cleaners. They separate growing calves from their mothers. Peter finds out how leather is made. They celebrate Christmas modestly, as poor farmers might have, and listen to a Methodist Christmas message. |
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Bibliography
“5 Young Women.” Tintype. M6106 PN 25. University of Massachusetts Lowell. https://libguides.uml.edu/c.phpg=545336&p=3740991.
A Factory Girl, "Factory Girls," Lowell Offering, December 1840.
Berry, Daina Ramey and Kali Nicole Gross. A Black Woman’s History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2020. 106-109.
Cane, Aleta Feinsod. “‘The Same Revulsion Against Them All:” Ida Tarbell and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Suffrage Dialogue” Chapter 6 of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: New Texts, New Contexts, ed. Jennifer S. Tuttle and Carol Farley Kessler (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2011), pp. 122-139.
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Dishing it Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. 163-165.
Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.
“Constitution of the Lowell Factory Girls Association.” 1836. Mill Girls in Nineteenth-Century Print.
https://americanantiquarian.org/millgirls/items/show/54.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Bay, Mia. To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009.
Giddings, Paula. When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: William Morrow and Comp., 1984. Chapter 1, “To Sell Myself As Dearly As Possible”: Ida B. Wells and the First Antilynching Campaign, 17-31.
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1994. 202.
“Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is. Number One.” Lowell, MA, 1845. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6217.
Gorn, Elliot. “Mother Jones: Ireland to North America to Ireland” The American Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 11 (Jan. 2014): 11-30.
Harley, Sharon. “For the Good of the Family and Race: Gender, Work, and Domestic Roles in the Black Family, 1880-1930” Signs, vol. 15, no. 2 (Winter 1990): 336-349.
Hunter, Tera W. To ‘Joy my Freedom: Souther Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. 85-94.
Jones, Martha S. Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality For All. New York: Basic Books, 2020. 151-156.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. chapters 5 and 6.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. “Law and a Living: The Gendered Content of ‘Free Labor’”, in Noralee Frankel and Nancy S. Dye, eds. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1991. 109.
“Mary Paul Letters.” Vermont Historical Society. Montpelier, Vermont. Retrieved from
https://www.albany.edu/history/history316/MaryPaulLetters.html.
“Petition from the Lowell Mills.” Voice of Industry, January 15, 1845. Retrieved from
http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-and-legislature.html.
Popp, Veronina and Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, “Nannie Helen Burroughs and the Descendants of Miriam: Rewriting Nannie Helen Burroughs in First Wave Feminism,” vol. 79, Gender Forum (2021): 58-78.
Orleck, Annelise. Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017, second edition.
Robbins, Mark. “Bread, Roses, and Other Possibilities: The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike in Historical Memory,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts, vol. 40, no. ½ (Summer 2012): 94-121.
Sidorick, Daniel. "The “Girl Army”: The Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strike of 1909-1910,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 71, no. 3 (Summer 2004): 327-328.
Stimson, Robert. “Ida B. Tarbell and the Ambiguities of Feminism,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 101, no. 2 (April 1977): 217-239.
Tonn, Mari Boor “Militant Motherhood: Labor’s Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, The Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 87, no. 1 (February 1996): 1-21.
Voice of Industry, June 12, 1846. Retrieved from http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-andlegislature.html.
von Drehle, David. "Uncovering the History of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: The author behind the authoritative retelling of the 1911 fire describes how he researched the tragedy that killed 146 people." Smithsonian Magazine. August 2006. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/uncovering-the-history-of-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire-124701842/.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Woloch, Nancy. Muller v. Oregon: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martins Press, 1996. 63.
A Factory Girl, "Factory Girls," Lowell Offering, December 1840.
Berry, Daina Ramey and Kali Nicole Gross. A Black Woman’s History of the United States. Boston: Beacon Press, 2020. 106-109.
Cane, Aleta Feinsod. “‘The Same Revulsion Against Them All:” Ida Tarbell and Charlotte Perkins Gilman’s Suffrage Dialogue” Chapter 6 of Charlotte Perkins Gilman: New Texts, New Contexts, ed. Jennifer S. Tuttle and Carol Farley Kessler (Columbus: The Ohio State University Press, 2011), pp. 122-139.
Cobble, Dorothy Sue. Dishing it Out: Waitresses and Their Unions in the Twentieth Century. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 1991. 163-165.
Collins, Gail, America's Women: Four Hundred Years of Dolls, Drudges, Helpmates, and Heroines. New York, William Morrow, 2003.
“Constitution of the Lowell Factory Girls Association.” 1836. Mill Girls in Nineteenth-Century Print.
https://americanantiquarian.org/millgirls/items/show/54.
DuBois, Ellen Carol, 1947-. Through Women's Eyes : an American History with Documents. Boston :Bedford/St. Martin's, 2005.Indians Editors. “NATIVE AMERICAN WOMEN.” Indians. N.D. http://indians.org/articles/Native-american-women.html.
Bay, Mia. To Tell the Truth Freely: The Life of Ida B. Wells. New York: Hill and Wang, 2009.
Giddings, Paula. When and Where I Enter: The Impact of Black Women on Race and Sex in America. New York: William Morrow and Comp., 1984. Chapter 1, “To Sell Myself As Dearly As Possible”: Ida B. Wells and the First Antilynching Campaign, 17-31.
Higginbotham, Evelyn Brooks. Righteous Discontent: The Women’s Movement in the Black Baptist Church, 1880-1920. Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1994. 202.
“Factory Tracts. Factory Life As It Is. Number One.” Lowell, MA, 1845. https://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/6217.
Gorn, Elliot. “Mother Jones: Ireland to North America to Ireland” The American Journal of Irish Studies, vol. 11 (Jan. 2014): 11-30.
Harley, Sharon. “For the Good of the Family and Race: Gender, Work, and Domestic Roles in the Black Family, 1880-1930” Signs, vol. 15, no. 2 (Winter 1990): 336-349.
Hunter, Tera W. To ‘Joy my Freedom: Souther Black Women’s Lives and Labors After the Civil War. Cambridge: Harvard University Press, 1998. 85-94.
Jones, Martha S. Vanguard: How Black Women Broke Barriers, Won the Vote, and Insisted on Equality For All. New York: Basic Books, 2020. 151-156.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. Out to Work: A History of Wage Earning Women in the United States. New York: Oxford University Press, 1982. chapters 5 and 6.
Kessler-Harris, Alice. “Law and a Living: The Gendered Content of ‘Free Labor’”, in Noralee Frankel and Nancy S. Dye, eds. Gender, Class, Race, and Reform in the Progressive Era. Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 1991. 109.
“Mary Paul Letters.” Vermont Historical Society. Montpelier, Vermont. Retrieved from
https://www.albany.edu/history/history316/MaryPaulLetters.html.
“Petition from the Lowell Mills.” Voice of Industry, January 15, 1845. Retrieved from
http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-and-legislature.html.
Popp, Veronina and Danielle Phillips-Cunningham, “Nannie Helen Burroughs and the Descendants of Miriam: Rewriting Nannie Helen Burroughs in First Wave Feminism,” vol. 79, Gender Forum (2021): 58-78.
Orleck, Annelise. Common Sense and a Little Fire: Women and Working Class Politics in the United States, 1900-1965. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2017, second edition.
Robbins, Mark. “Bread, Roses, and Other Possibilities: The 1912 Lawrence Textile Strike in Historical Memory,” Historical Journal of Massachusetts, vol. 40, no. ½ (Summer 2012): 94-121.
Sidorick, Daniel. "The “Girl Army”: The Philadelphia Shirtwaist Strike of 1909-1910,” Pennsylvania History: A Journal of Mid-Atlantic Studies, vol. 71, no. 3 (Summer 2004): 327-328.
Stimson, Robert. “Ida B. Tarbell and the Ambiguities of Feminism,” The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography, vol. 101, no. 2 (April 1977): 217-239.
Tonn, Mari Boor “Militant Motherhood: Labor’s Mary Harris “Mother” Jones, The Quarterly Journal of Speech, vol. 87, no. 1 (February 1996): 1-21.
Voice of Industry, June 12, 1846. Retrieved from http://industrialrevolution.org/petition-andlegislature.html.
von Drehle, David. "Uncovering the History of the Triangle Shirtwaist Fire: The author behind the authoritative retelling of the 1911 fire describes how he researched the tragedy that killed 146 people." Smithsonian Magazine. August 2006. https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/uncovering-the-history-of-the-triangle-shirtwaist-fire-124701842/.
Ware, Susan. American Women’s History: A Very Short Introduction. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2015.
Woloch, Nancy. Muller v. Oregon: A Brief History with Documents. Boston: St. Martins Press, 1996. 63.