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attempts at cutting down the wages. keep their machine and wool
This was the first time a woman had processing inventions in the North,
spoken in public in Lowell, and the leaving the South without the ability
event caused surprise and consterna- to replicate the more refined finishing
tion among her audience.” techniques so easily as wartime
In 1845, the Lowell Female approached. At this point, New
Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) England mills created much of the
was formed as the first union of blue uniform cloth worn by the
women workers. Membership Union Army. These mills continued
swelled to over 500 in just six to thrive into the 20th century until
months and continued to expand. the use of synthetic fabrics became all the fashion. The South was left
This was an all-female organization, run for and run by women with too much cotton and nowhere to turn for finishing cotton fabric
for the betterment of working conditions at the mills. Those who and making money for the Confederates.
were elected to officiate the Union also worked with other women
working in other mill towns, setting up branches of the LFLRA that What Was It All For?
all contributed insight and assistance to the organization. According to the AFL-CIO, what did the LFLRA do for women
First up for the LFLRA was to secure enough signatures on petitions working in factories? "In the short term, not much. That's how it often
given to the corporation demanding a 10- is with the first pioneers in social justice
hour work day. The Massachusetts movements. Both of their strikes were
Legislature formed a committee with crushed. And the only victory they won in
Lowell Representative William Schouler their 10-hour workday campaign was
as its leader. The committee’s charge was pretty hollow. In 1847, New Hampshire
to investigate and hold public hearings became the first state to pass a 10-hour
where testimony would be taken from workday law – but it wasn’t enforceable.
of workers regarding the length and impact
go “That was in the short term. But in the
e of the regular workday on their work and long term, the Lowell mill girls started
lives. These were the first investigations something that transformed this country.
into labor conditions made by a govern- No one told them how to do it. But they
mental body in the U.S. showed that working women didn't have
The result of the investigation was that to put up with injustice in the workplace.
they felt the State had no business control- They got fed up, joined together, support-
ling the number of hours employees ed each other, and fought for what they
would work. In response, The LFLRA knew was right.”
called its chairman, William Schouler, a Or, as said by a Mill Girl, “They have
“tool” and worked to defeat him in his at last learnt the lesson which a bitter experience teaches, not to those
next campaign for the State Legislature. In a complex election who style themselves their ‘natural protectors’ are they to look for the
Schouler lost to another Whig candidate over the issue of railroads. The needful help, but to the strong and resolute of their own sex.”
impact of working men [Democrats] and working women [non-voting] Today, millions of women in unions who teach our kids, fight our
was very limited. The next year Schouler was re-elected to the fires, build our homes and nurse us back to health owe a debt to the
State Legislature. Lowell mill girls. They taught America a powerful lesson about
Despite having lost the request for a shorter workday, the LFLRA ordinary women doing extraordinary things.
continued to expand and became affiliated with the New England
Workingmen’s Association. They continued to contribute to the Voice About the Title Image:
of Industry newspaper while maintaining pres- In 1868, Winslow Homer took up the subject of people who worked in textile mills.
sure on the mill owners to lower the length of Mill operatives’ activities were organized by bells that rang throughout the day.
the workday. In 1847, mill owners reduced Before mid-century, Americans viewed factories as places where respectable folk—
the workday by 30 minutes. That same year, mostly women—could earn a decent income and make a contribution to the nation’s
New Hampshire passed a law for a ten-hour industrial transformation. By the time Homer created his picture, native-born
workday. Unfortunately, the law was not farmwives and their daughters had long been absent from the mills.
enforceable. Recent immigrants and the desperately poor replaced them at the looms,
By 1848, the LFLRA dissolved. Workers the only takers for work that offered the barest sustenance.
continued to pressure management for better The Great American Hall of Wonders, 2011
working conditions and in 1853, the Lowell
Corporation reduced the workday to 11 hours.
Image of Lowell Mill Workers in
Spindle City moving at the true
Mid-Century “Bell Time”
Upheaval
As the woolen industry continued to grow
and the quality of the American sheep’s wool
improved, demand was now outnumbering
supply. Wool was being imported from
around the world, and the West was beginning
to be a more important supplier to the industry.
Yankee ingenuity took off as improvements
to machinery continued to improve produc-
tion numbers, but unrest between the North
and South eventually choked the supply
of cotton from the South to be finished in
the North and eventually, mills shuttered
their doors.
By the Civil War, woolen manufacturers in
New England registered numerous patents to
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