"A Second Peep at Factory Life"

By Josephine L. Baker

Article from the Lowell Offering

Published in Vol. V: 97-100, 1845

In the 1820s the textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts, began operating successfully using a workforce made up largely of young, unmarried women. For these daughters of northern farmers and laborers, the factory life was temporary and they would only labor for a few years before returning to their homes to marry and raise families. It was not an accepted practice for young women to work for wages in factories at that time, but the growth of industrialization was changing social standards. From their writings, it is apparent that the Lowell "mill girls," as they called themselves, were taking full advantage of the opportunities offered them through their employment in the factories. During their free time they sought to educate and improve themselves, and they...