Social Reform -- Working Conditions -- Grade 08 -- Internet Resources
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Oh, isn’t it a pity such a pretty girl as I

Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die.

-Song of the Lowell Girls

OVERVIEW

In the early 1800s, most laborers, such as the Lowell Girls, faced difficult working conditions.  Their work days were often twelve hours long, their pay was low, the mills and factories were dangerous, and if someone dared to complain, they could lose their job.  Workers began to form organizations, or unions, so they could work together to demand better working conditions and higher wages.  In the first half of the century, the most common demand was for the 10-hour work day.  The first national union was the National Trades Union, formed in 1834.  The union demanded free public education, an end to debtor’s prison, and a ten-hour workday.  The union did not include unskilled workers, usually women or immigrants.  Unskilled workers, such as the women of the Lowell textile mills, formed their own organizations.  During the 1830s, groups such as the Factory Girls Association held strikes to protest wage cuts.  They were not successful, but during the 1840s, groups such as the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association petitioned state legislatures for a reduction in work hours.  They published materials to show the public the terrible working conditions in the mills.  The early labor movement had few successes, but did pave the way for future reforms in working conditions.

Massachusetts House Petition, H. 1587/9 [1845](below) addresses the working conditions in Lowell, Massachusetts.  Use information from the document to identify the beliefs of the labor reformers.

Petition to the Massachusetts Legislature

URL: http://www.alexanderstreet6.com/wasm/wasmrestricted/DP60/doc9a.htm

The document below was published as part of the Fourteenth Annual Report of the Massachusetts Bureau of Statistics of Labor. It included information on how workers in the past had attempted to change their working conditions.  Use information from this document to identify methods used by the labor reformers to bring about change.

Early Factory Labor in New England, 1883

URL: http://www.learner.org/channel/workshops/primarysources/lowell/docs/factory2.html

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Last updated 03.13.2007. Created by Michael Warner, Library Media Specialist