Unbroken Bonds:
The Meaning of Slavery and Abolition in a Northern Textile City

Welcome to Unbroken Bonds, a suite of resources for teachers and students, focused on antebellum connections between the cotton textile industry of Lowell, Massachusetts in the North and the enslavement of Black people on cotton plantations in the South.

The documents in this collection are divided into the following themes. Each theme contains an introductory essay and primary source documents, all with text-dependent and discussion questions.

· National Events That Influenced Lowellians’ Views. Essay and Primary Documents.

· Economic and Political Connections Between Lowell and Southern States. Essay and Primary Documents

· Life on a Cotton Plantation. Essay and Primary Documents

· Black Abolitionists’ Activism in Lowell. Essay and Primary Documents

· Antislavery Activism in Lowell. Essay and Primary Documents

· Anti-abolitionists in Lowell. Essay and Primary Documents

This five minute introductory video provides an overview of the fight for abolition by residents of the northern textile city of Lowell, Massachusetts, especially the role of Black abolitionists.

Click here for Mini-lessons for Middle and High School!

Click here for Primary Documents for Grade 5!

Table of Contents

Notes on Language and Vocabulary

Integrating the Documents in Your Curriculum and Activity Ideas

Bibliography and Additional Resources

Site Map

Setting the Stage, An Introduction to the Collection.

When Lowell was founded in the early 1820s, its population was almost exclusively native-born, white New Englanders, along with a handful of Irish immigrants. Across the river in Dracut (now part of Lowell), however, alongside native-born white people there were, by 1820, thirty-four people of African descent out of a total population of 1,400. One section of the town near the Pawtucket Falls called “Black North,” subsequently a stop on the Underground Railroad, was home to a number of descendants of enslaved Africans.

From 1823 to 1861, Lowell’s mills turned millions of pounds of cotton, farmed by enslaved people in the United States, into finished fabric. The adoption of an efficient cotton gin made processing raw cotton easier and more profitable, resulting in the enslavement of more Black Americans and expansion of the number and size of plantations. This rise in cotton production hastened the growth of the textile industry in places like Lowell. The use of forced labor produced greater profits for plantation owners than the use of paid laborers would have. Mill investors also profited and became very wealthy – with some reinvesting their earnings into their factories and others donating money to charities.

However, Lowell was a place of contradictions. While thousands of workers – mostly women – tended looms that wove the raw cotton into cloth, the burgeoning antislavery movement took hold amongst the city’s residents. Many Lowellians – Black and white – engaged with the movement in various ways.

Black Lowellians such as Nathaniel Booth, a formerly enslaved man who sought refuge in the city, and John Levy, who raised funds to purchase self-emancipated people’s freedom, were active in the antislavery movement. Well-known abolitionists spoke in the city, and Lowellians of all classes and identities participated in both radical and conservative actions, including donating to the cause and aiding freedom-seekers. Even mill owners like Nathan Appleton and Amos Lawrence wrestled with the question of abolition. Mill girls and other women who established the Lowell Female Antislavery Society raised money and gathered signatures on petitions.

While many white Lowellians participated in the antislavery movement, not all of them believed in equality for Black people. Racist ideology among Northern whites was widespread, creating tensions, fostering inequality between Black and white people, and often leading to violence with the larger society, including in Lowell. Racism also profoundly affected the antislavery movement, breaking activists into factions that either supported or rejected equality for free Black people.

National events, including the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the Fugitive Slave Act, impacted the lives and actions of Lowellians. The passage of these laws protecting the institution of slavery helped to galvanize people to one side or the other of the antislavery movement. Some people chose to accept the laws, as they believed the laws supported rights guaranteed in the Constitution, while others saw the laws as affirmations of the morally abhorrent practice of holding people in bondage.