For as long as there have been children in the workforce, there have been questions about the rights of young workers. In the early years of Lowell’s industrial boom (1820s-1840s), young women moved to the city from local farming communities to operate machines in bustling textile mills. In 1836, mill managers increased production speed and reduced workers’ wages, prompting an early-organized labor strike at the mills in Lowell. Although this strike would fail to encourage management to address their concerns, the workers sparked a long history of labor action in industrial New England.

Document C

An excerpt from Harriet Hanson Robinson’s Lowell Loom and Spindle or Life Among the Early Mill Girls (1898).

“One of the first strikes of cotton-factory operatives that ever took place in this country was that in Lowell, in October, 1836. When it was announced that the wages were to be cut down, great indignation was felt, and it was decided to strike, en masse. This was done. The mills were shut down, and the girls went in procession from their several corporations to the “grove” on Chapel Hill…

"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.

"My own recollection of this first strike (or “turn out” as it was called) is very vivid. I worked in a lower room, where I had heard the proposed strike fully, if not vehemently, discussed… 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… 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 [sic] 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 at any success I may have achieved, and more proud than I shall ever be again until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage.”