Self-View of the 19th Century Lowell Mill Girls

Excerpts from the Paper

Self-View of the 19th Century Lowell Mill Girls
Based on articles, memoirs and accounts written by former mill girls who worked in Lowell, Massachusetts during the first half of the 19th Century and documents from the time period it appears that these girls had mixed feelings about their job. While there were aspects of the experience that were liberating to most, there were others that were oppressive. Over time, their actions and words illustrate that they were conscious of themselves as being members of a working class that was being oppressed by their capitalist employers. In this paper the life of the Lowell mill girls will be described along with the attitudes these women expressed about this life.
In 1821 a group of Boston investors...

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