Lowell Mills in the 1800's a Hot Spot for Young Girls to Work

          During the 1800's cotton mils were being built everywhere and young girls would come in and work for years and leave with permanent physical and mental injuries. In England it was easy for factory owners to get girls to come work for them because there was a population growth in England and there was not enough space in the country for families to live or enough jobs that were open for young people to work. The factories offered both, they had places for the girls to live and get food and they would get paid for their services at the mills. In the United States it was a different situation. There was population growth  happening too, but there was enough land in the west to move into so families weren't very worried about not having enough space. Also people in America heard about the poor conditions at the factories in England and did not wan to send their girls to work in such awful places. So the the factory owners decided to do an experiment, the Lowell experiment. They made better conditions factories and boarding houses. They had increased wages and offered education and church on Sunday for the girls. Most importantly they created family atmosphere for the girls which enticed the fathers of the girls to let them work. The overseers acted as fathers who would protect the girls and the boarding house keeper acted as the mom who prepared meals for the girls and made sure the girls stayed out of trouble when not working. There were multiple things that the girls liked about working in Lowell. One was getting their own money, just like teenage girls today they like to buy things. Getting a job allowed the girls to buy things of their own like dresses. Also many girls would send some or most of their money to their families so they could pay for their land. A lot of girls left their families intrigued and excited about working in Lowell, but after a couple of weeks they realized that everything was not what they hoped for.

Below is a website with a video that follows a girls as she leaves her family and works in Lowell and her life experiences.

http://ashp.cuny.edu/ashp-documentaries/daughters-of-free-men/