On Labor Day, remember the Lowell Mill Girls

It’s easy, in 2022, to be skeptical of unions or post inaccurate memes that discount their historical significance. Like any institution, the labor movement has often been co-opted into the power structure and thus screwed the Average Joe and Jane.

But, this Labor Day post is not about corruption and cynicism. It’s a reminder that, if not for those brave souls who risked life and limb for a living wage and safe conditions, we’d all be even worse off now than we already are.

With that in mind, please allow me to introduce the Lowell Mill Girls. 

“In vain do I try to soar in fancy and imagination above the dull reality around me but beyond the roof of the factory I cannot rise.” (anonymous Lowell Mill worker, 1826)

Lowell, Massachusetts was named after the wealthy Lowell family. They owned numerous textile mills which attracted New England farmers' unmarried daughters. These young girls worked in the mills and lived in supervised dormitories. On average, a Lowell Mill Girl worked for three years before leaving to marry. Living and working together often forged a camaraderie that would later find an unexpected outlet.

What had the potential to become a relatively agreeable system for all involved was predictably exploited for mill owners’ gain. The young workers toiled under poor conditions for long hours only to return to dormitories that offered strict dress codes, and lousy meals and were ruled by matrons with an iron fist.

In response, the Lowell mill workers — some as young as eleven — did something revolutionary: the tight-knit group of girls and women organized a union. They marched and demonstrated against a 15 percent cut in their wages and for better conditions — including the institution of a ten-hour workday. They started newspapers. They proclaimed: “Union is power.” They went on strike.

As the movement spread through other Massachusetts mill towns, some 500 workers united to form the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA) in 1844 — the first organization of American working women to bargain collectively for better conditions and higher pay. 

Sarah Bagley was named the LFLRA’s first president and promptly led a petition drive that forced the Massachusetts legislature to investigate conditions in the mills. Bagley not only fought to improve their physical surroundings, she argued that the female workers “lacked sufficient time to improve their minds” — something she considered “essential for laborers in a republic.”

On this Labor Day, as so many people willingly surrender “sufficient time to improve their minds,” let’s make the Lowell Mill girls proud. Let’s also strive for essentials like higher living standards, more autonomy, and less censorship.