Blog #67 – Lowell Mill or the Farm
I hate to limit you to two choices when examining the early history of American women, but this is not the era of the independent working woman who could decide on which career meant the most to her. Many women were destined to be housewives, as reinforced by the cult of domesticity. The home was women’s proper sphere in American life, and the four virtures (piety or religion, purity, submission, and domesticity) shaped many American women’s lives. She was supposed to create a refuge at home from work for her husband and children.
But, knowing that this is most likely the fate of most American women in the 19th Century, what would you rather choose to do with the time that you had before you got married (ages 15-23)?
Would you rather spend a couple of years earning your own money (for a future marriage) at the Lowell mills? Or would you want to work on your family’s farm awaiting whatever fate would come?
Explain your choices and reasons why.
Due Wednesday, Nov. 12 by class. 250 minimum words.
If I was a girl living in the 19th century I would have to make the hard choice to stay on my family farm or to go work at the Lowell Mills. I would choose to leave and go work at the Mills. I would pick this option for many reason one of them is if I came from a family with multiple kids including more then one girl my family wouldn’t have the money. My parents wouldn’t be able to give all of me and my siblings to start our lives off. I want to go work at the Mills for that reason. I will be able to start off my own life with money and I then can support my family and I don’t just have to depend on my husband. Living and working away from home also will give me the opportunity to become very independent. I will have to do everything on my own and grow up on my own. I will have more privileges working at the Lowell Mills then I did at home. I will make more friendships with the people who I see everyday. I get paid and I’m able to keep some money for myself its not my parents money anymore. I will get fed three meals a day where it was sometimes hard to provide that for me back on the farm. Also I will still be able to attend church every Sunday. Staying on the farm will not provide me with what I will need in the future nor does it help me become more independent or help me grow up. That is why working at the Lowell Mills is the best choice.
If I was a young girl in the 19th century, presented with two choices, either work at the lowells mill to save up money or to stay at the family farm and see what fate has in store for me. I think, I would choose to work at the lowells mill. I feel this would be the best choice because if I am in the position where my family wants to send me off to the mill, they are obviously in need of money and the money I make at the mill could possibly help my family out of poverty. The money I save could prevent my future family from economical hardships. The mill would give me a nice solid place to stay before marriage. Working at the family farm would be no walk in the park, it would in tale backbreaking work. At the time illness was everywhere, who is to say I would not come down with a disease back at the farm. At the lowells mill I could further my education, the mill has a library where I could acquire books that may not be accessible to me at my farm. Also the mill gives me a chance to interact with other girls, who I can learn from. It’s also highly likely that when I’m married I will end up right back on a farm, so I should take advantage of the opportunity because I have my whole life to work on a farm but who knows the money I make could keep me out of the farm life. I have to do all I can to control my fate and try to give myself the best life possible.
If I were a 15-23 year old girl in the 19th century, I would rather stay on my family’s farm than go to work in the Lowell mills. There are many reasons for this decision. For one, the working conditions at the factories were terrible. Girls were forced to work long, fourteen-hour workdays and were not allowed to fraternize with boys. Girls had very few breaks and had to wake up early, leaving them with very little free time for any other activities. Many girls also got sick from the cotton fibers in the air at the factories. Sick days were not permitted, so if someone had a contagious disease, everyone was at risk. Doctor visits were taken out of the paycheck. Humidity levels in the mills were also often unbearably high. The cotton needed to stay at a certain temperature and humidity in order to be spun, and while the factories may have been more comfortable in the winter, they were torture in the summer. Girls are forced to stay together in dorms. Girls also had very little pay, and since they were not used to the idea of saving money, many girls would blow their money on dresses and other unnecessary temptations. Working at the family farm, a girl would have more reasonable hours, be able to socialize with her family, and sleep in her own bed. While there would be no pay and there is more physical labor involved, a girl would most likely be more comfortable and safe from lung problems at home on the farm.
If I were a 15 year-old girl in the 19th century, I would much rather stay on the farm than in Lowell factory. I mean, who wants to stay in a windowless hot building! Not me, I want to stay in the wide vast fields of a farm. I will learn skills worthy of my time. I’m going to end up a housewife no matter what, so I might as well learn now. In the factory, I would be getting sick over all the cotton weaving, after two years in which my family would have set me up with some family friend. Thus I’d be thrown into something I have no idea how to do successfully. Speaking of family, I don’t think I could survive without them for two years. At the factory, being surrounded by girls who I, most likely, barely know, and with being around them 24 hours a day, with no retreat, I will get sick of them. While on a farm, I could be out of the house doing small tasks, all to myself, without being crowded or rushed. All of this for $2 a week that won’t even be mine to spend when I’m married, it will go to my husband or parents. At the time I will feel independent making my own money, but in the end, I don’t have a say in what it will go to. So frankly, working at the mills would be a waste of my precious time and life. I mean, who says I make it out alive; I could die from exhaustion or brown lung. Thus it would be better suited if I stayed on the farm.
If I was a sixteen year old with the option to stay on the farm or move into the Lowell Textile mills, I would no doubt stay home. It is inevitable that you will just get married, have children and just watch out for your family, so I don’t think it would be worth it to me. We have no rights as it is, so attending the seminars at the mills will do us no good. Also, if all we are going to do is work at the mills, get fired/quit, and then get married then what is the point in the first place. To add onto that, if I am working in the mills how am I going to learn the basics of being a women? How am I going to find a husband that I can rely on for shelter when I cannot act like a lady and do not know the basics of running a home? I will not be able to find a husband and probably end up dying alone. Plus, there are way too many diseases around the mills. All the fiber particles causes people to get brown lung disease and the moist, warm environment is perfect for bacteria and germs to grow an “empire”. Not even mentioning the high chances for injury while working around machines. I have a long dress and a fast pace typically so I feel as if I may get tripped up on myself and break something or break myself. This is why I would prefer to stay on the farm, because I am bound to be a housewife and the risks are too high.
If I were a young girl in the 19th century I would prefer to work at the Lowell Mills. This is because I would like to have as much independence as I possibly could. Working at home in the farm would be strenuous manual labor all under the watchful eyes of my parents. While work at the Mill would be difficult as well and I’d work longer hours it would provide me with some time on my own as well as money for my labor. In the Mills I could spend my free time reading and writing instead of helping my mother cook or clean. Though I would only be on my own for a year or two; I’d much rather go into a marriage knowing I have experienced all that I could. The Mills do have some serious health risks (brown lung disease) however I’d rather die at age 16 living on my own terms than live until 51 trapped in a marriage without ever knowing what life could be like any other way. I simply want to have at least seen the world beyond my father’s and then my husband’s home. At this time the only way possible for me to see any other part of the Earth is to work at the Mills. Despite the 14 hour work days for only a few (2-5) dollars a week and any risks it puts on my health, to me it is worth it. The freedom, independence, and experience I would get from life on the Lowell Mills is worth any risk.
If I were faced with the decision to either work at the Mill, or continue working on my family farm, no doubt I would have chosen to leave and work on the Mill. Although I would miss my family more than anything, and living and working at Lowell Mill was challenging and absolutely frustrating, but I would have given the pay I received to my family so they can eat well and not struggle. Plus, the Mill might not have the best working conditions, but it would put a roof over my head and provide me with three meals a day; while, with the economic problems going on throughout the nation, my family might lose the house and farm, leaving us with nothing but the clothes on our backs and nothing to eat or live. Staying at the farms would limit my freedom of becoming a better women, and getting a sense of what it would be like to have independence. At the Mill I would have lots of more freedom, gain friends, and get a closer relationship with God. Also, knowing myself as a person, I like to contribute to things, and at this time women were not allowed to do much around the farms, so if I went off to work I could be contributing more than on if I was working on my family’s farm. Working on at the Mill would give me a good sense of responsibility and independence, and I feel that staying at my family farm would not.
Personally, if I were a 15-23 year old girl back in the 19th Century, I would go work in the Lowell mills, instead of staying home at the farm. I would not want to wait and see what would happen to my life, but take action in my own hands. Working in the mill would let me earn money to keep for myself and to send it back home. The extra money at home would help my parents feed my siblings, and for other things they might need on the farm. Working at the mill would be a step forward for women’s rights. It would be hard working the long hours in the hot humid conditions, but I will be earning money and becoming more independent. The mill would make me independent enough to run a household when I get married, and the hard work would prepare me to be a good mother and wife. During my free time after work, I could go to meetings to improve my education and social skills. I could even go listen to visiting philosophers speak. I would not be able to do these things if I was on the farm. Religion was a big part of everyday life in the 1800’s, so the dorms were set up like seminary dormitories. We would have housemothers to supervise us, to keep us out of trouble and to enforce curfews. On Sundays going to church would be mandatory. Why would I work on the farm and hope fate is good to me? Instead I could reap the benefits of working in the mill.
If I was a 15-year old girl in this time period, I would choose to stay on my family’s farm. First off, staying on the farm would mentally be more beneficial. I’d be helping my parents make money, which would only help the entire family. Second, I’d gain more useful knowledge on the farm than in the mills. I’d learn by example what it means to be a caring, supportive wife from my mother. The textile mills cannot foster a nurturing behavior in their women like a stay-at-home wife can. Even though sewing in a much-needed skill for women, I could easily learn it at home. My third reason is that in this time, I would be bound to find a husband. In comparison to single women in this time, married women were much more common. Working on the farm, I’d learn the essentials in maintaining a home, and could apply these lessons in my married life. My last reason is that working in the mills is extremely hard. I would run the risk of contracting diseases, like brown lung, and my pay would fluctuate due to competition between mills. At home, I could absorb morals/beliefs that I’d want to pass along to my children. With this knowledge, I’d really push for my kids to be good members of society.
If I were a women living in the 19th century, I would have to make the difficult decision of staying home and working on the family farm or working in the Lowell factories. I would choose to work on the farm for many reasons. Firstly, the conditions were horrible at Lowell. Women had to work for 12-14 hours a day, 6 days a week for only $2-5 a week. They were trapped in a hot, loud room all day except for the two half-hour breaks each day. The work that women had to do was tedious and never ending. They were on their feet all day and had only the crashing of the machines to listen to for entertainment. Women working on the farm did not have to suffer these unreasonable hours and atrocious work environment. Additionally, women often became ill from brown lung disease in the factories. The air was polluted with cotton fibers and the women would breathe them in unknowingly. By working on the farm, I could increase my chance of being healthy. Being healthy will help me find a husband, which is the ultimate goal. Although I could be earning money for my family by working at Lowell, working at home and providing an extra set of hands will be more beneficial than the unreasonable $2-5 a week. Furthermore, by working on the farm I would learn useful skills for after I got married. While valuable lessons can be learned from working at Lowell, it is more important that I learn how to be a good wife and mother on the farm. For these reasons, I would choose to work on the farm over working at Lowell.
If I had the choice to either work on the Lowell Mills, or work on my families farms, I would most likely end up working on the farm. Working on the farm is a better idea because if the over-arching idea of independence. At the time, being a 15 year old girl, I don’t have enough confidence to go to a factory and living in a dormitories for a couple of years. Another point is that a large amount of the girls that work in the factories get extremely sick under the extremely poor conditions. While working, the temperature’s in the factories needed to stay very warm in order to keep the cotton intact. To maintain the certain temperatures the windows of the factories needed to be closed at all times. With closed windows the cotton fibers would fly around the humid factories and the fibers would soon enough be swallowed by the working teenage girls. This would give the girls a disease called brown lungs which basically destroys the lungs from the inside out. Another negative factor of the Lowell factories is the extremely long work day. Working on the family farms would generate some income and wouldn’t require much independence.
If I were a young woman in America during the 19th century, then I would want to go to the Lowell Mills for some work. Being at the mills wouldn’t be an easy task, but doing something to help my future family make some money to live better would be worth the difficult work. Making money as a young woman wasn’t easy during the time period, so I would want to hop on any chance to make money to help out my family. Being given the opportunity to get out of the house and earn some decent money would beat out being a housewife at a farm to me. I wouldn’t want to just stay on the farm and wait for my future husband to take me off my family’s hands for marriage. This would leave me being fully reliant on my husband, which I would not like as a woman. The women of the 19th century were already inferior to men for the most part, and having a chance to have some kind of independence from men would be intriguing to me. The living conditions of the Lowell Mills would be the downside to leaving. Many women suffered from brown lung and a loss of fingers. The safety of the employees at these mills was not any kind of priority. The employees were able to go shopping and enjoy the company of many other women during their leisure time. This was an opportunity that wasn’t offered to women out working on their farms. Women during the 1800’s were being given the opportunity to get out of the houses and farms and plant a seed for more women’s rights to come in the future.
I would prefer to leave my farm and go out and make my living working at the Lowell Mills. I am 21. We live in New England but I was told by my friend who lives down the street that, this factory is well kept. Much nicer than other textile mills in the country. Even though I am a girl, my parents have distilled in me that, just because we do not have a lot of money doesn’t mean we can’t work to go and achieve our goals. Mine which is going and having enough money to pay for my wedding. At Lowell I’ve heard they have a pretty good system for giving us opportunities to buy things. Our hours aren’t very good! I’ve heard about girls getting together to write their grievances down. They do this in such a neat and orderly fashion, the boss of the company started to make changes to what he was doing. To make it easier for us to leave there which is really cool. The other really cool thing is that the town square has shops in the Lowell town where I would work. I would be able to keep the money for myself and send it back to you guys back at home for my wedding. I am also able to pay for things in the Lowell town which keeps the money in the company, and is also very convenient for me as well. I didn’t like working in that farm anyway.
If I were a caucasian 15 year old girl in the 19th century and I had the choice to either stay on the farm or work at a Lowell factory I would choose the factory. Overall, the Lowell textile mills are the best in the country, probably in the world. Sure it has its cons but so does farming. If I stay on the farm I would practically be a burden to my family if I don’t save money for my future marriage. I would also have to worry about marrying the “right man”- someone who will support me and the family financially – so that money really wouldn’t be a problem since I can’t make my own money or most likely get a job outside of home. Farming and working at a mill are both vigorous jobs. You wake up at the crack of dawn, work doesn’t stop until the sun goes down, the weather or condition of the air is rarely likable, but at least you get paid for all this working at a mill. There is an even a greater chance, very low, but a great chance that I could build my own future. Now, most people close to me would encourage me not to. There are many reasons as to why they would argue against it but one kind of makes me rethink my decision. Since the air needs to be humid in order to keep the cotton moist, there are basically no windows. Cotton fibers float around in the oxygen, we breathe it into our lungs, and causes brown lung cancer. A disease that can result in coughing up ping pong shaped cotton fibers from your lungs. Statitics show that 48% of the girls die from brown lung cancer. I’m willing to take that risk. I’m going to die young anyway. If I do survive working in the mill: up until I’m about 19-20 I’ll leave, having saved up all my money- runaway to Europe, become a transcedentatlist, get in touch with nature, and live peacefully with some guy that won’t have views such as the domestic cult system. BOOM, I can have my cake and eat it.
In the options of staying home and working on the farm or going and working at the mills, I would choose going and working at the mills. Although there were many down sides of working at the mills, such as health issues and long hours, but there were many upsides as well. The upside that influences my decision is the fact that as a women I could make wages for one of the first times in American history. Even though I would be 67% more likely to get and die of lung disease, the wages and becoming an independent women would be worth it. At the farm I spent the whole day doing manual labor. At the factory I would work long hard hours but they would be paid off by the money I would make for myself. Also if I was making money I could be providing for my family in the same way that the men of the house would normally do. Working at the mills would also help me provide a greater understanding of the world I live in. For example, during the limited free time I would get I could attend lectures or read books. Another reason I would rather work at the mills is because even though we have to spend some of Sunday at church we would still get the rest of the day to socialize or read or even write about my experiences at the mills, some people even got their work published. Therefore, I would rather work at the mills because of the life experience and oppurtunities.
If I was a young women living in the 19th century, I would much rather spend the years before I marry at the family farm rather than the Lowell Mills. You will surely understand my decision after hearing my reasoning. The Lowell Mills were not exactly a safe place. The conditions were not very nice. With cotton fibers abundant in the air I would have to breathe, there is too big a chance to risk that I would get brown lung. If I caught this horrid disease, I would be affected forever by its terrible effects. At our family’s farm, diseases wouldn’t be a thought; our family most likely kept our farm clean of sickness. Another problem with the Mills were the working standards given. The hours at the Mills are 14 hours from five in the morning to seven in the evening, and it’s not like the work is easy or doesn’t take a toll on your body at all. At the farm, my working schedule would be very flexible, and I am sure my family would never put me in working conditions where I could get hurt. It would be dreadful if my body was affected in a negative way for the rest of my life from all this work at the Mills. The concern for my health would be a big one at the Lowell Mills. In the end, working at the Lowell Mills is just far too risky for me when I could just help my family and work at the farm, a far safer and more comfortable job.
If I were a young girl in the early 1800s, I would want to work in a factory over a farm. If I were to work in a factory, I would be able to earn wages of my own. The factory would be my only real opportunity to make money in that time. Also, I would be able to express my independent thoughts as a woman, as I would be able to write in the mill newspaper and be able to learn to read and write better and after the mill who knows? I could even end up writing books and stuff for a living. Also, the mill is really the only opportunity a young girl has in this society to be independent and self reliant. However, there are some disadvantages to the mill workers life. For one, the days are long (14 hours in most cases), and we barely get any breaks from the tedious work at hand. We get paid very little at about 5 dollars a week; however it is a fixed wage that I would not be able to get anywhere else. Also, the working conditions are uncomfortable, as the rooms we are working in are always very hot, and we work around dangerous machines that could easily take off a finger or a hand. And on top of that, we can get diseases from all of the cotton fibers we are inhaling. However, I would rather use my few years before I marry to gain valuable workforce experience and be truly independent than wait at my family farm with no hope or opportunity and just wait idly to be married and become a housewife.
Both the Lowell Mills and the Farm are a good option that have pros and cons. As a young women in the 1800s I’d have to pick Farm. In the 19th century the chance you’d be raped was way higher than it is now (and that’s high!) and you’d have a better chance of not if you stay home than if you go out. The conditions of the Mill are dangerous, air particles breathed into my lungs (back then with no protective masks you could get brown lung), long hours where you’ll be overworked (which can make you really ill), cramped spaces (where diseases can spread easily), mediocre living spaces, and a low quality of food. My home, where so far I’ve lived a relatively safe, happy life, I would be more secure and not overworked. My quality of life would over all be better than if I was working way too hard for a few dollars a day.
If I had to choose between a life on a farm or earning my own money working in a factory, I would choose to work in the mills. I hate relying on other people, so going out to make my own money and have freedom to spend that money on whatever I want would be really important to me. I would hate to stay home and work as a housewife for my young adult years, having to cook and clean isn’t for everybody. Even though the mills aren’t the nicest or safest places to work because of the overheating in the summers and the long hours, it would still be better than staying home and doing chores all day. I would be out there earning my own money and have freedom to do with it what I please, even though it’s not the ideal working place, it beats working on the farm and being a housewife any day. I wouldn’t have to rely on someone else to support me and be at their beck and call. I want to be independent, earning my own money, and working hard for what I want. If I worked on my family’s farm, I would have to sit and wait for good things to come to me and that is not the type of person I am. I want to be in charge of my own future, and working in the mills is one way to be in control. Working in the mills is dangerous and not the best place to work, but it beats sitting home waiting for something to happen to you, and it lets you make your own money and gives you freedom.
I would rather spend a couple of years earning my own money at the Lowell mills, than work on my family’s farm awaiting whatever fate would come. I would choose to work at the Lowell mills because the farm is very hard work and is very exhausting and brutal. The Lowell mills are not dirty, they are pretty clean, and the women are treated somewhat fairly. The girls/women that work at the mills also earn money they can spend on themselves instead of saving it, if they want to. Also, the pay of $2-$5 is constant at the mills. Unlike at the farm, if you have a bad growing season of crops, or a harsh winter, where you would not get paid at all. The mills also provide church for the girls, and supervision in their rooms. The girls at the Lowell mills also have free time on Sunday after church to do whatever you want to. For example, read, shop, got to a lecture, talk, sleep, or just take a walk and hang with your friends. You might not have anyone on the farm that is your age that you can hang out with, so you would not have any social reaction with peers. At least on the mills, you can interact with people your age, and gain social skills that would help you later in life. Yes, on the mills it is hot, humid, and you could het brown lung from cotton fiber in the air. But on the farm, you could get joint pains, and maybe even get your arm stuck in a plow. That is why I would rater work at the Lowell mills for a few years, than on the farm.
Gary Cutler
11/11/14
2nd hour
If I was a young girl in the 19th century, presented with two choices, either work at the lowells mill to save up money or to stay at the family farm and see what fate has in store for me. I would have to choose work at Lowell mills. I would choose this for the purpose of independence. Having money for your marriage makes you not 100% independent on your husband. Having that money also means that you won’t have to worry about if your husband leaves you. You will have money in case. The working conditions aren’t the best at the mills, But it is worth it getting paid and having money. It’s hard for women to get jobs and having a job that pays changes things for women. Making them feel like they can handle their own life they don’t need to have a man boss them around. They can handle themselves. People may say money isn’t everything but it creates a feeling of being safe, If the girls have money they know they don’t have to marry a guy just for his money they can marry a guy they truly love. They also know if they struggle finding a husband they are ok because they have their job and that money. So if I was a a girl back then I would definitely choose working in the mills.
If I were a woman in that time period, I would most likely just go and work in the Lowell factory. I think that working there would have better outcomes than working on a farm. The Lowell mill was nothing like the spindle cities, or textile factories in England, since he learned from the mistakes there. Yes, the work hours are quite long, but the money, although small, would be worth it. It could help pay for a dowry, while working on a farm you don’t really know where to go from there, as you don’t get paid to do chores at home, or at least not as much most likely. Earning the money would also make me feel a lot more accomplished, as I am earning it on my own and not relying on other people. I would still be getting religion, and according to notes taken in class I would still have time to do other activities like read and go to seminars. Especially if I had a family that needed money, going to work at the Lowell factory would seem like the sensible thing to do. Say I was in the same shoes as Lucy Larcom. Say I was fatherless with many siblings that my mother couldn’t provide for. I would feel obligated to go work at these mills, for the pay because I was the only person in the family that could work with a mother tending to younger siblings. All in all, the Lowell factory is the better option to me since it is not that bad of an environment. People are treated fairly, and it pays, not well, but it pays.
Blog 67: Mill or Farm
If I were a young women in the 1830’s, I would much rather work in the Lowell mill than on the farm. In the mill, I could get a much higher wage than I would at a farm with all of my family. Although working in the mills could result in some respiratory illnesses from the floating cotton lints, but working the farm can result in a lot of joint pains. The hours at the mill seem longer, but on most farms, the children work from sun up to sun down. The pay at the mill would be constant and reliable, whereas in a farm, if there was a bad growing season, you and your family suffered. If I worked in the mill before I was to get married, then I would be able to have some money saved up to help my family, but if I worked on the farm, then I would have nothing but potentially a small amount from my father. I would also be getting a better education because in my free time I would be able to read or go to lectures on literature or politics. This experience would make me more independent as a woman because I could earn my own wages, and I would be much more prepared for my adult life. If I was working on the farm, I would have very little rights and no money for my own, but at the mill, I would have the right to do whatever I wanted to do with the money that I earned.
Difficult to say, considering the fact that I’m a male child living in the 21st century, and have little idea of what the circumstances may be like, but if I had to choose, I think I would end up working at a mill. Difficult work, yes, but having more control over my future would be well worth it, I believe. This is more of a personal feeling, but I would much rather do something like work on my own behalf than work at home waiting for people to make my decisions for me. The experience of working in the Lowell Mills may also contribute to my personal growth, allowing me to become more independent and capable in more jobs than just housework. Even if I ended up only doing housework in my life and living with a husband who would encourage I only do domestic jobs, at least I would have had some say in my life, instead of sitting idly, working sun up to sun down, getting joint pains and scoliosis, while my father decided who I would marry and what my life would entail. Furthermore, working in the mills was a more reliable source of income, rather than working on the farm. If there were to be a bad harvest, how could our family make money? I assume that we would have few other opportunities to earn money, and if nobody specialized in any other work besides farming, we’re dead men walking. Having work at an establishment that will reliably have business is a solid way of ensuring that your family will have money to eat. This, coupled with the (possibly fleeting) independence that comes with working on a Lowell mill, tempts me to choose that line of work rather than working at home.