United States History Student Edition

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The Pleasures of Factory Life Sarah G. Bagley left her hometown in New Hampshire in 1836 to live and work as a weaver in a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts. She wrote essays to describe her experiences that were published in the Lowell Offering , a newspaper that was produced by the community’s young, female workers. This excerpt is taken from the first piece she wrote for the publication. PRIMARY SOURCE: ESSAY “ Pleasures there are, even in factory life; . . . [W]here can you find a more pleasant place for contemplation ? . . . Who can closely examine all the movements of the complicated, curious machinery, and not be led to the reflection, that the mind is boundless, . . . and that it can accomplish almost any thing on which it fixes its attention! . . . A large and beautiful variety of plants is placed around the walls of the rooms, giving them more the appearance of a flower garden than a workshop. . . . Another great source of pleasure is, that by becoming operatives , we are often enabled to assist aged parents who have become too infirm to provide for themselves; or perhaps to educate some orphan brother or sister, and fit them for future usefulness. ” — Sarah Bagley, Lowell Offering , 1840 contemplation the act of thinking about something for a long time operative a worker EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining What sources of pleasure did Bagley find in her factory work at the time that she wrote this essay? 2. Speculating How might a young woman who was considering taking a job at a Lowell textile mill in the mid-1800s have responded to this essay? Explain your answer.

The Whip of Necessity As time passed, Sarah Bagley’s views of factory life changed drastically. She became active in the labor movement and took part in union organizing. In 1845, she wrote this article to promote improved working conditions. PRIMARY SOURCE: NEWSPAPER ARTICLE “ Mr. Miles . . . seems to suppose that a reasonable degree of justice to man is realized when the laborer is shut up in a close room from ten to twelve hours a day in the most monotonous and tedious of employments. This is not wrong, we shall be told; they come voluntarily and leave when they will. . . . Do they from mere choice leave their fathers’ dwellings, the firesides where all their friends, where too their earliest and fondest recollections cluster, for the factory and the Corporations boarding house ? . . . The whip which brings laborers to Lowell is NECESSITY. They must have money; a father’s debts are to be paid, an aged mother is to be supported, a brother’s ambition to be aided, and so the factories are supplied. . . . Is any one such a fool as to suppose that out of six thousand factory girls of Lowell, sixty would be there if they could help it? . . . Is this freedom? To our minds it is slavery. ” — Sarah Bagley, Voice of Industry , September 18, 1845 monotonous dull or repetitive boarding house a house that provides food and a place to live for people who pay rent whip driver or motivating factor EXAMINE THE SOURCE 1. Explaining What does Bagley’s article suggest about factory life? 2. Contrasting Based on this article, how had Bagley’s perspective changed since writing the Lowell Offering essay five years earlier? Cite details from each text to explain your answer.

(l)Bagley, Sarah. Pleasures of Factory Life. In The Lowell Offering, No. 2, 1840. Lowell, Mass.: A. Watson, 1840; (r)New England Workingmen’s Association. The Voice of Industry, Volume 1, Number 17, September 18, 1845. Fitchburg, Mass.: New England Workingmen’s Association, 1845

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