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Manifesto 8: Lowell Factory Girls Association, “Constitution.” (October 1836)

Figure 1: "Constitution" by the Lowell Factory Girls Association (1836)

Accessible at Page 53

Mill owners like Francis Cabot Lowell industrialized textile mills in Lowell, Massachusetts during the 1830's at the cost of female workers' well-being. Young women from throughout New England aggregated first under the shared need for housing and wages. According to Thomas Dublin, at one point in the earliest decade of the mills' operations, 70% of Lowell's workforce between the ages of 15 and 29 was comprised of women, and those who worked in the mills experiences significant segregation. As soon as adverse conditions and unfulfilled promises of independence created a sense of objectification among the community of disappointed workers, the Lowell Mill Girls united under the Lowell Factory Association.

Community Action

In reaction to subordination from male factory owners, decreasing wages, rising housing fees, excessive working hours of 73 hours per week, assault, and unsafe working and living conditions, the association became the first women's labor movement in the history of the United States to organize a strike. After their first strike in 1834 and a larger "turn out" at a later strike in 1836, the Lowell Factory Girls Association's collaboration on a Constitution (accessible at the image to the right and within Dr. Weiss's Feminist Manifestos: A Global Documentary Reader) led to a wave of labor strikes throughout the remainder of the decade.

Leading Figures

As noted in the third article of the Lowell Mill Girls Association's Constitution, 7 officers were selected to lead the association's earliest action beginning in 1836. Other key figures are noted below:

• Lucy Larcom
• Harriet Hanson Robinson
• Turner, Elizabeth Emerson

* Figure 2: Lucy Larcom (1824-893), Officer of the LMGA

Manifesto 10: Lowell Female Labor Reform Association, “Preamble” and “Constitution.” (January 1845)

Accessible at Page 64

Rising from the same community of female mill workers at Lowell, Massachusetts as the Lowell Mill Girls Association, Dr. Weiss details the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association (LFLRA)'s redefined focus on legislative lobbying. As a community who existed at intersection of sexism and poverty, the disenfranchised workers amassed petitions among their growing organization. Calling for change to working conditions, the association fought for the 10 hour work day limit and increased wages. The organization eventually disbanded after the successful legislation in Massachusetts state law of a 10-hour workday limit. Ultimately, the suffering endured by mill workers introduced women to a malleable and reformable issue, and more recent feminist discourses on this issue center the aspect of dualism, with the contrast between vices of women's exploitation and virtues of reform movements

Leading Figures

As noted in the second article of the Lowell Female Labor Reform Association's Constitution, the following officers were selected to lead the LFLRA's earliest political action in January of 1846:

Officers

• Sarah Bagley, President
• Hannah C. Tarlton, Vice President
• Mary Emerson, Rec'g. Secretary
• Huldah J. Stone, Roc's Secretary
• Sarah A. Young, Cor. Secretary
• Mary A. K. Tarlton, Treasurer
• Climena Butler
• Miss Gilman
• Abbey Kemp
• Catherine Maxey

Board of Directors

• Mary J. Robinson
• Eliza Simpson
• Elizabeth L. True
• Elmira B. Stone