For many New England teenage girls in the 1800's, they wanted nothing more than to be able to go to the Lowell Mills to work. The Lowell Experiment was created to be a more humane version of the factories of England, and they used may precautions to ensure this outcome. A lot of amazing things were promised to the farm girls who had never been out of their town. Freedom, independence and a way to earn money were tactics used to persuade the girls to leave their small towns and their families, and come to Lowell. The families were convinced by knowing they would have one less mouth to feed, and extra money that could be sent home. It was also stressed that all girls who worked in the factory would have to mantain dignity and morality to keep their job. The Lowell Exerpiment also created a paternal system that was similar to the dynamic between families so the Mills would seem more appealing to parents. There was a lot of rules that the girls had to follow, including a 10 pm curfew, required church on Sundays and a strict behavioral code. At the boardinghouse where the girls lived, there was a boardinghouse keeper, who regulated the behavior outside of the mill hours. The strict rules and the money being brought home convinced many families to allow their daughters to go to the mills. The daughters were convinced to come to Lowell because most had never left the town that they lived in, and Lowell seemed like an incredible city full of adventure, and the young girls wanted to see the world. Going to Lowell would give the girls a lot more independence than they had ever had, and since they were only teenagers, they wanted independence.
For the most part, everything promised above was given at Lowell Mills. But, there was a lot of downsides to going to Lowell. The conditions in Lowell were almost incomparable to the conditions of Britian because they were so much better, but there was still some danger. Accidents of girls getting hurt or dying because of the machines did occur in Lowell. In the documentary Daughters of Free Men, the girls suffer from a large wage cut, and they do not make enough money to pay for their boardinghouse rent. The girls wrote speeches and petitions against the wage cut, and they eventually went on strike because of it. Instead of raising their wages, the mill owner hired new girls. This was an unfortunate side of the Lowell Experiment because it showed how the girls were replaceable, and no matter what they did, they couldn't raise their wages even if it was unfair. With that said, the girls were very educated because in their free time they went to lectures, and they became proper young women in Lowell even if it wasn't what people had done before them.
Since teenage girls moving away from home to work was such a new concept in the 1800s, people had different opinions and views on the mill girls. The mill girls showed that it was possible to have teenagers girls work and live away from home and still be very respectable girls. They were all very educated and wrote essays and speeches, and were perceived but other people as smart and educated. Some peoples opinions changed when the girls petitioned and went on strike so that they could get higher wages. Some people believes that this is not what young woman should be doing, and they thought less of them.
While their were pros and cons to going to work at Lowell Mills, most girls from the time seemed to believe that the pros outweighed the cons, and eagerly went to work there regardless of the sometimes dangerous conditions and the wage cuts that they had to endure. The girls got a lot of freedom, and the ability to live in a city, and make extra money for themselves and to send home to their families.
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