Footnotes:Lowell

In the 19th century, Lowell Massachusetts was home to a revolution in factory labor. The United States, especially in the North, was changing. It was mutating from an agrarian society to an industrial society.

There were a finite number of laborers available in the early part of the 19th century. The huge waves of western European immigration were just beginning. The textile manufacturers of Lowell turned to an otherwise neglected pool of laborers: women and children (and, since they were traditionally a "second class" of citizenry, with few political rights, they could be paid much less than male labor).

Textile factories began creating dormitories for unwed women and children. These dormitories kept the labor pool close by, and free of certain cultural pressures (specifically, what to do with all of those troublesome unwed women).

As you might imagine, a system of labor built upon the exploitation of an already disadvantaged group was rife with corruption. Factory owners kept their dormitories barely above base sustenance levels of comfort, and extracted wages for this "care." Women and children were forced to work long hours with few breaks, and little food.

In the middle part of the 19th century, laborers began fighting back against unfair labor practices. In Lowell, women's rights groups began lobbying for better wages and more humane conditions. Still prevented from voting, they had few political tools with which to fight. Striking, or "turning out" became their most powerful weapon.

Just prior to the Civil War, the industrial corridor of Massachusetts was crippled by a series of labor strikes. The state militia was mobilized, and forced to stare down their own peers (not surprisingly, the military was carved from the same stock of citizen). The worst was averted when the country was gripped by war.

Mary Evans Sampson was the daughter of German immigrants. She was 24 when she began working at the Carleton & Sons Textile Plant (a spinster by early 19th century standards). She was killed after being struck by the butt of a rifle. The man who killed her was from the same German town her parents had lived.

The practice of slowing down the clocks was pretty common at the time. Allegations of this type of abuse were often presented to the state legislature, yet would be miraculously fixed upon inspection. After the 1858 insurrection, on the word of Sergeant John H.M. Montgomery, the Carleton & Sons textile factory was fined $500. Two years later there were further complaints.