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Summary and Objective
Students will view primary source documents such as photographs, letters, and documents from the Digital Collection of the American Centuries website regarding the life of mill workers in Massachusetts. Students will learn about the experiences of women in the mills, and both the excitement and dangers of life in the mill towns.
Teaching Plan
Step 1.
Look at the National Child Labor Committee poster
Discuss in pairs: What do you see in the pamphlet / picture? What is the message of the poster? What more do you need to know about the lives of the children pictured? Have the pairs write down their ideas and pick on some to share with the class.
Step 2.
Read through Mary Paul's letters from the Lowell Mills taking notes on the following questions: Why is she going to Lowell? How much is she paid? What is her initial attitude? What were the working conditions? How much is she getting paid? What does she give back for room and board? What are the hours she works? What is her attitude? Why does she end up sounding more discouraged as she works there longer? How do her hours change? How is she doing in the last letter?
Step 3.
Explain that not only were women some of the first factory workers, but children. Ask: Why do you think this is?
Step 4.
Return to the National Child Labor pamphlet. Have each student choose a child from the poster and from their perspective, write a letter home to their family about their life in the factories. The letters should cover why they started working in the mills, the hours they worked, the pay they received and what they spent it on, and any other details about factory life that they leaerned about. The letters should be written in the first person and be filled with all of the emotion of the experience as if they had lived through it themselves.
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