Factory Women In The Early 1800's

For many girls who lived in 1835, they lived on a farm with their families working at home living under the men in the house. They did not go to college as often as their male counterparts. Word began to spread of a place where anyone of any social class could live and work for a high wage. Soon girls from all over began to migrate to these factory towns know as Lowell cotton mills. The industrial age in America was an innovative time in American history. Sparked by first the growth of the planters which then led to manufacturing and factories, all this new growth lead to strains and changes in relationships in both the work place and in the home as women strived to become more independent.
In the early days, factory girls were not popular,
Many girls came because of the vast opportunities and protection that the Lowell Mill system offered. According to Robinson: “There were some who came to Lowell society solely on the social or literary advantages to be found there. They lived in secluded parts of New England, where books where scarce, and there was no cultivated society” (Robinson). There would be “circulating libraries” for the girls to use, and for those who thirsted for knowledge previously given only to men, they were happy to get a book or two to read when they had time. Books were highly valued as back home for many of the girls they were scarce. These girls did not only work every day they also went to church and to school in the Lowell Mills
“The contrast between rich and poor was greater in the South than in the other English colonies, because of the labor system necessary of its survival” (Life In The Plantation South). Most southerners were not plantation owners. Rather they were mostly Yeoman farmers, Yeoman women did the house work such as taking care of the children, doing all the chores and some even worked in the fields. Yeoman farmers tended to have large families and were more accepting of women who were abandoned by their husbands. One reason this may be observed is the Yeoman society was more accepting of women even going so far as having them work on the fields. On the farm, everything was based on the crop. In the fall and winter the boys would study and this allowed them time to work the fields during planting times. Females studied in the summer, if at all, which allowed for weaving in the colder winter months. (Life In The Plantation South) By contrast, the mills girls could study right in their communities in the schoolhouse. Another difference between the farm or plantations the women were surrounded by family in contrast, on the mills the girls may have become close and would have bounded like sisters without force or family ties. On the plantation, there were fewer women so they were “heavily sought after”. Because of the high death rate of men many