Process

Activity 1
Initially, you will work with your group to discuss the lives of girls and young women on the farm.

* What did they do there?
* Can their families support them?
* How can they help their families?
* What kinds of work can they do?
* Where could they make money to help their families pay the bills?

You will use journals and books available for your research including writing by Sarah Bagley. Your groups will role-play a family discussion when the daughter brings home a flyer for jobs in the Lowell mills. You will use your research to help family members argue for or against the daughter’s going to Lowell. Make sure you can defend the arguments for a lively discussion.

Resources
The Mill Girls
The Ten-Hour Movement: Women and the Early Labor Movement. Pamphlet; Tsongas Industrial History Center, Lowell, MA