Task

You will read and listen to several “primary source documents” that are drawn from or refer back to the turn out of October of 1836.  You will also consider excerpts from secondary sources.  These documents will paint an impressionistic picture of the turnout, its causes and consequences, from several perspectives:  the Company Treasurer and Mill Agents of one of the mills, the press, a Mill Agent’s wife, and the mill girls.  You then will begin to do the work of the historian, integrating the perspectives you encounter into your own account of the events of 1836.

Using the primary source documents provided and your answers to the questions on the Document Analysis Worksheets, you will write your own account of the turn-out of 1836.  Make sure you address following questions:

1. Why did the strike take place?
2. What were the points of view of the various participants in this event?
3. What did the Lowell mill girls hope to achieve?
4. What risks were the Lowell mill girls willing to take in order to achieve their goals?
5. Were those potential risks real?
6. Were their actions justified?
7. Were the mill girls ultimately successful?