Table of Contents
Did mill girls live in boarding houses?
Most of the mill girls who didn’t work with their families or live near the mill lived in boarding houses. There were generally 50 to 60 girls living in these houses together. The houses were described as quite attractive. They had pianos and parlors for guests during the appropriate hours for visiting.
Where did the girls live when working at the mills?
The majority of mill girls in Lowell lived in boardinghouses. These large, corporation-owned buildings were often run by a female keeper, or a husband and wife. A typical boardinghouse consisted of eight units, with 20 to 40 women living in each unit.
What is the life of a mill girl?
A typical day for mill girls might include a wakeup bell and a quick first meal, followed by several hours of work, a lunch bell, and work until the evening dinner bell. After work, the girls had a few hours of relative freedom before the boarding house’s curfew.
How much were the Lowell mill girls paid?
On average, the Lowell mill girls earned between three and four dollars per week. The cost of boarding ranged between seventy-five cents and $1.25, giving them the ability to acquire good clothes, books, and savings.
What did the mill girls want?
During the early period, women came to the mills for various reasons: to help a brother pay for college, for the educational opportunities offered in Lowell, or to earn supplemental income for the family.
How much did textile mill workers get paid?
All the girls in the carding and spinning room were paid the same. The young men who were piecers on mules and card strippers were paid $4 to $4.50 per week. The weaving in a cotton mill was done by older girls and women, who ran four looms and averaged $1 per loom a week.
How many girls lived in a boarding house?
Most of the mill girls who didn’t work with their families or live near the mill lived in boarding houses. There were generally 50 to 60 girls living in these houses together. The houses were described as quite attractive. They had pianos and parlors for guests during the appropriate hours for visiting.
What was life like for mill girls in Lowell?
Most textile workers toiled for 12 to 14 hours a day and half a day on Saturdays; the mills were closed on Sundays. Typically, mill girls were employed for nine to ten months of the year, and many left the factories during part of the summer to visit back home. Life in a Boardinghouse A long brick boardinghouse with workers posed outside
Why did mothers of mill girls own boarding houses?
Sometimes the mother of a mill girl would own the boarding house. The girls created a welcoming community of girls in the houses. They created bonds of mutual dependence and sisterhood. During the strike, for example, they said it was important to maintain, “a universal bond of womanhood.”
Who are the mill girls of New England?
The Mill Girls. As much as the massive brick mills along the Merrimack, “mill girls” were an innovation of the early industrial revolution in New England. Lowell’s mill workforce in the antebellum decades consisted largely of young single women from the farming communities of northern New England.