June 17, 1850
It was a hot, muggy day when I came to work in the mill. I was nervous when I first stepped off the train at the depot. Standing in the shadow of the sprawling brick mill buildings, I didn’t know what to expect in this bustling place. At 17, I had never been away from home. I soon found out that there were many other young women like me who had left New England farms to find jobs here. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the workers at the mill are women; the men remained at home to tend the farms. We were hired as “factory operatives,” but we call ourselves “mill girls.”
My accommodations are on the third floor of a brick boardinghouse—one in a long row of similar houses next to the mill. There, I share a room with three other
It was a hot, muggy day when I came to work in the mill. I was nervous when I first stepped off the train at the depot. Standing in the shadow of the sprawling brick mill buildings, I didn’t know what to expect in this bustling place. At 17, I had never been away from home. I soon found out that there were many other young women like me who had left New England farms to find jobs here. In fact, nearly two-thirds of the workers at the mill are women; the men remained at home to tend the farms. We were hired as “factory operatives,” but we call ourselves “mill girls.”
My accommodations are on the third floor of a brick boardinghouse—one in a long row of similar houses next to the mill. There, I share a room with three other