Mill Girls of New England

Description

Join Doug Stewart for an illustrated talk about the mill girls of New England. In the 1830s and 1840s, thousands of unmarried New England farm girls flocked to newly created cities like Lowell to earn money in the cotton mills. At first, the mill towns were seen as industrial utopias, where the young women wrote poetry and took piano lessons. The reality was grimmer. Protests organized by New England's "mill girls" set the stage for both the American labor movement and the women's rights movement.

Doug Stewart is an Ipswich freelance writer who has written more than 100 feature stories for Smithsonian and National Wildlife magazines. His stories have also appeared in Time, Discover, New Scientist, and American Heritage.

All are welcome to this free event!