Camella Teoli

As the United States experienced rapid growth in the late 19th and early 20th century, ordinary laborers endured exploitative working conditions. There were many factors that motivated textile workers in Lawrence, Massachusetts to participate in a strike. Some of these factors were poor wages, dangerous and unhealthy working conditions, starvation, and horrible housing. Starting January 1, 1912 a new law was passed, reducing the number of hours an individual was allowed to work in a week, fifty-six hours down to fifty-four. The workers were willing to work less hours, provided it did not affect their pay. Unfortunately it did affect their pay, by thirty-two cents…The main events of the strike started on January 11, 1912 and lasted until March

Watson writes,“Inhaling fibers that floated through dank, humid mill rooms, a third died within a decade on the job. Malnourished, they succumbed to tuberculosis, pneumonia, or anthrax, known as “the woolsorters disease”. They were crushed by machinery, mangled by looms and spinners.” (Watson, p. 9) Camella Teoli was one of many children employed at the textile mills in Lawrence Massachusetts. She provided testimony at a congressional hearing in March 1912. Her testimony shows us her vulnerable position as a fourteen year old laborer; and how she came to be a worker in the textile mills. Skilled labor was on the decline and unskilled labor was on the incline. Workers only needed to know how to perform simple menial tasks to be hired in the textile mills. Children were looked upon as valuable resources. They could be paid less, and tended to be more malleable and more easily exploited. In her testimony, Camella Teoli describes the accident that resulted in her losing part of her scalp. She explains how she was in the hospital for seven months after the accident. The company that employed her at the time, the Washington Mill, paid her medical bills; but refused to pay her weekly wages while she was out of work. Camella Teoli also encountered the regimentation of water while working in the mills. She testified that she had to pay ten cents every two weeks for water. Many factory workers, not just children, had to cope with these degrading