Complaint Of A Lowell Factory Worker Summary

During the 1800s there were many advancements in technology taking, because of these advances the demand for cotton grew. To meet demand there were many factories made up of mainly women workers. Conditions in the factories were very inhumane compared to the conditions we experience now a day. A female factory worker wrote about her experience in the factory in her document ‘Complaint of a Lowell Factory worker’. The reason she doubts the sincerity of the Christian beliefs of the factory owners is because the conditions in the factory were horrible. She couldn’t believe them to have their beliefs and be treating their workers basically like slaves. The owners didn’t care about their workers but only about themselves and people in their class. The experience of moving westward altered women’s roles in the sense that the women were now expected to take on what were traditionally men’s responsibilities. In the document Harriet L Noble describes her experience of travelling. In her document she says, “I suppose most of my lady friends would think a woman quite out of "her legitimate sphere"...what kind of labor I performed...” (Foner 173) this was referring to her doing a lot of things women didn’t normally do. She knew the job would get finished quicker if she helped her husband, not paying attention to gender roles.

Noble experienced a lot during her family moving westward, what she did complain about however was being restless and not having any female companions. She also complains about having to be in that mess with her children. Even though her family experienced all these hardships she still continued to care for her family and didn’t regret moving to Michigan, "...there is a consolation in knowing that our children are prepared to brace the ills of life, I believe, far better than they would have been had we never left New York.” (Foner 174) She doesn’t regret leaving New York because she believes this was the right decision for the future of their