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Child Labor
Factory Girls
Factory Girls
STRIKE!!
May 1824 Pawtucket (R.I.) strike debate about whether mills owned by
Samuel Slater. Issue was reduction of wages and increased hours. First
womens strike. Community support compromised reached.
Local newspapers were biased in favor of Dover's major industry, the mills, in
their reporting of the incident. The Dover Enquirer December 30, 1828 wrote:
Turn Out- A general turn out of the girls employed in the cotton factories in
this town to the number of 6 or 800 took place on Friday last, on account of
some imaginary grievance. It has, we believe, turned out to their cost, as well
as disgrace; and since that time many of them have returned to work, and all,
who are permitted, will without doubt, return in the course of a few days.
The girls on leaving the factory yard formed a procession of nearly half a
mile in length, and marched through the town, with martial music:
accompanied with roar of artillery. The whole presented one of the most
disgusting scenes ever witnessed.
After two days of strike the women returned to work under the reduced rate.
Female textile workers formed the Factory Girls Association First Female labor
union in the U.S. and went out on strike.
During the strike, the women would parade in the streets singing:
Oh! isn't it a pity, such a pretty girl as I
Should be sent to the factory to pine away and die?
Oh! I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave,
For I'm so fond of Liberty,
That I cannot be a slave.
Twice as many women (1,500) joined the strike and unlike the previous
strike this one had community support. After two weeks the employers
rescinded the rent hike and the strike was a success