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The Daring Ladies of Lowell

In her new novel, 'The Dressmaker' author Kate Alcott explores the ramifications of the murder of a Lowell mill girl.

Laboring for 13 hours a day in dangerous working conditions doesn鈥檛 sound like freedom today 聽鈥� it sounds like a lawsuit. But in 1830s Massachusetts, factory jobs offered young women something they鈥檇 almost never had access to before: financial independence.

The Daring Ladies of Lowell steps inside the factory floor of one of the cotton mills. 鈥淭he Dressmaker,鈥� the story of a seamstress who survived the sinking of the Titanic, was the first novel attributed to Kate Alcott, the pen name of Patricia O鈥橞rien. O鈥橞rien had previously written five novels, including 鈥淗arriet and Isabella,鈥� about 鈥淯ncle Tom鈥檚 Cabin鈥� author Harriet Beecher Stowe and her estranged sister, Isabella Beecher Hooker.

As with both of those novels, Alcott uses a real-life event as her starting point 鈥� in this case, the murder of a mill girl whose case shocked the town.

Rather than marry a man she doesn鈥檛 love, Alice Barrow comes to Lowell in 1832 to help her father pay off a debt. (He isn't exactly grateful.) There, she discovers the camaraderie of the dormitories, the joy of buying a hat with her own money, and the intellectual possibilities of the New England town. The monthly periodical, The Lowell Offering, will publish the women鈥檚 poetry, stories, and essays under their own names and the Lyceum brings lecturers, including President Andrew Jackson, from all over the US to speak.

Alice also learns the risks: The female workers, all of whom have to be young and unmarried, must keep their hair tied up or risk having it caught in the machinery 鈥� which could drag them to their deaths. The cotton fibers clog the air workers鈥� breath 鈥� causing them to cough up cotton balls and eventually shredding their lungs 鈥� but opening a window is a firing offense. And going to the doctor is dangerous if you want to keep your job.

鈥淵ou know they don鈥檛 want sick girls here; it makes them look bad,鈥� Sarah鈥檚 best friend, Lovey, tells her. "We鈥檙e supposed to be the young, healthy workers of modern industry, remember?鈥�

After the thrill of her first paycheck wears off, Alice realizes that working conditions are getting worse, not better, and that, despite the grueling work, the women are being paid less than the men.

鈥淭hey don鈥檛 take us seriously. All we are to anybody are 鈥榯he mill girls鈥� and I think that should change. Why can鈥檛 we be daring ladies?鈥� Lovey asks as she works on a bill of rights she calls 鈥淎 Mill Girl Manifesto.鈥� An eight-hour work day and equal pay for equal work are two of her more radical ideas. But before Lovey can finish, her body is found hanging on a nearby farm.

At first, her death is dismissed as a suicide, but several clues make Alice and the other girls determined to get justice for Lovey. Alice enlists the help of the mill owner鈥檚 son, Samuel Fiske. (It doesn鈥檛 hurt that the owners are afraid their source of cheap labor will dry up if they can鈥檛 protect their workers.)

Alcott includes a romance, which serves the plot in terms of getting Alice a wider hearing than a 鈥渕ill girl鈥� presumably otherwise would have had, but it mostly feels tacked on. But when the novel stays focused on its 鈥渄aring ladies,鈥� it鈥檚 a compelling read.

Francis Cabot Lowell may have brought back the blueprints of a new industry from England in his prodigious memory, but it was the mill girls who helped power the Industrial Revolution. It鈥檚 good to see them get a book of their own.

Yvonne Zipp is the Monitor fiction critic.