Today in Women's History we will be looking at the mill girls of Lowell, MA and their struggles in an industrialized market economy at the beginning of the 1820s. These were young, unmarried women who went to work in an ever more industrializing economy. Incidentally, if they remained unmarried, we see the origins of the term, "spinster." Below is a song I was able to find to analyze with my class. It is dated 1841.
How does music speak to us from the past? What does this piece of music say about the girls working in these factories? What can we infer from the fact that this song was formalized enough to be printed as sheet music?
I am particularly curious about the last line of the song -
Dependent on others we ne'er will be.
So long as we're able to spin.
Economic independence set to music. Makes my head spin with ideas.
JJ
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