Mary Paul's Letters

Mary Paul was part of the "Lowell Experiment" where young girls from the country moved to Lowell and worked in the textile mills with other girls. This experiment was both a failure and a success. It was a failure because the mills failed to manipulate the girls to work for cheaper pay, the girls had to work for very long period of time each day, and the girls had to withstand exhausting conditions with little sleep. this experiment was a success because the girls got the chance to explore the city, buy what they want with their excess money, and got a chance to gain their independence. 

A woman changes bobbins at a machine

 at the mills in Lowell

When Mary was fifteen she had a desire to got to Lowell and work. Mary is excited to go when she first leaves but after the four years of her being there she is ready to go home. In her first letter Mary asks for her dads consent for her to go to Lowell. To help convince her dad, Mary says that she can earn more there and she needs money for clothes which she couldn't if she stayed at her house. After the first letter Mary is hopeful of going and looking forward to go. By the time Mary sends the second letter Mary is getting homesick she says "tell all friends that I should like to hear from them."  Mary tells her father she only wants to stay another year but she doesn't end up leaving since she stays the four years. By the third letter it is winter and Mary describes how dangerous it is with multiple people dying for different reasons. Mary tells her father about her pay and that she able to buy sufficient clothes with her left over money. In Mary's fourth letter she explains to her father that she has been told that she is "growing very poor".  She tells her father how her day goes everyday and the time the other girls and her girls get to eat the three meals of the day. Mary is happy about the boarding house she has since she is with girls from Vermont and they all are "kind and obliging." In Mary's fifth letter she is exhausted and burnt out. She tells her father that her pay has been reduced to about two dollars a week. Mary tells her father since she has been payed less recently she had to switch to a cheaper and closer boarding house. She tries to find other work or at another mill but they are mostly full of work.  In the final letter Mary sends to her father she is worried about what her pay for the week will be since she missed four days. After Mary sends the letter she heads back to Vermont to live with her family.

Picture citation: http://www.uml.edu/tsongas/bringing-history-home/artifacts/set01.htm