Eliza Jane Cate (1812-1884) | One of the Lowell Mill Girls and Writer

Susan Stoderl
5 days ago
2 min read

Women work at textile machines in a vintage illustration. Text: "She Who Dared" and "Eliza Jane Cate, One of the Lowell Mill Girls."

Eliza Jane Cate (1812-1884) began working at the Amoskeag Mill in Manchester, New Hampshire, sometime around 1830. By the 1840s, she had moved to Lowell, Massachusetts, because of higher wages. Her first piece appeared in The Lowell Offering in 1842, entitled “Leisure Hours of the Mill Girls.” Her fellow mill-mate and author, Hariet Hanson Robinson, nicknamed her “the Edgeworth of New England.” Both wrote about everyday life, social dynamics, and moral development. “The Offering” offered excerpts of “Susy L’s Diary,” “Lights and Shadows of Factory Life,” and “Chapters on the Natural Sciences.” She used the pen name of “D.”

Cate also contributed to several other magazines, such as “The New England Offering,” “Sartain’s,” “The Olive Branch,” and “Godey’s Lady’s Book.” Her pen names included “D,” “Jennie,” “Jane,” “E. J. D,” “Frankin, NH,” and “The Author of Susy L.’s Diary.”

Cate wrote at least eight other books. The Baptist Publication Society of Philadelphia published three, and J. Winchester of New York published two. Book titles include: A Year with the Franklins, Lights and Shadows of Factory Life, Rural Scenes in New England, and Jenny Ambrose.

In the opening of Lights and Shadows of Factory Life in New England, published in “The New World,” February 1843, Cate writes:

“No pent‑up Utica contracts our powers; for the whole boundless continent is ours. Fearless we stand amid the whirl of busy life, each sister heart quickened by the universal pulse of progress.”

Cate’s quote is actually a metaphor drawn from the Revolutionary-era poet Jonathan M. Sewell, who writes that the new republic offers a life not found in Utica (New York). Cate uses this line to express the freedom, ambition, and expansive potential of mill girls in New England. This is remarkable, given that she could do this with the education provided at the mills.

Eliza Jane Cate’s works aren’t widely read today, but they provide insight into the significance of mill-girl life in 19th-century America.