Harriet Hanson Robinson (1825-1911) and the Lowell Mills "Gossip Girls"

When Harriet Hanson Robinson was 11 years old, the 1836 strike in the Lowell Mills (called a “turnout”) began. She later wrote about the turnout in her autobiography, “Loom and Spindle.”

Workers’ wages had been cut, and the twenty-five-cent-a-week contribution toward the women’s boarding had been stopped. These cuts would reduce the $2.00 to $4.00 pay by at least $1 per week. Harriet recalled leaving the factory. The other workers asked what she was going to do. She replied, “‘I don’t care what you do, I am going to turn out, whether any one else does or not;’ and I marched out, and was followed by the others.” She added, “As I looked back at the long line that followed me, I was more proud than I shall ever be again, until my own beloved State gives to its women citizens the right of suffrage.” Twelve to fifteen hundred followed her.

Hanson was one of the noteworthy contributors to “The Lowell Offering,” a monthly literary magazine (1840–1845). Young female textile workers in Lowell, Massachusetts, known as the “Lowell Mill Girls,” produced the magazine. It featured poems, ballads, essays, and fiction. Their writings told of the real and challenging lives of factory workers, labor conditions, the need for workers’ rights, and even suicides among laborers. It included lighthearted satirical pieces and covered topics like astronomy, religion, housekeeping, and cultural enrichment.

When Harriet married William Stevens Robinson in 1848, she emerged as a women’s rights leader, organizing the Massachusetts branch of the National Woman Suffrage Association in 1881. In 1889, she presented a suffrage petition to the U.S. Congress.

Harriet co-founded the General Federation of Women’s Clubs, providing women with a space for socializing, education, and self-improvement. Topics focused on art and literature, education, and work. Lectures from prominent intellectuals and reformers included Ralph Waldo Emerson, Henry James, William Lloyd Garrison, and others.

Next week’s blog will feature the writings of more of the Lowell Mill Girls.