Description
Between 1820 and 1860, tens of thousands of single women left rural New England to work in the factory towns of the region. After a few years, they returned to the farm, moved west, or settled in the growing urban centres. In “Farm to Factory”, Thomas Dublin has selected letters from six of these women in order to provide a personal view of the first generation of American women employed for wages outside their own homes. This second edition contains a new introduction, placing the work in the context of developments in the field of women’s history, and a new set of letters by Emeline Larcom of Lowell, Massachusetts. Like those in the first edition, these letters, which offer evidence that family members collectively sent money home to support their widowed mother, provide a particular perspective on early industrial capitalism and its effect on women.
