Child Labor & Repopulation · Lowell, Massachusetts, United States
Boott Cotton Mills
The open question
Huge brick mills and canals up in a few years in the 1830s. Who built them, with what workforce?
On the record
Built in 1835 along a power canal by Abbott Lawrence, Nathan Appleton and John Amory Lowell; the most complete antebellum mill complex left in Lowell.
More from Child Labor & Repopulation
Hughestown, PennsylvaniaBreaker boys, No. 9 BreakerRooms full of small boys picking slate all day. Where were their fathers, and their schools?The Pennsylvania Coal Company's Number 9 Breaker; Lewis Hine photographed its breaker boys, including the smallest, Angelo Ross, in 1911.
Manchester, New HampshireAmoskeag MillyardThe biggest mill on earth, staffed partly by children. Who were they and where did they come from?It grew into the largest cotton textile plant in the world. Hine photographed small boys working there in May 1909.
North Pownal, VermontAddie Card, North Pownal millA girl who might be ten, working a spinning frame. Who signed off on that?Hine's 1910 photo of Addie Card, a 12-year-old spinner. His note says girls in the mill said she was ten.
Macon, GeorgiaBibb Mill No. 1A mill making big profits with children on the floor. Was it the same story everywhere?Hine photographed doffer boys and other children at Bibb Mill No. 1 in January 1909, noting the company's profits on his labels.