Lesson Plan

Methods of Reform: The Lowell Mill Girls

Curated and Reviewed by Lesson Planet

Although the girls and women who worked in the Lowell Mills are not often seen this way, they are the forbearers of the American labor movement. Pupils examine primary sources, including testimony about life at Lowell and labor laws, as well as changes the women wanted to make. Then, they consider what other reforms would have helped the women of the mills.

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CCSS: Adaptable
Instructional Ideas
  • Use the activity to round out a unit on the Industrial Revolution
  • Offer as a way to introduce labor reforms of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries
Classroom Considerations
  • Students need context for the Lowell Mill
Pros
  • Resource puts a new approach on a familiar topic
  • Primary sources included interesting aspects of nineteenth-century labor
Cons
  • None