Story Advice

Read a letter from your friend, Prudence

My Dear Eliza,

After a great deal of thinking on the matter, I have joined the Factory Girls Association. This will surprise you because you have heard me criticize the leaders of the Association as dangerous radicals who cause women to lose their reputations and their jobs. But you will understand when I tell you my story.

Last week, Anna Prentiss, one of the girls who shares my room at the boardinghouse, was sick to the point of dizziness, but she could not afford to stay home and lose wages. She had been given two looms to manage and her overseer was always after her to work faster. Late in the morning, Anna grew faint and fell. Her hand was caught in the gears and horribly injured. She was taken to the hospital. The doctors fear that she may lose three fingers on her right hand. What will become of her?

This was bad enough, but then the overseer assigned one of her looms to me and the other to my friend Jenny. We each had to tend three looms so production would not suffer. I realized then, and I hope you realize it, too, that the owners and overseers see workers as gears in a machine and not as human beings. We must join together and fight for our rights, our dignity, and our health.

I am sending you a copy of a petition that urges the legislature in Boston to limit factory workers to ten hours a day. I hope you will sign it and ask your friends and fellow workers to do the same.

Your friend,

Prudence