Mill girls and strangers : single women's independent migration in England, Scotland, and the United States, 1850-1881 / Wendy M. Gordon.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Gordon, Wendy M., 1967-

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Women migrant labor--Massachusetts--Lowell--History--19th century.

Women migrant labor.

Women migrant labor--Employment--Scotland--Paisley--History--19th century.

Women migrant labor--England--Preston (Lancashire)--History--19th century.

Women textile workers--Massachusetts--Lowell--History--19th century.

Women textile workers.

Women textile workers--Scotland--Paisley--History--19th century.

Women textile workers--England--Preston (Lancashire)--History--19th century.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (245 p.)

Edition:

1st ed.

Place of Publication:

Albany : State University of New York Press, c2002.

Language Note:

English

Summary:

In the nineteenth-century mill towns of Preston, England; Lowell, Massachusetts; and Paisley, Scotland, there were specific demands for migrant and female labor, and potential employers provided the necessary respectable conditions in order to attract them. Using individual accounts, this innovative and comparative study examines the migrants' lives by addressing their reasons for migration, their relationship to their families, the roles they played in the cities to which they moved, and the dangers they met as a result of their youth, gender, and separation from family. Gordon details both the similarities and differences in the women's migration experiences, and somewhat surprisingly concludes that they became financially independent, rather than primarily contributors to a family economy.

Contents:

Front Matter

Contents

Figures

Acknowledgments

Transitions in the City: Independent Female Migration, 1850–1881

Preston: The Unseen Migrants

Lowell: The Mill Girls

Paisley: The Strangers and the Maids

Comparisons: The Migrants Beside Themselves

Appendix: The Statistical Methodology

Notes

Bibliography

Index

Notes:

Bibliographic Level Mode of Issuance: Monograph

Includes bibliographical references (p. 213-230) and index.

ISBN:

9780791487822

0791487822

9780585491387

0585491380

OCLC:

61367542