#303 "Mill girls": the Bixby letters

"Bobbin Girl" by Winslow Homer. Lowell National Historical Park.

Document analysis:

Taking notes in a fresh Google Doc, work individually to identify each of the following.

• Locate an email (or equivalent social media correspondence) that you have written to a friend or family member sometime in the past year. Compare the content and style of your writing to that of the Bixby letters.
• From both Bixby letters, double-underline five words or phrases in the article that you would not commonly use in your own writing. For each word provide a brief contextual translation to words or phrases that you would actually use. Here are two possible ways of going about this:
  • “Comfort you in your afflictions” = make you feel better
  • “Villain” = a person with evil actions or motives
• Identify four physical objects mentioned in the letters that you would find difficulty finding in New England today.
• Identify three names of people in the letter that do not belong to any of your family members, friends, or other acquaintances.
• Identify two connections to “Secret Life of a Developing Country (Ours)”
• Identify one religious reference.

Brief discussion on the letters:

• Review some of our responses from the document analysis exercise.
• What struck/stood out for you in these letters? Why?
• What can we learn about the life of “mill girls” from these letters? How are the values and concerns of the two voices similar to your own? How are they different?
• How are these young women both empowered and threatened by the factory system?
• What else can we learn about the particular mills in which these young women work?

If time allows, write a short reply from either the brother (the first letter) or the mother (the second letter).

Homework: Assignment #304