10-Hour Movement Simulation: Section X
This project challenged students to learn about the 19th century labor movement in Lowell through both primary sources and historical fiction. Students began by discussing the historical novel Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, which imagines the life of a girl who moves from her family farm in Vermont to work in the Lowell mills. Following this, students learned about how millworkers used different forms of media to organize for better working conditions by reading aloud excerpts from the new play “The Lowell Offering” by Andy Bayiates and Genevra Gallo-Bayiates.
Throughout this time, students also examined and analyzed primary sources, including letters from mill girls to their families, mill and boardinghouse regulations, hospital records, and mill time tables.
Finally, students took on the role of a real historical figure and simulated an 1845 hearing in which workers at the Lowell mills demanded a 10-hour work day.
Statements at the Hearing
Click on an image below to read statements written by students playing real historical figure who testified at the hearing.
Reporters’ Articles & Legislators’ Decision
Click on an image below to read articles written by students who imagined the perspective of an 1845 publication on the hearing. The Lowell Offering was a periodical written and edited by mill workers, but owned by mill owners or local politicians. The Voice of Industry was a newspaper that prided itself on fighting for workers’ rights. The Lowell Courier was a local newspaper that generally favored the mill owners.
Finally, you can read the decision made by the two legislators who oversaw the hearing: William Schouler and Luther Metcalf. To give the simulation higher stakes, the students playing our legislators were allowed to make a different decision than the one made in 1845.
Videos from the Hearing
Click on a button below to see video of testimony from the hearing simulation!
