_THE LOWELL OFFERING_ AND ITS WRITERS.
One of the most curious phases in the life of New England, and one
that must always puzzle the historian of its literature, is its sudden
intellectual blossoming half a century ago.
[Illustration:
LOWELL OFFERING
December, 1845.
_Is Saul also among the prophets._
A REPOSITORY OF ORIGINAL ARTICLES, WRITTEN BY “FACTORY GIRLS.”
LOWELL: MISSES CURTIS & FARLEY. BOSTON: JORDAN & WILEY, 121 Washington
street. 1845.
Entered according to Act of Congress, in the year 1845, in the Clerk’s
Office of the District Court of the District of Massachusetts.]
Emerson says, “The children of New England between 1820 and 1840 were
born with knives in their brains;” and this would seem to be true,
since during or very near that time, were born the majority of those
writers and thinkers whose lives have been so recently and so nobly
rounded out,--Emerson, Bryant, Longfellow, Lowell, Whittier, John
Pierpont,--they whose influence cannot be overestimated in bringing an
ideal element into our hitherto prosaic New England life.
The seeds of this intellectual growth came suddenly, as if blown
from some far-off cultured land, and were sown broadcast. Some found
a resting-place in this little corner of New England, where were
gathered together these daughters of Puritan ancestors, and they,
too, feeling the intellectual impetus, were impelled to put in writing
their own crude thoughts. Their desire for self-improvement had been
to some extent gratified, and they now began to feel the benefit of
the educational advantages which had been opened to them. As in “Mary
Barton,” they “threw the shuttle with increasing sound, although
Newton’s ‘Principia’ lay open before them, to be snatched at in
work-hours, but revelled over at meal-time or at night.”
And the “literary” girls among us would often be seen writing on
scraps of paper which we hid “between whiles” in the waste-boxes upon
which we sat while waiting for the looms or frames to need attention.
Some of these studious ones kept note-books, with abstracts of their
reading and studies, or jotted down what they were pleased to call
their “thoughts.” It was natural that such a thoughtful life should
bear fruit, and this leads me to speak of _The Lowell Offering_, a
publication which was the natural outgrowth of the mental habit of the
early mill-girls, for many of the pieces that were printed there were
thought out amid the hum of the wheels, while the skilful fingers and
well-trained eyes of the writers tended the loom or the frame.
The idea of organization for literary and educational purposes was
first proposed in 1837 by Miss Harriot F. Curtis, perhaps the most
progressive of all the mill-girls. She with her immediate associates
conceived the idea of forming a little society for mental improvement.
In _The Lowell Offering_ of January, 1845, is the following account of
its formation written by Miss Maria Currier.
“IMPROVEMENT CIRCLE.
“In one of the corporations [the Lawrence] of this city, about eight
years ago, might have been seen, on a summer evening, a company of
four or five young females, who through the day had labored at their
several employments in some one of the factories connected with the
corporation. Perhaps they were not ambitious above others of their
sex.... But wishing to improve the talents which God had given them,
they proposed the formation of a society for mutual improvement. An
evening was appointed for the proposed purpose; and having invited
a few others to join them, they met at the time appointed.... A
president, vice-president, and secretary were chosen; a constitution
was drafted, and by-laws formed, to which each of the members affixed
her name.... At length a circle on a more extensive scale was formed
by a gentleman of this city, and a plan conceived of bringing before
the world the productions of inexperienced females; of showing
that intellect and intelligence might be found even among factory
operatives. It was then that _The Offering_ was published; and many of
those who were present at the first meeting of our Improvement Circle
were contributors to its pages.”
At the first meeting, Miss Curtis delivered a stirring address, in
which she stated the object and scope of the organization, and the
urgent need that existed for all working-women to make an effort to
improve their minds.
The club met fortnightly, and each member contributed articles in
prose and verse, which were read at the meetings, and subjected to the
criticism of those present.
In answer to a letter of enquiry, Miss Curtis writes: “I do not
remember who composed the first circle, not even the names of the
officers; but I think Emmeline Larcom was secretary. Farther than
that I can only say, I was not anything. I never would hold any
office,--office brings trammels. I believe I wrote and read the address
of which Maria speaks. Louisa and Maria Currier, Emmeline Larcom,
Harriet Lees, and possibly Ann Carter were there.... If you want to
know whose brain conceived the idea, I suspect it was I. I was always
daring; the other five were modest and retiring.” And thus was formed
the first woman’s literary club in this country,--a remote first cause
of the hundreds which now make up the General Federation of Women’s
Clubs, since it bears the same relation to that flourishing institution
as the native crab does to the grafted tree. Some of these early club,
or improvement circle women either are, or have been, members of
similar organizations in the localities in which they live, and have
done their best to incorporate into the constitution of the modern
woman’s club the idea of “improving the talents God has given them.”
And if they have continued to live up to this doctrine, no doubt they
have attained, if not to all they may have desired, at least to all
they were capable of achieving, according to their limitations.
It may be well to mention here that Improvement Circles continued to
be formed, and that in 1843 there were at least five in different
parts of the city. I attended one in 1845, connected with _The Lowell
Offering_. It met in the publication office, on Central Street, and was
well filled with factory operatives, some of whom had brought their
contributions, and waited to hear them read, with quaking hearts and
conscious faces. Harriet Farley presided, and from a pile of manuscript
on the table before her selected such contributions as she thought the
most worthy of a public reading. Among these, as I remember, were the
chapters of a novel by Miss Curtis, one of Lucy Larcom’s prose poems,
and some “pieces of poetry.” Included in these pieces were some verses
in which the wind was described as playing havoc with nature to such an
extent that--
“It took the tall trees by the hair,
And as with besoms swept the air.”
This tremendous breeze, or simile, caused a good deal of mirth among
the younger contributors, who had never heard of “The World-Soul,” nor
read Emerson’s line--
“To the green-haired forest free,”
nor Longfellow’s “The Building of the Ship,” where he speaks of the
pine-trees as--
“Shorn of their streaming hair.”
Nor yet Wordsworth’s sonnet:--
“While trees, dim seen, in frenzied numbers tear
The lingering remnant of their yellow hair.”
This was my only appearance at the Circle, as I had hitherto been
deterred from going by the knowledge that those who went were expected
to bring a written contribution to be read there. Shortly after this,
Miss Farley (one of the editors) invited me to send something to
the magazine, and I complied; but I was not an early or a constant
contributor.
In 1839, the Rev. Abel C. Thomas and the Rev. Thomas B. Thayer, pastors
of the First and Second Universalist Churches in Lowell, established
improvement circles composed of the young people belonging to their
respective parishes. These meetings were largely made up of young men
and women who worked in the mill. They were often asked to speak;
but as they persistently declined, they were invited to write what
they desired to say, and send it, to be read anonymously at the next
meeting. Many of the young women complied with this request, and these
written communications were so numerous that they very soon became
the sole entertainment of what Mr. Thomas called “these intellectual
banquets.”
A selection from the articles read at these meetings was published by
Mr. Thomas in pamphlet form, under the title, “_The Lowell Offering_,
a Repository of Original Articles written by Females employed in the
Mills.” Mr. Thomas’s own account of his part in establishing the
magazine will be found in chapter seven. The first series, of four
numbers, was issued from October, 1840, to March, 1841; and there
was such a demand for copies, that a new series began, _The Lowell
Offering_ proper, a monthly magazine of thirty-two pages, which was
issued regularly by its projector from that time until October, 1842,
when it passed into the hands of Miss Harriot F. Curtis and Miss
Harriet Farley, both operatives in the Lowell mills.
Under their joint editorship it was published, the first year by
William Schouler, but after that by these ladies themselves, who were
editors, publishers, and proprietors, until December, 1845, when, with
the end of Volume V. Miss Curtis retired from the magazine, and _The
Lowell Offering_ ceased to exist.
But in September, 1847, Miss Farley resumed the publication of
the magazine and issued one copy under the title _The New England
Offering_; and all those who were or had been factory operatives were
invited to contribute to its pages.
This magazine was re-issued in 1848, from April to December, continued
through 1849, and until March, 1850, when it was discontinued for want
of means, and perhaps new contributors. Miss Farley was the editor,
publisher, and proprietor of _The New England Offering_.
There are about seven volumes of the magazines in all,--five of _The
Lowell Offering_, and two of _The New England Offering_, including the
first four numbers in 1840, and the odd numbers of 1847 and 1850.
The prospectus of _The Lowell Offering_, as issued by its women-editors
in 1845, is as follows:--
THE
LOWELL OFFERING,
WRITTEN, EDITED, AND PUBLISHED
BY FEMALE OPERATIVES.
Our magazine is the only one which America has produced, of which
no other country has produced the like. _The Offering_ is _prima
facie_ evidence, not only of the American “factory-girls,” but of the
intelligence of the mass of our country. And it is in the intelligence
of the mass that the permanency of our republican institutions depends.
And our last appeal is to those who should support us, if for no
other reason but their interest in “the cultivation of humanity,”
and the maintenance of _true_ democracy. There is little but this of
which we, as a people, can be proud. Other nations can look upon the
relics of a glory come and gone--upon their magnificent ruins--upon
worn-out institutions, not only tolerated, but hallowed because they
are old--upon the splendors of costly pageant--upon the tokens of a
wealth, which has increased for ages--but we can take pride in these.
We have other and better things. Let us look upon our “free suffrage,”
our Lyceums, our Common Schools, our Mechanics’ Literary Associations,
the Periodical of our Laboring Females; upon all that is indigenous to
our Republic, and say, with the spirit of the Roman Cornelia, These,
these are our jewels.
TERMS: One dollar per year in advance. POSTAGE: 100 miles and under,
1½ cents. Over 100, 2½ cents.
Published at Lowell, Mass., monthly, by
MISSES CURTIS & FARLEY.
In order to combat the prejudice which then existed against “female”
editors and publishers, it was thought best (as Mr. Thomas had advised)
that the enterprise should be indorsed by some of the leading men of
the city; and in the original document, now before me, these gentlemen
said:--
“We wish herewith to express most cheerfully our confidence in their
talents and moral worth, and our cordial approbation of the worthy
enterprise in which they are engaged.... We wish only to witness
to all to whom this may come, that Miss Harriet Farley and Miss
Harriot Curtis are worthy of entire confidence, and are deserving
for themselves and for their enterprise the hearty support and
encouragement of every lover of his country, of every philanthropic
citizen. We shall always rejoice to hear of their success.
(Signed by)
SAMUEL LAWRENCE, JOHN CLARKE,
BENJ. F. FRENCH, HOMER BARTLETT,
J. W. WARREN, WILLIAM SCHOULER,
WILLIAM BUTTERFIELD, JACOB ROBBINS,
JOHN AVERY, GEORGE MOTLEY,
ALEXANDER WRIGHT, WILLIAM SPENCER,
JOHN WRIGHT.
LOWELL, _Nov. 25, 1843_”
It may be well to record the fact, that at this date, according to the
_Lowell Journal_, there were only three women editors in this country
besides Miss Curtis and Miss Farley. These were Cornelia W. Walter of
the _Boston Transcript_, Mrs. Green of the _Fall River Wampanoag_, and
Lydia Maria Child of _The Anti-Slavery Standard_.
In an editorial notice of all these women editors, the _Journal_ says,
“_The Anti-Slavery Standard_, edited by Lydia Maria Child, is one of
the best papers in the country.... We do not doubt that the women will
have a good influence in this new sphere, as they do in everything
else;” and continuing, “_The Lowell Offering_ must be made the
instrument of great good. In glancing at its contents and reflecting
upon the origin of its articles, our respect for woman and her saving
and regenerating power is increased a thousand fold.”
In order to keep the continuity of the literary history of the early
working-girls, it is well to speak of a contemporary publication called
_The Operatives’ Magazine_, published in Lowell by “an association
of females,” and edited by Lydia S. Hall and Abby A. Goddard, both
factory-girls. The leading editorial stated that “The magazine will
contain original articles on religious and literary subjects,” and
added that “those which inculcate the doctrines of the Bible as
understood by evangelical Christians, without their peculiarities, will
be admitted.” Contributions were solicited from “operatives of both
sexes.”
This magazine was published in 1841-1842, when it was merged in
_The Lowell Offering_. Lucy Larcom and her sister Emmeline were
contributors, during its existence, to _The Operatives’ Magazine_,
which may account for the fact that Lucy Larcom did not write for
_The Lowell Offering_ (with the exception of some verses in the first
series) while it was under the control of Mr. Thomas; but she became a
constant contributor after that date, both to _The Lowell Offering_ and
to _The New England Offering_.