The city of Lowell, Massachusetts, was famous for its textile mills during the Industrial Revolution. In the 1830s, around 8,000 women worked at the mills. The working conditions were terrible. The air inside the mills was full of dust. Women worked 13 or 14 hours a day for very low pay.
In 1834, the mill owners decided to pay the women even less. The women were angry and joined together to fight the owners. They went on strike (refused to go to work) until they got their wages back. But the owners wouldn’t agree, and the women had to go back to work.
The women kept fighting for better pay and working conditions for the next few years. They never won, but they were the first women's union in the country and they inspired many other workers across the country to organize. At a time when American women couldn’t even vote, the Lowell textile workers showed the world how strong women can be when they join together.
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textile /TEKS-tahyl/ [noun]—cloth made by hand or machine in large quantities
inspire /in-SPAHYUHR/ [verb]—to make someone feel that they want to do something and can do it