Part of a series of articles titled Lyddie - Books to Parks.
Article • Lyddie - Books to Parks
Lyddie: Chapter 07 - South to Freedom
“Exterior of the Boott Cotton Mill Museum.” Lowell National Historical Park, c 2000s. Public Domain.
Before Lyddie leaves for the Lowell mills, Triphena gives her a new pair of boots and five dollars to pay for a stagecoach ride. Lyddie thanks Triphena and promises not to forget her. Lyddie is determined to walk to Lowell. Lyddie thinks that if Ezekial could walk North to freedom, certainly she could walk South to find her own freedom. Lyddie soon finds her feet tired and sore and realizes walking all the way to Lowell isn’t possible. She stops at a tavern where she learns the stagecoach for Lowell would come at the end of the week. She works for the tavern owner in exchange for a room until the stagecoach arrives.
Lyddie boards the stagecoach headed to Lowell and forms a friendship with the driver. The stagecoach is crowded and the other passengers judge Lyddie’s homespun clothing. When the coach gets stuck in the mud on the road, the men riding can’t free it. Lyddie gets out and shows them how to free the coach from the mud. She gets wet and dirty from the work and the driver wants to make it up to her. He offers to take her to the boardinghouse his sister runs once they arrive in Lowell. Lyddie agrees. When they arrive in Lowell, she is amazed at how big, crowded, and loud the city is. Lyddie’s life as a mill girl officially begins at boardinghouse Number Five, on the Concord Corporation.
Fact Check: Was Lowell big?
Lyddie is amazed at the sights and sounds of the city. Was Lowell big, crowded and loud?
What do we know?
Thousands of young women like Lyddie went to Lowell to work in the mills. When they arrived, they were often amazed at the busy city. The three-story high brick boardinghouses lined the areas in front of the mill complexes, each of which contained several five-story buildings. Behind each of the factories’ windows, the sounds of machinery could be heard pounding away. Streets were filled with dress shops, candy stores, bookstores and jewelers. There was constant construction as the mills expanded and services in the city rushed to keep up with the growing number of workers.
What is the evidence?
Primary Source:
“New streets were opened, houses and stores were put up, churches were erected, canals were dug, manufacturing operations were extended, and within the ten years (1831-1841) the population of the town was multiplied six-fold. The increase was without parallel in any place, in any country…”
Miles, Henry Adophus, Lowell As It Was, and As It Is. Carlisle, MA: Applewood Books, Originally Published in 1845.
Primary Source:
This, then, is Lowell,--a city springing up, like the enchanted palaces of the Arabian tales, as it were in a single night, stretching far and wide its chaos of brick masonry and painted shingles, filling the angle of the confluence of the Concord and the Merrimac (rivers) with the sights and sounds of trade and industry. Marvelously[,] here[,] have art and labor wrought their modern miracles… A stranger, in view of all this wonderful change, feels himself, as it were, thrust forward into a new century…”
Whittier, John Greenleaf, The Stranger in Lowell, Boston: Waite, Peirce and Co., 1845.
Secondary Source:
“According to the census taken in 1840…Lowell already had a population of 20,000, making it the second largest city in Massachusetts. By then nine separate textile manufacturing firms were located there…Yet the same place in 1821, the year the site was selected, had contained only a dozen houses…and the Merrimack River, which at that point fell a full thirty feet.”
Dalzell, Robert F. Enterprising Elite: The Boston Associates and the World They Made. New York, NY: W.W. Norton, 1983.
Fact Check: Bad Roads
Lyddie’s stagecoach gets stuck in the mud. Were poor roads and weather frequently problems during stagecoach travel?
What do we know?
Traveling by stagecoach was far superior to walking, but it could still take several days to reach a destination, even in good weather. Passengers spent nights at taverns, where they paid for a meal and a bed, before starting out again the next day. Early roads in New England were not well maintained. They were very bumpy, and often flooded in bad weather. By the middle of the 19th century roads had improved, which made for easier and faster travel. But even with the improvements, country roads were often rutted and muddy due to snow and rain.
What is the evidence?
Primary Source:
Farley, Harriet “Letters from Susan.” The Lowell Offering, vol. IV, 1844 p145
Center for Lowell History
Secondary Source:
“Traditionally, wherever it was cold enough to freeze hard, winter was the time…for making journeys…Sleighs and sleds moved faster over snow than wagons over gutted or muddy roads.”
Larkin, Jack, The Reshaping of Everyday Life: 1790-1840. New York: Harper & Roe, 1988.
SecondarySource :
“…More than 3,700 miles of turnpikes, or toll roads, were built in New England between 1790 and 1820. Continuing through the 1840s, many thousands of miles of improved county and town roads were constructed as well. The new roads were far better constructed and maintained, and allowed for much faster travel.
Voices from the Field
"Why go to the Mills" by Emily Donovan, Supervisory Park Ranger, Lowell National Historical Park
Photos & Multimedia
See it yourself
Visitors can explore stagecoach travel at the Henry Ford in Dearborn Michigan.
https://www.thehenryford.org/
You can ride a re-created stagecoach around the village at Old Sturbridge Village in Sturbridge, Massachusetts.
www.osv.org
Writing Prompts
Opinion
Why did the stagecoach driver help Lyddie? Use precise language that are supported by facts and details.
Informative/explanatory
How did Lyddie describe the city, and what past experiences did she draw on to overcome her fears?
Narrative
Imagine yourself as a passenger in the stagecoach to Lowell. How would you describe your journey? Use concrete words and sensory details to convey your thoughts precisely.
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Last updated: December 7, 2024