Sarah Bagley: The First Labor Union Leader

Sarah Bagley: The First Labor Union Leader

The first labor leader was born in Meredith, New Hampshire.  She secured employment in the Hamilton Manufacturing Company, one of the cotton mills of Lowell, Massachusetts.  At first she seemed to enjoy her situation.  As late as December 1840, she described the “pleasures of Factory Life” for the “Lowell Offering”, the celebrated magazine written by the mill girls.  About that time she became increasingly critical of policies of the decreasing wages and deteriorating working conditions.  This included speedup of the machines.  The working conditions included a 13 hour working day and locked doors.   Agitation for a 10 hour work began.  The editor of the “Offering” felt it was unfitting to question the policies of the Christian gentlemen who owned the mills.  Sarah Bagley insisted the workers must organize and protest. 

In late 1844 the opportunity arose when the legislature appointed a committee to deal with the problem of working conditions.  This was the first governmental investigation in the country.  That December, Miss Bagley founded and became first president of the Lowell Female Labor Association.  First it grew to 2,000 signatures and called for a 10 hour working day.   Soon she left her job, whether under pressure   or not.  She became an organizer in mills in Manchester, Nashua and Dover, New Hampahire, and Massachusetts.  She was associated with some utopian philosophies of Fortier and George Ripley.

More information can be found in the book entitled, "We Were There: The Story of Working Women In America by Barbara Mayer Wertheimer.