External Criticism

Poem that Concluded Lowell Women Workers' 1834 Petition to the Manufacturers

Let oppression shrug her shoulders,
And a haughty tyrant frown,
And little upstart Ignorance,
In mockery look down.
Yet I value not the feeble threats
Of Tories in disguise,
While the flag of Independence
O'er our noble nation flies.


Questions for External Criticism:

1) Why did the mill workers end their strike petition with a poem? What would the use of a poem show the mill owners about the workers as women?

2) What is the usual meaning of the term "Tories" in American history? Would the term have a different meaning in 1834 than it did in 1776, and why might it?

3) What was the value of associating their strike demands with "the flag of Independence"? Might independence have a new and particular meaning to these mill workers in 1834 that it might not have had in 1776? Compare here, for example, the "Song of the Spinners" and its use of the term "dependent."

4) The mill workers also argued that they were "the daughters of free men." What exactly would this mean in 1834? Compare the 1836 song the mill strikers sang, with the lines, "I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave," with this statement.

5) What does this poem assume about those who will be reading the petition? Is it a concrete demand, or is it a demand in principle?

6) What were the sources of "Liberty Rhetoric" from which the mill workers drew?

Return to the Beginning