You will be writing a journal about the Textile Mills of the mid-1800s. You need to use primary sources from the mills to explain what life was like. Before you begin writing the journal, you will use this note taking sheet to keep track of your primary sources on Life in and Around northern textile mills in the 1830s and 1840s. There is an example of source #1 here.

What Source do you choose?	What does this source tell us about life in the mills?	Turn the information into sentences to use in your journal. Use first person point of view.
List of Mill Injuries	Lots of injuries were not treated in hospitals Mostly men were injured, women probably didn’t have dangerous jobs	I can’t believe they didn’t take Ms. Smith to the hospital! Their laceration was really bad. I’m not worried that I will get hurt. Since I’m only an 11 year old girl, I have been given a very safe job.

Character Development

Use your research to create a pretend journal of a girl working in the Mill. You get to decide who your “character”. Begin by thinking through the following questions:

Person’s name and age
Where did they live before they were at the Mill?
Why did they come to work at the mill, and what will they do with the money they earn?
What is their opinion of the mill? Good, Bad, Unsure? Why?
What is something that this person does in their free time?
What problems does this person encounter that are associated with mill life?
How could the problems be solved or worked through?
What people does your character interact with daily?
What else should people know about your character?
What basic facts or information about Mills is missing? What do you know about Mills that isn’t yet on these pages?

Create a Journal

Write at least 3 journal entries that put all of your pages and knowledge about Mills together. Include a sketch, poem, or song that your character would have made or used.

March 25, 1843

March 30, 1843

April 5, 1843

April 8, 1843

April 15, 1843

US Studies by the Minnesota Partnership for Collaborative Curriculum is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 3.0 Unported License.