Consider These Questions

Now that you have argued each side and seen others debate the issue, which argument do you think makes the strongest case: Was Lowell an opportunity for working women or a dead end? Why?

What are your thoughts about the Lowell System?

"I think that word 'experiment' is important because -- it's the first thing. It's a transitional stage, a transition to clear-cut capitalism. All that paternalism, the boardinghouses, the concern for the other elements of the workers' lives, well, in time, that fades away. Indeed, Lowell itself transforms when the labor force of young women from New England gives way to a largely immigrant workforce."
— Louis Masur