Fight Like Hell: The Untold History of American Labor Highlight

the women pressed on with an ongoing wave of labor actions that culminated in the formation of the Factory Girls Association, which soon boasted twenty-five hundred members across New England. Though the bosses crushed their efforts once again and the FGA fell apart after the strike, these women had made an important contribution to the growing class consciousness among women workers. Between 1842 and 1844, public opinion of the mills—once heralded as a utopia for godly young women—curdled as more reports on their actual working conditions surfaced.