 Mill Girls & Their Daughters By Louise Hart IntroductionMill Girls and Their Daughters poetically tells the story of five generations of women, beginning with one of the original Irish mill girls of Lowell, Mass., and continuing to the present. Linked by genetic and cultural heritage, the women are strong, determined, resourceful, talented and hardworking. Their lives collectively span almost a century and a half of U.S. history. They would be witnesses to the Industrial, Computer and Telecommunications Revolutions and over half a dozen domestic and international wars. Over twenty men would serve as U.S. President and astronauts would walk on the moon during their lifetimes. These events are only referenced in the poems. Though considered important historical events, the political and geographic changes were perceived as having little or no impact on the women's lives. It should be remembered that when the first three of the women portrayed were born, women in the United States, like black people in much of Africa, were not permitted to vote or participate in the political process. The United States did not lead the world in recognizing the rights of women. Nine other countries would address this wrong by enfranchising women before that civil right would be opened to women in the U.S. Like the lives of most women of their time, the lives of the women in these poems were consumed struggling with issues of poverty, health, homemaking, domestic violence and child rearing. That left little time for political activism, although more than one would make her opinions known. Contrary to the opinion once held about mill girls, all of the women were literate and interested in the arts and culture. Two whose special talent and ability to memorize and recite literature enriched the lives of their fellow mill workers as well as family with their recitations. They defy the image of the poor and poverty. Two repeatedly turned cold-water flats without central heat and only blank walls and floors into homes. From scraps of wood and cloth, they would build, cover and decorate the homes. They made their own clothes and those for their children from scraps and then turned other scraps into rugs, doilies, table covers that they donated to charity. Their spirits were indomitable. Few could match their achievements today. Their stories, their lives, their values were and are a part of the fabric of all to which we aspire. It is because of women such as they, as much as because of the famous and "powerful" men, that our country has survived. It is their values, their dedication to family that politicians proclaim as the cornerstone of our society. However, this poetic portrait is not written as a historical document. It was written as a portrait of a multi-generational, extended family that recognized and valued the ties that bound them in the face of a society where industry and government sought mobile, nuclear families and individual workers. The lives of these women as much as their individual personalities made them strong. Theirs was a matriarch in a patriarchal society not by choice, but rather, by reality and necessity. Though all had dreams, those dreams seemed solitarily destined never to be fulfilled. The men in their lives never shared their dreams. One would seek a fortune in gold and never return. Another preferred not to work. Each was weak, faulted and most were absent. Left alone in a society where single women were frowned upon, the women endured, persisted, lived and raised their families. Most saw their accomplishments and strengths developed not from choice, but rather, from necessity. It is to those women, beginning with Emily Sherlock Riley and continuing with her descendants and all the women who have met life with equal courage and dignity that this book is dedicated. Family PortraitFive generations, women all Framed together on a wall. A tapestry of a common gene Interwoven at the seam By sex, society and destiny, By heritage and family, Inextricably linked, unable to break away, They came together if but for a day. Great great-grandmother, the matriarch, A weaver, a literate, to her deathbed come No apologies to anyone. She raised three children all alone, Two she buried after they were grown. Wealth in gold was not her measure, Time with family was all she treasured. Great grandmother, her daughter, A rug braider, he life of work done, Still mourns for her dead two-year old son, The daughters, her sister and brother long dead Though they are with her still as she stands by the bed. Her daughter, the nurse and organizer, Here the generations brought together As witness to their strength, their longevity, In proud defiance of birth in poverty. Her first born daughter, a new mother too, Holds her baby destined to be the mother of two, Clutches the baby she would bury after her mother Leaving her alone to remember the others. Poet, author and photojournalist, Louise Hart has been both writing and working with children since before she was five years of age. At thirteen years of age, the first of her poems was accepted for publication. Upon reading one of her nature poems, the publisher of one of the most prestigious imagistic poetry journals in the United States dubbed Louise Hart, the new Emily Dickinson. A native of Robert Frost's hometown, Lawrence, Massachusetts, she would have over 250 of her imagistic, metaphysical poems published in journals, anthologies and general publications before the first of her collected works was published in 2000. By 2001, no less than six collections of her works, including Tales of a City Maid, Mill Girls and Their Daughters, Prayers for the Temple Within, The Illustrated Book of Trees I, The Illustrated Book of Trees II, and On the Death of Love and other poems have been published. She is working on a seventh. Along with this growing collection of poetry, Hart's published works include books of verse, non-fiction, fiction, essays, humor and cookbooks. All of her works reflect her urban, multicultural background, work with children, in education, community service, business and journalism. Hart's work on behalf of children and the community has been recognized by Harvard University with the award to her of the Derek Bok Prize for Outstanding Leadership in Community Service, by the American Association of University Women by their naming her to their state honor roll for Outstanding Leadership in Community Service, by the Republican National Hispanic Assembly (Essex Chapter) with a special award for outstanding service to the Hispanic community and by the Greater Lawrence Office for Children which presented her with a special award for her outstanding service to children. Hart's record of advocacy on behalf of children with special needs (Chapter 766) was also included in the Massachusetts state archives. In Mill Girls, Hart details the lives and character of five generations of Lowell Mill girls. The collection, she notes, started with a family portrait that was published in the Lowell Sun just weeks before the matriarch of the family died. Hart wrote the books, she says, because she hoped that young people and others would learn from the lives of these extraordinary women. A trained educator, Hart wrote The Ashley Stories to fill a need for a feline character that was recognizably true to its breed and for "fun" literature which address issues of individual differences, sibling rivalry, non-violent, creative problem solving, disabilities, family and individual values and relationships. Hart thus created Ashley, the Persian cat. Ashley is an easily recognizable feline that is not just any cat. Ashley is Ashley and that is that. That couplet not only links the verse in the tales, but also, becomes a fun unforgettable mantra for young readers and listeners. A graduate of Boston University, the University of Massachusetts and Harvard, Hart completed the Institute in Economic and Urban Development Management at Tufts University in Medford, MA and attended law school. She now resides in Andover, Massachusetts. |