Poor women were born to die

[vbetts]

The Augusta Constitutionalist, April 28, 1864, reprinted a long article from the Richmond Examiner, which originated with the New York World, giving the report of the Women's Protective Union. The report noted working conditions for sewing women, with pay for individual pieces of clothing constructed, number of stitches, details of sewing, hours worked, cost to employer, etc. The report ended in a poem entitled "Song of the Working Women," which is related to the earlier poem "Song of the Shirt."

Song of the Working Women.
By Mrs. Ann S. Stephens.

The war shout that rings up from battle
Thrills through the answering crowd,
When you free the slave as a chattle,
The joy of freedom is loud.
But the prayer that comes from woman,
When she asketh bread for toil,
Is meet with a clamor inhuman,
‘Mid an eager rush for spoil.
Work! Work! Work! This is the answering cry,
“Our wives are fond of jewels, and widows were made to sigh.”

We plead that our hands are a-weary,
That our hearts are sad with care—
That our hearts are desolate, dreary,
Our spirits sunk in despair.
We plead that our children are crying
For the food we cannot earn—
That hope in our bosoms is dying,
As a fire forgets to burn.
Work! Work! Work! Thus the answer rushes by,
“Our sons must have fast horses, and children were born to cry.”

We say that our homes are darkened,
For the loved who gave them light
To the first war trumpet hearkened,
And went away to the fight.
Some have fallen low in the ditches,
And some lie stark on the plain;
We mingle sad tears with our stitches,
But when we dare to complain—
Work! Work! Work! This is the answering cry,
“We must make wealth by contracts, and soldiers enlist to die.”

Then we plead that as gold goes higher
Our fuel is rising too—
That our hearths lack warmth and fire;
And the sewing that we can do,
With all our weary, toilsome stitching,
With all our tears and pain,
With our desolate midnight watching,
Is worse, oh worse than in vain,
Work! Work! Work! is still the answering cry,
“Heap coal and wine in our cellars—poor women were born to die.”

Vicki Betts

[MissMaggie]

Re: Poor women were born to die

In all my research of working class women it never ceases to amaze me how people in the upperclasses thought of them. Servants were generall thought to be lazy, stupid and dishonest and seamstresses were not thought of at all except when it came to getting a dress done overnight. I have seen quite a few cartoons that portray seamstresses and gaunt, pale half dead creatures toiling away in the dark. Its almost sad really.

[FlatLandFed]

Re: Poor women were born to die

In all my research of working class women it never ceases to amaze me how people in the upperclasses thought of them. Servants were generall thought to be lazy, stupid and dishonest and seamstresses were not thought of at all except when it came to getting a dress done overnight. I have seen quite a few cartoons that portray seamstresses and gaunt, pale half dead creatures toiling away in the dark. Its almost sad really.

Such a poignant reminder of what life was like for most people back in the day. Thanks for sharing the poem. I can only hope this was not the standard treatment of laborers throughout the nation.

Interesting that the story about Northern working conditions was carried in Dixie publications -- was there any other comment, in the vein of "see what we're fighting?" or the like?

Regards,
Paul Hadley
Slippinfalls Plattoon

[BobSullivanPress]

Re: Poor women were born to die

Ann Stephens - writer of several Beadle's Dime Novels.

[ElizabethClark]

Re: Poor women were born to die

Wow.

The contrast between the owners and workers in that piece couldn't be more vast... Our sons need fast horses, and children were born to cry.

Reading other memoirs of the war years, such as Mary Livermore's "My Story of the Civil War," I'm constantly struck by the poverty and suffering of the working classes in many cases. The comparison between our modern "poor" and historic working class is very interesting.

One might suppose that the writer is using hyperbole to make her point--but examining the pay scales for piece and factory work, and the cost of everyday necessities of life, it's very obvious that she may have understated the actual grim reality of a woman trying to support a family by her needle.

[vbetts]

Re: Poor women were born to die

The Augusta paper definitely put a pro-South, anti-North introduction to the article:
------------------------------------------
From the Richmond Examiner.
White Slavery in the North.

An interesting Paper—The Poor Whites in the North—How they Live—Fearful Picture of Destitution—The Laboring Classes in a state of Starvation.

The working men and women at the North are moving. Week before last they held a large demonstration in New Nork [sic], gotten up under the auspices of the working Women’s Protective Union. The proceedings were interesting; an address, resolutions, &c., were adopted; speeches made, odes recited—but the most important thing that grew out of the movement was a most thrilling picture of white slavery at the North. A number of articles were exhibited, wrought by the hands of the poor needle-women in New York, with the prices paid for the fabrication of each article, and the exhibit confirms the fact—what we have always contended—that the poor whites at the North are far worse off than the slaves at the South; that there is a system of white slavery in the North far more exacting and inexorable than negro slavery in the South. The heart sickens at the picture of want and destitution revealed in this exhibit, and human nature revolts at that “humanity” which deluges the country with blood under the cry of “freedom” for the negro, while their own whites at home are being ground to the earth by a system of oppression and tyranny far worse than the bondage of the slave. Think of a poor, aged woman, working hard, day and night, and receiving for her whole week’s compensation thirty nine cents in a depreciated currency. And yet this is but one of a hundred. Read the report below. It is official, made by the authority of the association, and is invaluable as showing the condition of the poor whites in the North, it is so full of interest that we are induced to give it in full. Let those in our midst, who think they are suffering from this war read this report and take comfort from the reflection that though suffering has been entailed upon us, we are yet far better off in this respect than our enemies. We wish every one to read this report through, and he will then understand whether slavery exists only in the South:
--------------------------------------

The article goes clothing item by clothing item--here's an example:

A more common white shirt with plated muslin bosom, collar and wristbands, containing eight thousand stitches, six button holes, &c. The stitching is done coarsely on the sewing machine.

These shirts are chiefly worn by working men as their Sunday shirt. They are well made and servicable [sic] articles. Three are completed in one day by the operator, who buys the thread, and receives from her employer eight cents for each shirt. These garments generally sell for one dollar and twenty-five cents, costing as follows:

Three yards of muslin at 24 cents..............................72
Labor and thread............................................ ........ 8
Buttons........................................... ..................... 3
Total cost.............................................. ...........$ 83 [there should be a period before the 83, but it isn't in the newspaper]

***And towards the end you learn that:

Board, which was formerly $1 50 per week, is now $2 30 to $3. [and there is no dot between the dollar and the cents, which is not unusual in period newspapers]

I don't know that the picture presented in the poem was *that* much overdone, although I wouldn't take it to the extreme that the Augusta paper did.

Vicki Betts

[JohnTaylorCW]

Re: Poor women were born to die

--------------------------------------


Three are completed in one day by the operator, who buys the thread, and receives from her employer eight cents for each shirt.


Board, which was formerly $1 50 per week, is now $2 30 to $3. [and there is no dot between the dollar and the cents, which is not unusual in period newspapers]

Vicki Betts

Well,

$0.08 x 3 = $0.24 per day sewing

$0.24 x 7 = $1.68 per week income. (and no time off at all.)

Not enough to pay the board. The kids will be working too. Helps to understand why unions would become popular later in the century.