Local Workforce At The Mills

By the early 1800's, a small village had been established along the Appomattox River with 200 workers who operated the cotton mill. Housing for millworkers from the mid-19th century onward became one of the outstanding features of the Ettrick Historic District. In 1859, nearly all 830 residents of Ettrick were laborers or craftsmen, such as carpenters, machinists, and blacksmiths, and two-thirds of the male population worked in Petersburg. Ettrick's cotton mills mostly employed female workers, and because crafts and trades were restricted to men, the only positions open to women were unskilled, low-paying mill jobs. Many children worked alongside these women, and census records from 1870 confirm that several children in Ettrick were listed as working at the mill, some as young as 10 years old.

Ettrick, Virginia · United States