High above the courtyard of the Boott Cotton Mills, a clock tower crowned by a street bell governed daily life as bells chimed six times each day to summon workers to and from their machines. In America’s new industrial cities, the factory bell replaced the sun as the signal for daily tasks. Workers passed through the mill gates into a workplace where danger, noise, and filth were common, and those who arrived late found locked gates and had to enter through the adjacent countinghouse, where they faced the mill agent and the penalty of docked pay or dismissal. Among the workers were children, often from immigrant families, and because pay was poor, many families depended on children’s wages for survival while child labor laws encouraged children to obtain working papers to work in the factories.

Photo: Don Morfe

Photo: Don Morfe

Photo: Don Morfe

Photo: Don Morfe