happy? - July 29 (Lowell, MA Folk Fest)

Subject: happy? - July 29 (Lowell, MA Folk Fest)
From: Abby Sale
Date: 29 Jul 05 - 09:39 AM

Last full weekend of July, Friday-Sunday, July 29-31 in 2005: http://www.lowellfolkfestival.org/ "largest free Folk Festival in the US" (Lowell, Mass) Plus teaching emphesis on labor history. The location is no accident.

The Lowell factory girl strike was held in 1836. 1500 girls walked and even though they lost the strike, the example inspired many down the years.

          Oh, isn't it a pity such a pretty girl as I
          Should be sent to a factory to pine away and die?
          But I cannot be a slave, I will not be a slave
          For I'm so in live with liberty
          I cannot be a slave.
  
                  "I Cannot Be a Slave," (A parody of "I Cannot Be a Nun") 
                  American Labor Songs of the 19th Century, PS Foner.  
  
  ALSO:
          When I set out for Lowell,
            Some factory for to find,
          I left my native country,
            And all my friends behind.
  
                  "The Lowell Factory Girl," see From Farm to Factory by Jim Douglas &
                  DigTrad & especially Hedy West.  Essentially the same song as "Lewiston 
                  Factory Girl."  Most versions detail the dehumanizing, mind-dulling 
                  conditions.

(There are wildly too few female worker/union songs. For the greatest part they were totally ignored by the labor movement.)

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