One this day 192 years ago, about half of the 800 mill girls at the Dover Cotton Factory walked out & began the first women's strike in US history. They marched around the Mill with signs and banners and even ignited two barrels of gunpowder.

They were protesting awful working conditions, low pay, and long hours. They were given $ .47 cents a day plus room and board. Two cents were deducted for medical insurance. Talking was not permitted.

They worked 11 hours a day. Workers who were late would be locked out & subjected to a 12 1/2 cent fine. Newspaper accounts frequently reported accidents such as a woman's hand being mangled in machinery or a girl losing her scalp when her hair became stuck in the looms.

The factories changed hands in 1828. The new owner was even more strict. Wages were reduced by five cents a day for female workers, but not men, who were already paid at a higher rate. So they organized and decided to strike.

They formed a procession of nearly half a mile in length, and marched through the town, with martial music accompanied with roar of artillery.

The "Strike of the Mill Girls" happened 20 years before the Seneca falls convention & was very influential to the women's rights & workers rights movements in the US.

anywayz read Women, Race, Class by Angela Davis. (lmk if you need the pdf of audiobook)