~ Celebrating International Women’s History Month ~ Harriet Hanson Robinson – former mill girl, writer and suffragist

By Inna Babitskaya

William and Harriet Robinson were partners in their abolitionist and women’s rights fights. In 1870 their elder daughter, Harriette Lucy (Hattie) Robinson Shattuck (1850-1937), began to help William in his office in the state house, and in 1871 she was appointed his assistant, becoming the first woman in the USA working as an official in the legislature.

Unfortunately, William Robinson, who always had poor health, died in 1876 at the age of 58. Harriet and her children were devastated. And yet, a year later, in 1877, the 51-year-old widow could find strength in order to publish a collection of her husband’s work with an extensive introduction written by herself. Moreover, Harriet even sold it as a literary agent, thereby trying to continue William’s work.  Being left nearly destitute after his death, she had to support herself by writing children’s stories (they were sold for 2-3 dollars apiece). She also continued to write about factory labor and factory girls.

Harriet devoted most of her time to fighting for women’s rights. She wrote about women’s attempts to gain the right to vote and published two plays about suffrage: “Captain Mary Miller” (1887) and “The New Pandora” (1889). As an active proponent of women’s rights, during the 1870s, Harriet actively organized women’s suffrage rallies lectures and street parades in Malden. At one of these marches Malden women carried a banner: “We Will Control You in the Year 2002.”

Harriet was among the co-founders of the Middlesex County and Malden Woman Suffrage Associations, and was elected the president of the Middlesex County Woman Suffrage Association in 1875. In 1876, Harriet Robinson organized women’ rights conventions in Malden, Melrose and Concord.

She actively promoted the idea of ​​​​creating women’s clubs that could fight for the education of women and their participation in political life. In 1878, she, together with her daughter Hattie, founded in Malden a local women’s club, “Old and New.” At the beginning there were 12 members; Hattie was elected a president; Harriet and her younger daughter, Lizzie, became the officers. Their goal was to improve every aspect of women’s life, including socio-economic, physical and psychological conditions. Harriet was an active proponent of women’s self-education and inspired the club members to improve their speaking and writing skills. She convinced them to try by saying, “You don’t know what you can until you try. Do try.” The club organized discussions and lectures, fundraisers for the suffrage movement, women parades and monthly meetings with their male associates.

In 1879, the state legislature passed a law that allowed women to vote for local school committees. In 1880, Harriet H. Robinson and Hattie R. Shattuck organized about 50 voting women from Malden. Hattie was the first woman in the state who registered to vote.

In 1881, Harriet Robinson published the book “Massachusetts in the Woman Suffrage Movement.” In 1882, Harriet and Hattie joined the National Woman Suffrage Association and fought for women’s right to vote as well as for their working and family rights. In 1883, she published the book “Early Factory Labor in New England.” On February 6, 1882, Harriet and Hattie organized the National Woman Suffrage Association of Massachusetts.

Mrs. Robinson was the first woman to speak before the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage in Congress. In December 1886, and January 1887, both Harriet H. Robinson and Hattie R. Shattuck participated in “Debate on woman suffrage” in the U.S. Senate. Hattie said: “It is our right, and as a matter of justice we claim it as human beings and as citizens, and as moral, responsible, and spiritual beings, whose voice ought to be heard in the Government, and who ought to take hand with men and help the world to become better.”

Famous poet and former “mill girl” Lucy Larcom wrote about her friend: “Mrs. Robinson is deeply interested in all the movements, which tend to the advancement of women, and uses her pen and her voice freely in their behalf. She was the first woman to speak before the Select Committee on Woman Suffrage in Congress, and has spoken for the cause before the legislature of her own State, where she is not only a citizen, but a vote as far as the law allows.”

In 1890, Harriet H. Robinson and Harriette R. Shattuck became the co-founders of the General Federation of Women’s Clubs. Harriet was a member of its first advisory board as a representative of the “Old and New.”

In 1898, 73-year-old Harriet published “Loom and Spindle, Or Life Among the Early Mill Girls,” a memoir about her work at the Lowell mills. She not only described the working conditions there, but also explained why so many women chose to work there. She also proudly wrote about her participation in a strike as a young girl.

Harriet Robinson spent the last years of her life with family. She continued to read and write. She regretted that she couldn’t do more, saying, “If I had stuck to one thing [as Lucy Larcom] did, I might have done better work in one line at least.”

Harriet H. Robinson died at her home in Malden on December 22, 1911, at the age of 86. Though she was underestimated throughout her life and after her death, Harriet H. Robinson made significant contributions to the fight for women’s rights. She was not only an active suffragist, but also a very talented writer who could describe the early era of American Industrial Revolution and those who became its embodiment – Lowell mill girls.

(Inna Babitskaya is a Malden historian and a Member of the Malden Historical Commission.)

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