Elizabeth DeWolfe will share her historical talk with Spaulding Memorial Library in early February. Maine Speaks, part of the Maine Humanities Council, brings speakers like Elizabeth to smaller rural libraries around Maine. This provides us with some cultural enrichment! Whether you are into history or just an entertaining story, this event will be worth leaving the house. Bundle up and make your way down for a great talk.
Dangerous Temptations: Textile ‘Factory Girls’ in Fact and Fiction
The 1849 “murder” of textile worker Berengera Caswell shattered the tranquility of life in Saco and Biddeford. In the wake of her death, authors published over a dozen tales set in Maine factory towns. To protect Maine’s young, female workforce throughout the state, short stories and novellas reviewed the “dangerous temptations” young people found in Maine’s cities, and offered advice on how to avoid Caswell’s tragic fate. These sensationalized, gothic stories were eagerly read cautionary tales that offered young women (and their nervous parents) guideposts to safety. But did the factory girls take the advice?