Life Lessons for the Immigrants
By: Peter A., Josh G., Stephen L.,
and Jakub M.
Why might this book have been published?
How did the L.M.A. help mill workers who didn’t speak English?
How does the book’s material reflect the economy in Ludlow in the
1920’s?
If you were an immigrant in the 1920’s, would you have been insulted
by some of the information given in this book?
In our group, our primary source was a book titled, English Lessons for the Jute Industry, Including Community Activities. This book was published by Ludlow Manufacturing Associates, in Ludlow, Massachusetts in September, 1919. This book was probably made for the Polish and Portuguese immigrants who came to work in the Ludlow Mills. This particular book taught the immigrants how to do everyday things and things in the mills the “American Way.” At the same time, the book was teaching the immigrants to write, read, and speak English. The book contains 60 lessons of daily life and English and is divided into five parts. In the photo below it shows two men removing jute from a quiller.
Some of the lessons in the book may have insulted the immigrants because they taught them how to live their life and maybe they didn’t like that. The lessons that were possibly insulting them were lessons on taking care of babies, hygiene, and keeping their houses clean. In some of the lessons there is red lettering, which stands for caution or warnings, and things to look out for, like dangerous machinery. Some of the things in the book are outdated today because when the book was written there wasn’t knowledge that is common today. This book tells us that the L.M.A. wanted its employees to live their lives in certain ways. Learning English, working in the mills, and how to be “good” in the community were their main focus.
