Force

School & Workshop

When a family’s America-promise can send only some children through the schoolhouse door, who pays for the frocks — and who keeps the wage?

The force where free schooling and industrial child/sibling labor meet inside one immigrant household.

Related places

Chelsea

Stories

The Calico Dress Her Sister Sewed

In Chelsea, Massachusetts, in September 1894, a younger sister was led into the public schoolroom while Frieda was led to the workshop — and sewed the stiff calico frocks for their first school day.