Revolution, Reform, and Class Conflict in Rebecca Harding Davis’s Life in the Iron-Mills
type: CreativeWork
description: Life in the Iron-Mills (1861) by Rebecca Harding Davis is a very early example of American fiction that depicts the living and working conditions in a mill town. Although the novella advocates for workers, it does not accurately depict contemporaneous working-class culture. Davis depicts workers as isolated and helpless in the face of the forces that oppress them rather than giving voice to the workers’ movement of her time. Although Davis depicts workers in a debased state, the text’s narrator holds out hope of the “Dawn,” suggesting a revolutionary movement. Because the narrator offers no interpretation regarding how the working class might step into this light, the narrator’s proffered hope actually undermines the revolutionary potential it promises.
abstract: Life in the Iron-Mills (1861) by Rebecca Harding Davis is a very early example of American fiction that depicts the living and working conditions in a mill town. Although the novella advocates for workers, it does not accurately depict contemporaneous working-class culture. Davis depicts workers as isolated and helpless in the face of the forces that oppress them rather than giving voice to the workers’ movement of her time. Although Davis depicts workers in a debased state, the text’s narrator holds out hope of the “Dawn,” suggesting a revolutionary movement. Because the narrator offers no interpretation regarding how the working class might step into this light, the narrator’s proffered hope actually undermines the revolutionary potential it promises.
author: Collins, Thomas
keywords: Rebecca Harding Davis, Life in the Iron-Mills, working-class literature, revolution, reform, spontaneism, Literature in English, North America
date published: 2019-01-01T08:00:00Z
date modified: 2026-07-24T01:57:21Z
provider: City University of New York - City College
publisher: Networked Digital Library of Theses and Dissertations
type: WebPage
source organization: City University of New York - City College