Women of Matoaca Mills
By Diane Dallmeyer CHESTERFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Workers pose in the Matoaca textile mill.

We normally think of our part of the South as being a slave-based, agricultural economy, but in the years preceding the Civil War, industrialization developed to support that economy. Plantations needed railroads, iron works and mills that processed cotton, grist or lumber to support their activities. When the cash supply was plentiful, plantation owners invested in slaves and land, but there were also people who invested in industrial concerns, and by the 1820s and 1830s, manufacturing facilities were established in southern cities and throughout the countryside.

The small village along the banks of the Appomattox River known as Matoaca began as a mill town in the 1830s. Named for the daughter of Chief Powhatan - who was known more formally as Pocahontas - the village was strategically located at the terminus of the canal locks of the Upper Appomattox Company, which provided good passage for the raw cotton from North Carolina. The village's proximity to Petersburg, with its port and rail centers, made the location of mills at Matoaca practical. The Matoaca Manufacturing Company operated grist mills and manufactured paper, as well as cotton.

Prior to the Civil War, farm families were largely self-sufficient and produced a variety of fruits, vegetables, grain and livestock, but following the war, many small farmers fell deeply in debt and mill work provided an opportunity for economic stability and to fund rebuilding. This income could help keep a farm running or support the family when the land no longer could. Children, particularly daughters, were not very useful on the farm and had much more value to their families as mill workers.

Many different business enterprises flourished in Chesterfield in the mixed industrial and agricultural economy after the war. Throughout the county were timbering operations, textile mills in Ettrick and on Swift Creek, brickyards at Robious Station, coal-mining in Midlothian and Clover Hill, a tannery in Hallsboro, a cannery in Drewry's Bluff, and iron works and mills in Manchester. The Matoaca textile mill, constructed circa 1836, contained 4,000 spindles and 170 looms. A village of 15-20 tenement houses was the genesis of a settlement that grew to around 500 persons. In late 19th-century Matoaca, white women were a substantial part of the workforce because they were much less costly to employ than the buying of slaves. Free black workers would have been less expensive, but the culture dictated that only white labor was employed in the South's cotton mills. Men held positions as managers, mechanics, clerks and packers while women worked as spinners, carders and weavers.

The female workers at the Matoaca mill created female bonds, or networks, in the workplace by sharing daily work routines and responsibilities. The majority of these women were not married; still, they faced the same double-duty that today's working women face, as they leave the workplace after a 10-12 hour shift for the "second shift" at home. They worked six days a week and in the pre-Christmas months, 13-14 hour shifts were common. Lacking today's appliances, the work at home was much more labor-intensive and tedious.

Where the intersections of work, family and community occurred, these shared experiences ultimately produced networks that became an integral part of the culture of Matoaca's mill women. The networks served to support nurturing and nursing obligations, provided mutual exchange and cooperation, and had a great purpose inside the factory itself. Surplus labor was abundant, and women prized their jobs, knowing they could easily be replaced. They were very careful about taking time off for vacations or family obligations, and they used their networks to find temporary replacements. This was beneficial to the "temp" worker, who then had a foot-in-the-door for possible future employment.

The women's networks shared with one another whenever they could, with whatever energy they had left over. They expanded to include neighbors, co-workers and church friends. Leisure time was never abundant and always took second place to obligations to family and community. Unscheduled mill stoppages and Sunday and holiday closings provided opportunities for outings in the country or fishing excursions. Events known as "work-sharings" had a long tradition in rural communities and were used by women to can and preserve, quilt, make wine and cider while the men shared in the work to harvest crops, clear ground and raise barns. These gatherings got the work done at the same time that they united the community and provided entertainment.

Proper and acceptable behavior - or reprimands for improper and unacceptable behavior - was defined or doled out by the female networks, and religious services provided a major outlet for the women of Matoaca. Guest preachers, prayer meetings and multiple Sunday services were occasions combining religion and entertainment. Much of the church social activity centered on matchmaking, with games designed to pair couples up. Often, social matches were made known to the community in this setting. Church-sponsored, community dating was part of the Matoaca female culture, and weddings were special social events. The experiences and values shared, along with the responsibilities and duties required in the industrial setting, helped form a post-war Southern female culture that carried through into the early years of the 20th-century, when "labor militancy" actively involved Southern women in pursuing collective goals through social and political means.