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Sarah's Life Case Study

Decent Essays

Sarah’s life consisted of moving through a succession of jobs and relocating to different mills in Rhode Island and Connecticut. Frequently relocating from place to place, Sarah experienced this new shock of the social world as young women did not have in loco parentis, resulting in a lack of mentorship and guidance for young women such as Sarah. With no real direction, Sarah often got into trouble with theft charges and misconduct, and was a young woman frequently in need of redemption. Sarah, from a young age, was suspected of engaging in sexual relationships with men, which undermined her reputation in society. Both the Methodist Church and the mill owners were highly opposed to inappropriate behavior, as mill girls were required to maintain …show more content…

Her faulty reputation followed her everywhere she went and “she did not realize the danger of changing neighborhoods so often, nor know that it was safest for people to stay where they are best known, and where slanderers make out to live upon one old story for a thousand years, but transport it into a new neighborhood and ten thousand will immediately be added to it.”6 The Methodist Church, which secured individuals by providing them with the gift of redemption was misleading as their role did not extend to this and victimized women like Sarah. Methodism, which failed to protect Cornell, also recruited women similar to Sarah, playing to their youthful and immature nature. The Camp Meeting is “A thing much more to be dreaded than even theatrical entertainments, inasmuch as it goes under the name of religion; whereas the former is called by all sorts of evil names that can serve to warn people.” When people go to a camp ground, they are unaware of the dangers that exist there and the threats they pose at every step.7 While the factory life was orderly, the Methodist camp’s where rather chaotic and uncontrolled. Methodism, as a new emerging religion appeared to appeal to those who were rather lonely and seeking

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