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In Lyddie by Katherine Paterson, what job does Lyddie's younger sister get at the factory?

Lyddie's little sister, Rachel, becomes a doffer at the Concord Corporation. When Rachel first comes to Lyddie, Rachel is silent and withdrawn. Lyddie, who has been so intent on saving money so she can reunite her family at their farm, can't abide the thought of having to put her hard-earned money into supporting Rachel, especially if she were to go to school. Considering how hard she has worked since she was Rachel's age, Lyddie entertains the idea of Rachel working as a doffer. From Lyddie's perspective, being a doffer is an easy job. The children work about fifteen minutes out of an hour; they simply have to take full spools off the machines and put empty spools on. Lyddie has been able to see the doffers playing in the mill yard while she herself is working on her looms. To her, being a doffer seems like a life of comparative ease, and she is more than ready for Rachel to take that role.


When Lyddie first suggests to Mrs. Bedlow that Rachel could be a doffer, Mrs. Bedlow says that Rachel is too young and too weak to do that job. However, after Rachel proves herself by nursing Lyddie back to health, Mrs. Bedlow advocates for her with the factory agent, and Rachel is hired. Rachel herself wanted the job, even though by the time Lyddie had recovered from her fever, she was leaning toward sending Rachel to school instead. Unfortunately, despite Rachel's positive attitude about working at the factory, the job takes its toll on her health. She develops a cough, and Lyddie fears that it will become a serious health issue for Rachel like it did for Betsy. Lyddie decides to let Rachel go live with the Phinneys so that she will no longer have to work as a doffer and so she can go to school.


At the link below, you can see pictures of children working as doffers in a factory about 70 years after the time period of Lyddie. Although the machinery in these photographs is more modern than what Rachel would have worked on, the concept is the same. Child labor was still an issue in the early decades of the 20th century.

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