Hear My Sorrow (Dear America)

October 1, 2004
Scholastic Inc.
Ages 9-12

 

Angela and her family have arrived in New York City from their village in Italy to find themselves settled in a small tenement apartment on the Lower East Side. When her father is no longer able to work, Angela must leave school and work in a shirtwaist factory. Against the backdrop of the birth of the labor union movement in the early 1900s, Angela plays a part in the drama and turmoil that erupt as the workers begin to strike, protesting the terrible conditions in the sweatshops. And she records the horrors of the Triangle Factory fire and the triumphs and sorrows of the labor movement.

Lesson Plans

Dear America: Hear My Sorrow, The Diary of Angela Denoto, A Shirtwaist Worker, New York City 1909

Hear My Sorrow tells the story of the 1909 strike of young shirtwaist workers, the "Uprising of the Twenty Thousand", as well as the Triangle Factory Fire, from the point of view of a young Italian immigrant.  Here are some further links and resources:

The Triangle Factory Fire
The Kheel Center at Cornell University has the best Internet website on the disaster on March 25, 1911.

NPR Triangle Factory Story

Triangle Factory Fire Archival Photos

Garment Workers: The Fight for Labor Rights

Lyrics to Labor Song: Uprising of the Twenty Thousand

Uprising of the Twenty Thousand: Harvard University Site

ILGWU and Garment Workers Strike

Remember the Triangle Factory Fire