They are able-bodied men here who work from early morning until late at night, in the ice-cold cellars with a quarter inch of water on the floor -- men who for six or seven months in the year never see sunlight from Sunday afternoon till the next Sunday morning -- and who cannot earn three hundred dollars in a year. There are little children here, scarce in their teens, who can hardly see the tops of work benches -- whose parents have lied to get them their places -- and who

Anna Amanda Knowlton, known as Annie, was born on 9 March 1824 in rural Quebec. She was the only child of Samuel Willard Knowlton, a farmer, and his wife, Amanda Lewis. Life in Shefford County during Annie’s childhood would have been simple and work-focused, centred around family and farming. When her mother died in 1840, Annie was just sixteen, and it’s likely she took on adult responsibilities early.