Seamstresses were the daughters, wives, and widows of the working poor from impoverished New England farms and urban working-class communities as well as recent immigrants from Great Britain, Ireland, and Northern Europe. For poor women, employment opportunities were few. Garment sewing was often an act of desperation rather than an occupation of choice.

When reformers compared the working conditions of some Northern workers to those of slaves, they often had seamstresses in mind. "If I am less troubled concerning the slavery prevalent in Charleston or New Orleans," wrote New York newspaper editor Horace Greeley in 1845, "it is because I see so much slavery in New York, which appears to claim my first efforts."