"Life in the Iron Mills" takes place in a small, smoky town in the southern United States in the mid-19th century. As industrialization rapidly changed the world of work during this time, there were very few restrictions on how companies could treat their workers. As such, “milltowns” like the one in this story often exploited their inhabitants into a kind of indentured servitude, where they became trapped in debt and couldn't leave. In this tale, the iron mill dominates both the physical and social landscape of the town. No matter where one goes, the socioeconomic divides the mill engenders remain clear and present.
The grime and pollution from the mill's ceaseless operation permeate the town. There’s smoke everywhere, in the workspace as well as in people’s private homes. Living and working conditions were both dangerous in the real-life versions of these towns, as disease was rife and medical care scarce. This physical setting of pollution and degradation is set against the polished and luxurious lives of the mill owners and industrialists, who benefit from the laborers' toil. The proximity between their abundance and the mill town’s smoggy misery illustrates how dependent the former is on the latter. The affluent live comfortably because the workers endure perilous conditions and starvation.
Not everyone in the labor force suffers equally, however. There are many different versions of the mill town labor experience in this story, where people are also segregated by gender and race. Negative stereotypes and discrimination compound the oppression of already marginalized groups. Historically, conflicts like these were often encouraged by the owners of factories, as solidarity between employees was threatening to their business. Despite this, Davis does not merely present these stereotypes as unavoidable facts. She instead mobilizes them to serve a social activist agenda. By portraying the struggles of these workers as a community and as individuals, she points out many of the societal structures that perpetuate inequality.
