Online College and University Degree Guide
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For one or two minutes think about your lifestyle
now. Make a few notes at the back of your exercise book about what you do now,
how you spend your time, what you eat etc. Think about the number of times you
have moaned about coming to school !! You are probably unaware but there are
many laws that are directly linked to children your age. Not so much about what
you can do but what you are not allowed to do. For example, did you know
that children are not allowed down coal mines ? Did you know that you are only
allowed to work for a certain number of hours per week at a certain age ?
Why were these laws brought in ? Read the
following passages about children in the C19………and you will begin to see
why.
All the following passages are primary source
evidence. This means that they came from people living at the time. This does
not necessarily mean that they are accurate but they do give us a good idea of
what life was like for children in the industrial cities of C19 Britain.
| "Two children I know got employment in
a factory when they were five years old………….the spinning men or women
employ children if they can get a child to do their business……..the child is
paid one shilling or one shilling and six pence, and they will take that (five
year old) child before they take an older one who will cost more." George Gould, a Manchester merchant, written in
1816.
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| "The smallest child in the factories
were scavengers……they go under the machine, while it is going……….it is
very dangerous when they first come, but they become used to it." Charles Aberdeen worked in a Manchester cotton
factory, written in 1832.
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"The task first allotted to Robert Blincoe
was to pick up the loose cotton, that fell upon the floor. Apparently nothing
could be easier……..although he was much terrified by the whirling motion and
noise of the machinery and the dust with which he was half suffocated………he
soon felt sick and was constantly stooping; his back ached. Blincoe took the
liberty to sit down. But this he soon found was strictly forbidden in cotton
mills. His overlooker, Mr. Smith, told him he must keep on his legs. This he did
for six and a half hours without a break." John Brown, a reporter for "The Lion".
Written in 1828.
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| "We went to the mill at five in the morning.
We worked until dinner time and then to nine or ten at night; on Saturday it
could be till eleven and often till twelve at night. We were sent to clean the
machinery on the Sunday." Man interviewed in 1849 who had worked in a mill
as a child.
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| "In the evening I walked to Cromford and saw
the children coming from their work. These children had been at work from 6 o’clock
in the morning and it was now 7 o’clock in the evening." Joseph Farington, 22nd August 1801
(diary entry)
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| "I began work at the mill in Bradford when I
was nine years old……we began at six in the morning and worked until nine at
night. When business was brisk, we began at five and worked until ten in the
evening." Hannah Brown, interviewed in 1832.
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| "Very often the children are woken at four
in the morning. The children are carried on the backs of the older children
asleep to the mill, and they see no more of their parents till they go home at
night and are sent to bed."
Richard Oastler, interviewed in 1832.
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| "Woodward and other overlookers used to beat
me with pieces of thick leather straps made supple by oil, and having an iron
buckle at the end, drew blood almost every time it was applied." John
Brown quoted in the "Lion" newspaper in 1828. |
| "Sarah Golding was poorly
and so she stopped her machine. James Birch, the overlooker, knocked her to the
floor. She got up as well as she could. He knocked her down again. Then she was
carried to her house.......she was found dead in her bed. There was another girl
called Mary......she knocked her food can to the floor. The master, Mr. Newton,
kicked her and caused her to wear away till she died. There was another,
Caroline Thompson, who was beaten till she went out of her mind. The overlookers
used to cut off the hair of any girl caught talking to a lad. This head shaving
was a dreadful punishment. We were more afraid of it than any other punishment
for girls are proud of their hair." An interview in 1849 with an unknown
woman who worked in a cotton factory as a child. |
| "When I was
seven years old I went to work at Mr Marshall’s factory at Shrewsbury. If a
child became sleepy, the overlooker touches the child on the shoulder and says
"come here". In the corner of the room there is an iron cistern
filled with water. He takes the boy by the legs and dips him in the cistern,
and then sends him back to work." Jonathan Downe interviewed in June
1832. |
| "I have seen my master, Luke Taylor, with a
horse whip standing outside the mill when the children have come too
late.........he lashed them all the way to the mill." John Fairbrother,
an overlooker, interviewed in 1819. |
| "I work at the silk mill. I am an overlooker
and I have to superintend the children at the mill. Their strength goes towards
the evening and they get tired. I have been compelled to urge them to work when
I knew they could not bear it. I have been disgusted with myself. I felt myself
degraded and reduced to the level of a slave-driver. William Rastrick,
interviewed in 1832. |
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