Young Labor
There are many great sad times in
Human history, and these times are not always that of death or strife either.
Some of these periods of time are when the Human race treats its own kind like
animals. A great example of this would have been during the Atlantic Slave
Trade where millions of Africans were sold into slavery. Though one of the
saddest times in Human history was during the Industrial Revolution, when
children worked in factories. Their conditions and treatment where so horrible
that many great governments would begin to take notice of these conditions.
The Sadler Report
was a report written in 1832 by Michael Sadler. The document purported to
expose the substandard working conditions of children working in textile
factories as well as women during the Industrial Revolution. The Report
included testimonies of workers in the factory, who spoke before the Sadler
committee, led by Michael Sadler. The Report is a series of interviews with
former child laborers and factory supervisors who describe the conditions,
treatment, and payment of child labor in factories. They explain the horrendous
conditions that children and women where to endure in factories of the
industrial revolution.
The 100 years in
Great Britain, between 1750 and 1850, that took place was a period of profound
economic changes. This was the age of
the Industrial Revolution, complete with a cascade of technical innovations, a
vast increase in industrial production, a renaissance of world trade, and rapid
growth of urban populations.
Where historians
and other observers clash is in the interpretation of these great changes. Were they "good" or
"bad"? Did they represent
improvement to the citizens, or did these events set them back? Perhaps no other issue within this realm has
generated more intellectual heat than the one concerning the labor of children. The enemies of freedom—of capitalism—have
successfully cast this matter as an irrefutable indictment of the capitalist
system as it was emerging in nineteenth-century Britain. Though at the time,
children just eight or nine years old regularly worked for twelve hours a day
in textile mills. The many reports of poor working conditions and long hours of
difficult toil make harrowing reading, to be sure.
On March 16, 1831,
Sadler introduced legislation in order to limit a child's work day to ten hours
a day. He described the suffering that many children were facing in the
factories in his legislation. Many members of the Parliament still refused to
pass the bill though. Sadler’s bill involved the following:
“A ban on labor
for children 9 years old and younger
a ten-hour work
day for people age nine to 18
time in the day
included for meals
two hours of
free time on Saturday
and a ban on
working all night for children under the age of 21.”[1]
Even though this bill was rejected,
it led to members looking into the issue.
This time though Michael
Sadler formed a committee in which he was the chairman and provided testimonies
of 89 workers. This committee included men such as John Cam Hobhouse and Thomas
Fowell Buxton who were also reformers for labor. These testimonies later became
known as The Sadler Report (Encyclopedia n.d.) .
Since the Report
is a large report, we will only be analyzing the interviews of Matthew
Crabtree. The tone of these interviews is very matter of fact as most
interviews are. As this is mostly transcribed, I assume from the proceedings of
the investigation there is not a whole lot of emotion in either the Interviewer
or the Interviewee.
The interview of
Matthew Crabtree mostly pertains to the treatment of children, as Crabtree was
once a child worker. His testimony is about hours worked, breaks given, abuse
by supervising adults, and his general health and well fair during this period
of his life. Crabtree is asked several questions which really relay the abuse
child laborers where subjected to. To figure out if Crabtree was a good
candidate to ask about these conditions the committee asked:
“Have you ever
been employed in a factory? - Yes.
At what age did
you first go to work in one? - Eight.
As stated, Crabtree started to work
in factories at the age of eight and worked till, he was twelve. A young boy of
eight years working in a factory is hard to imagine today. To have your youth
taken from you, but we know that this still happens in our modern time as some
families need that extra support. This is more common today in the agricultural
industry then anywhere else.
After his
credentials are established the committee asks his working hours during that
period:
“Will you state
the hours of labour at the period when you first went to the factory, in
ordinary times? - From 6 in the morning to 8 at night.
Fourteen hours?
- Yes.
With what intervals
for refreshment and rest? - An hour at noon.
Then you had no
resting time allowed in which to take your breakfast, or what is in Yorkshire
called your "drinking"? - No.
When trade was
brisk what were your hours? - From 5 in the morning to 9 in the evening.
Sixteen hours? -
Yes.
With what
intervals at dinner? - An hour.”2
In this section of questioning we
can see Crabtree worked anywhere from 14 to 16 hours a day with only an hour
break each day. Even for adults this would be a harrowing work day. Especially
as we find out Crabtree’s actual job.
The next line of
questioning the committee moved into was what happened if he was late to work
and what exactly his job was.
“During those
long hours of labour could you be punctual; how did you awake? - I seldom did awake
spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out of bed, sometimes
asleep, by my parents.
Were you always
in time? - No.
What was the
consequence if you had been too late? - I was most commonly beaten.
Severely? - Very
severely, I thought.
In whose factory
was this? - Messrs. Hague & Cook's, of Dewsbury.
Will you state
the effect that those long hours had upon the state of your health and
feelings? – I was, when working those long hours, commonly very much fatigued
at night, when I left my work; so much so that I sometimes should have slept as
I walked if I had not stumbled and started awake again; and so sick often that
I could not eat, and what I did eat I vomited.
Did this labour
destroy your appetite? - It did.
In what
situation were you in that mill? - I was a piecener.
Will you state
to this Committee whether piecening is a very laborious employment for
children, or not? - It is a very laborious employment. Pieceners are
continually running to and fro, and on their feet the whole day.
The duty of the
piecener is to take the cardings from one part of the machinery, and to place them
on another? - Yes.
So that the
labour is not only continual, but it is unabated to the last? - It is unabated
to the last.
Do you not
think, from your own experience, that the speed of the machinery is so
calculated as to demand the utmost exertions of a child supposing the hours
were moderate? - It is as much as they could do at the best; they are always
upon the stretch, and it is commonly very difficult to keep up with their work.”2
As we have seen Crabtree work 14 to
16 hours a day with an hour break and now we find out that his job is extremely
physical and dangerous. Just this part of the testimony is enough to see that
the conditions were not good at all. In todays society even an adult would not
work like this.
There
is only one other section of the testimony that is really relevant to child
labor and that is the beatings given at the latter part of the day. These are
the questions the committee asks:
“State the
condition of the children toward the latter part of the day, who have thus to
keep up with the machinery. - It is as much as they do when they are not very
much fatigued to keep up with their work, and toward the close of the day, when
they come to be more fatigued, they cannot keep up with it very well, and the
consequence is that they are beaten to spur them on.
Were you beaten
under those circumstances? - Yes. s Frequently? - Very frequently.
And principally
at the latter end of the day? - Yes.
And is it your
belief that if you had not been so beaten, you should not have got through the
work? - I should not if I had not been kept up to it by some means.
Does beating
then principally occur at the latter end of the day, when the children are
exceedingly fatigued? - It does at the latter end of the day, and in the
morning sometimes, when they are very drowsy, and have not got rid of the
fatigue of the day before.
What were you
beaten with principally? - A strap.
Anything else? -
Yes, a stick sometimes; and there is a kind of roller which runs on the top of
the machine called a billy, perhaps two or three yards in length, and perhaps
an inch and a half or more in diameter; the circumference would be four or five
inches; I cannot speak exactly.
Were you beaten
with that instrument? - Yes.
Have you
yourself been beaten, and have you seen other children struck severely with
that roller? - I have been struck very severely with it myself, so much so as
to knock me down, and I have seen other children have their heads broken with
it.
You think that
it is a general practice to beat the children with the roller? - It is.
You do not think
then that you were worse treated than other children in the mill? - No, I was
not, perhaps not so bad as some were.
In those mills
is chastisement towards the latter part of the day going on perpetually? -
Perpetually.”2
We can see that in the latter part
of the day, when the children were getting tired, that the conditions were
implorable. They were constantly beaten to in order for them to find the
“motivation” to continue their work.
Thanks
to the Sadler report we can see the horrendous conditions that children were
subjected to during their work. With the long hours and beatings that took
place it is no wonder that many children suffered during the Industrial
Revolution. Many of whom actually died or had health issue later in life due to
this mistreatment. If it was not for Sadler and the committee these conditions
would have continued for quit a long time.
References
Committee, Sadler. 1832. Testimony of Matthew
Crabtree from the Sadler Committee Report. London: House of Commons.
https://learn-us-east-1-prod-fleet01-xythos.s3.us-east-1.amazonaws.com/5c06b1fe1ee88/4413646?response-content-disposition=inline%3B%20filename%2A%3DUTF-8%27%27The%2520Sadler%2520Report.Report%2520on%2520Child%2520Labor.pdf&response-content-type=applicatio.
Encyclopedia, World
Heritage. n.d. Sadler report. Accessed 10 20, 2019.
http://self.gutenberg.org/articles/sadler_report.
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