Introduction

Results of the Textile Revolution (continued)

In the eighteenth century most people had worked in their own homes (the 'domestic system').  The textile revolution changed this. 

Businessmen built factories.  This was partly because the new machines were too large to fit into people's homes and needed a steam engine to power them.  Another reason was that factories gave the businessmen greater control over how and when people worked.  The main reason, however, was that ordinary people could not afford to buy the new machines, so the industry came to be controlled by a few very wealthy businessmen.

Many history books tell you that the factories were dreadful places (see, for example, Source 1).

After you have studied this webpage, answer the question sheet by clicking on the 'Time to Work' icon at the top of the page.

Links:

The following websites will help you research further:

Sadler's Committee:

• Traditional account – History on the Net

• Horrific conditions – YouTube video

 Sadler's Committee:

• Five more interviews

• Evidence of William Cooper

• Evidence of a factory owner

1   Adapted from Peter Moss, History Alive 3, 1968

A nineteenth century factory

To help stop the cotton threads from snapping, the inside of the cotton factories was kept very hot and very moist...  This noisy, steamy atmosphere was thick with dust and fluff from the cotton...  It is not surprising that the death rate from tuberculosis and lung diseases was horrifying.

Twelve to fourteen hours a day from Monday to Saturday with a 'short' day of four hours to clean the machinery on Sunday was quite usual, even for small children ... no one, not even small children, was allowed to sit down...  Even during the short breakfast and tea breaks many factories kept their engines running... 

Small children, who often had to bend their bodies into unnatural positions to do their jobs properly, frequently grew up with twisted spines, crooked thighs and knock-knees.

Finally ... there were always the machines themselves waiting to mangle workers who became caught in them.

At the beginning of the century there were no laws at all about the age at which boys and girls could start work... 

While floggings and beatings were bad enough, it was the injustice of the harsh fines that hurt the adult workers most of all ... the overlookers were threatened with dismissal if they did not collect enough fines or get an almost impossible amount of work done.  Sometimes the overlookers seemed to delight in inflicting savage punishments on the women and children.  

Introduction (continued)

In 1831 ('Sadler's Committee) and again in 1833 ('Factories Inquiry Commission)' hundreds of people who worked in the mills were interviewed by Parliament.  There are, therefore, literally hundreds of eyewitness accounts of what the factories were like from which historians can select their evidence. 

Sources 2-9 are a selection of the kinds of evidence that can be presented:

2    Robert Blincoe, once an apprentice in a cotton-mill:

Have you had any accidents from the machinery?

– I have not myself, but I saw a man killed by machinery at Stockport, he was smashed, and he died in four or five hours...  He was accidentally drawn up by the drive-belt, and was killed. 

3    Mark Best, an overlooker:

Were the children fined as well as beaten sometimes?

– Yes.  For various things, if they were caught combing their hair before they went home, or washing themselves...  they would not even allow them to speak to one another. 

4    Charles Burn, aged 14 – began work at the age of 8:

How often were you allowed to go to the toilet?

– Three times a day.

Were you allowed to go to the toilet at any time you wanted?

– No; only when a boy came to tell you it was your turn

5    Elizabeth Bentley, aged 23 – began work at the age of 7:

Did it affect your health?

– Yes; it was so dusty, the dust got upon my lungs… I got so bad in health, that when I pulled the baskets down, I pulled my bones out of their places. 

6    Samuel Downe, aged 29, a factory worker from Leeds:

At what time did you begin work in a factory? 

– I was ten years old when I began work at Mr Marshall's mill at Shrewsbury. We began at 5 in the morning and worked till 8 at night.  

7    James Carpenter, Leeds millhand:

What means were taken to keep the children to their work?

– Sometimes they would tap them over the head, or nip them over the nose, or throw water in their faces, or shake them about to keep them awake.

8    Joseph Hebergam – had worked since he was seven:

– When I had worked about half a year, a weakness fell into my knees and ankles.  In the morning I could scarcely walk, and my brother and sister used 'out of kindness to take me under each arm, and run, with me, a good mile, to the mill, and my legs dragged on the ground because of the pain; I could not walk.  If we were five minutes too late, the overlooker would take a strap, and beat us till we were black and blue. 

9    Joseph Badder, an overlooker:

– I have often had complaints against myself by the parents of children for beating them.  I used to beat them. I am sure that no man can do without it who works long hours. I told them I was very sorry after I had done it, but l was forced to it. The master expected me to do my work, and I could not do mine unless they did theirs.