Introduction

For decades, textbook writers read what the Victorians wrote, took them at their face value, and assumed that conditions in the factories were terrible.  They trawled through the evidence and, for obvious reasons, cherry-picked horrific examples to tell their students. 

At the time, the factory owners accused particularly  Sadler's Report as being baised.  In the debate in 1933 in the House of Commons:

Lord Morpeth:
He must say, he very much doubted the accounts of deformed bodies and debased minds created by this system…that what had been advanced was not an accurate representation of the ordinary economy of a mill, nor the true picture of the feelings and conduct of a British manufacturer.  

Thomas Gisborne MP:
The party-coloured evidence taken before Mr. Sadler's Committee was … exaggerated, incredible, and false... 

That evidence was a tissue of gross improbabilities.  If he were allowed he should be able to show, that the statements made with respect to the cotton factories were unfounded misrepresentations, for he had an extensive knowledge of these factories, and he could, without the fear of contradiction, assert, that the children employed in them were as healthy and as happy as any children of the same class in the country .  

Nowadays, academic historians accept that Sadler was "grossly biased" ... though neither do they believe the accounts of such as the factory inspector Andrew Ure, who in 1835 claimedof factory children that:

The work of these lively elves seemed to resemble a sport.  

The evidence on this page will help you decide what you think.

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

1    Evidence of Samuel Coulson of Leeds to the Sadler Committee:

Coulson's children worked in a mill.  Here, he answers questions about the work his children, aged 8-12, did in the `brisk' times (when the mill was busy):

At what time in the morning, in the brisk time, did these girls go to the mills?

– In the brisk time, for about six weeks, they have gone at 3 o'clock in the morning, and ended at 10, or nearly half past, at night.

What breaks were allowed for rest during those nineteen hours of work?

– Breakfast a quarter of an hour, and dinner half an hour, and drinking a quarter of an hour.

What was the length of time they could be in bed during those long hours?

– It was near 11 o'clock before we could get them into bed after getting a little food, [then] me or my mistress got up at 2 o'clock to dress them.

Were the children excessively tired by this work?

– Many a time, we have cried often when we have given them the little food we had to give them, we had to shake them and they have fallen to sleep with the food in their mouth. 

2    Mr Wood's Factory in Bradford:

John Wood was a mill-owner and a leader of the campaign to improve factory conditions.  William Sharp, a doctor, described Wood's mill to the Sadler Committee:

Has anything struck you about the mills?

– That they were particularly cleanly, and made as comfortable as they can be...

Has Mr Wood baths upon his premises?

– Yes

Do you happen to know whether seats are provided?

– There are seats

Will you state the number of hours they are employed?

– From 6am to 7pm, with half an hour for breakfast and forty minutes for dinner

In 1833, a reporter from Penny Magazine visited Wood's factory.  He wrote an article to show how happy the workers were:

It was the hour for dinner and play, and the young people were joyfully sporting in the open yard of the factory... The little people seemed quite delighted to see their employer, their faces brightened up and their eyes sparkled as he came near, indeed, he appeared more like a father among them, and an affectionate one too, than like a master.

Introduction (continued)

These images will help you to understand how visual images, also, were manipulated to support the needs of the author:

3    The Progress of Cotton, 1835

This picture was drawn about 1835 for a book called The Progress of Cotton, written to teach children in other countries about cotton manufacturing in Britain. 
The picture shows the spinning mules.  Notice the child 'scavenger' sweeping up the cotton dust under the machine, and the woman 'piecener' mending broken threads.

4    Michael Armstrong, Factory Boy, 1840

The same scene, adapted for Frances Trollope's book, Michael Armstrong, Factory Boy – a tear-jerker of a novel about the tragic life and misfortunes of a young orphan, written about 1840.

5    The White Slaves of England, 1860

The same picture, adapted yet again for a book by John Cobden, The White Slaves of England – a book designed to win public support for the campaign to improve conditions in the factories, written in 1860.