Before the end of the 18th century a number of reformers began to report on the plight of children, many as young as five or six years old, who worked in the growing number of factories and mills in Great Britain. These children labored long hours for little pay and often faced the wrath of the overseers of their work. By the early 19th century, Parliament appointed a number of commissions to interview the children who toiled in the mills and their family members to study the actual conditions under which they labored and determine appropriate reform measures to consider. The following excerpts come from an 1833 Parliamentary report on child labor.
The father of two children in a mill at Lenton deposed as follows: My two sons (one ten, the other thirteen) work at Milne’s factory at Lenton. They go to the mill at half past five in the morning; don’t stop at breakfast or tea time. They stop at dinner at half an hour. Come home at a quarter before ten. They used to work till ten, sometimes eleven, sometimes twelve. They earn between them 6 s., 2d. per week. One of them, the eldest, worked at Wilson’s for two years, at 2s., 3d. per week. He left because the overseer beat him and loosened a tooth for him. I complained, and they turned him away for it. They have been gone to work sixteen hours now; they will be very tired when they come home at half past nine. I have a deal of trouble to get them up in the morning. I have been obliged to beat ’em with a strap in their shirts, and to pinch ’em, in order to get them well awake. It made me cry to be obliged to do it.
Did you make them cry?
Yes, sometimes. They will be home soon, very tired; and you will see them.
I (i. e. the government inspector) preferred walking towards the factory to meet them. I saw the youngest only, and asked him a few questions, He said, ‘‘I’m sure I shan’t stop to talk to you; I want to go home and get to bed; I must be up at half past five again to-morrow morning.’’
A family in the same town of Lento gave the following evidence:
The boy: I am going fourteen; my sister is eleven. I have worked in Milne’s factory two years. She goes there also. We are both in the clearing room. I think we work too long hours; I’ve been badly with it. We go at half past five; give over at half past nine. I am now just come home. We sometimes stay till twelve. We are obliged to work over-hours. I have 4 s. a week; that is for staying from six to seven. The pay for overhours [sic] besides. I asked to come away one night lately, at eight o’clock, being ill; I was told, if I went I must not come again. I am not well now. I can seldom eat breakfast; my appetite is very bad, I have had a bad cold for a week.
Father: I believe him to be ill from being overworked. My little girl came home the other day cruelly beaten. I took her to Mr. Milnes; did not see him, but showed Mrs. Milnes the marks. I thought of taking it before a magistrate, but was advised to let it drop. They might have turned both my children away. That man’s name is Blagg; he is always strapping the children. I shan’t let the boy go there much longer; I shall try to apprentice him; it’s killing him by inches; he falls asleep over his food at night. I saw an account of such things in the newspapers, and thought how true it was of my own children.
Mother: I have worked in the same mills myself. The same man was there then. I have seen him behave shocking to the children. He would take ’em by the hair of the head and drag ’em about the room. He has been there twelve years. There’s [sic] many young ones in that hot room. There’s six of ’em badly now, with bad eyes and sick headache. The boy of ours has always been delicate from a child. His appetite is very bad now; he does not eat his breakfast sometimes for two or three days together. The little girl bears it well; she is healthy. I would prefer their coming home at seven, without additional wages. The practice of working overhours [sic] has been constantly pursued at Milne’s factory.
Source: Reports of Commissioners (1833): Factories, XX, as quoted in Robinson & Beard, Readings in Modern European History, Vol. II (New York: Ginn & Company, 1909), 283-285.
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