Victorian Child Labourers, In Their Own Words

The House of Commons Interviews Michael Sadler, the youngest son of James Sadler, was born in Snelston, Derbyshire on 3rd January 1780. His family, though members of the Church of England, were in sympathy with the Methodist movement.  On 16th March 1832 Sadler introduced legislation  that proposed limiting the hours of all persons under the age of 18 to ten hours a day. He described in detail the suffering of children in factories but after much debate it was clear that Parliament was unwilling to pass his bill. However, in April 1832 it was agreed that there should be another parliamentary enquiry into child labour. Sadler was made chairman and for the next three months a parliamentary committee, that included John Cam Hobhouse, Charles Poulett Thompson, Robert Peel, Lord Morpeth, and Thomas Fowell Buxton interviewed 89 witnesses.  Following are just a few of the interviews taken. 

Elizabeth Bentley, Child Labourer
Elizabeth Bentley was born in Leeds 1809. She began working in a flax mill at the age of six. On 4th June, 1832, Elizabeth was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee.

Elizabeth Bentley was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 4th June, 1832.

Question: What were your hours of labour?
Answer: As a child I worked from five in the morning till nine at night.

Question: What time was allowed for meals?
Answer: We were allowed forty minutes at noon.

Question: Had you any time to get breakfast, or drinking?
Answer: No, we got it as we could.

Question: Did you have time to eat it?
Answer: No; we were obliged to leave it or to take it home, and when we did not take it, the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs.

Question: Suppose you flagged a little, or were late, what would they do?
Answer: Strap us.

Question: What work did you do?
Answer: A weigher in the card-room.

Question: How long did you work there?
Answer: From half-past five, till eight at night.

Question: What is the carding-room like?
Answer: Dusty. You cannot see each other for dust.

Question: Did working in the card-room affect your health?
Answer: Yes; it was so dusty, the dust got up my lungs, and the work was so hard. I got so bad in health, that when I pulled the baskets down, I pulled my bones out of their places.

Question: You are considerably deformed in your person in consequence of this labour?
Answer: Yes, I am.

Question: At what time did it come on?
Answer: I was about thirteen years old when it began coming, and it has got worse since. When my mother died I had to look after myself.

Question: Where are you now?
Answer: In the poor house.

Question: You are utterly incapable of working in the factories?
Answer: Yes

Question: You were willing to have worked as long as you were able, from your earliest age?
Answer: Yes.

Question: And you supported your widowed mother as long as you could?
Answer: Yes.

Hannah Brown, Child Labourer
 Hannah Brown was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 13th June, 1832.

Question: How early did you begin to work in mills?
Answer: At nine years old.

Question: What hours did you work?
Answer: I began at six o'clock, and worked till nine at night.

Question: What time was allowed for your meals?
Answer: No, none at all.

Question: Did this work affect your limbs?
Answer: Yes, I felt a great deal of pain in my legs.

Question: Did it begin to produce deformity in any of your limbs?
Answer: Yes; both my knees are rather turned in.

Question: Was there punishment?
Answer: Yes

Question: Has Mr. Ackroyd ever chastised you in any way?
Answer: Yes; he has taken hold of my hair and my ear, and pulled me, and just given me a bit of a shock, more than once.

Question: Did you ever see him adopt similar treatment towards any others?
Answer Yes: I have seen him pull a relation of mine about by the hair.

Question: Do you mean he dragged her?
Answer: Yes, about three or four yards

Joseph Hebergram, Child Labourer 
Joseph Hebergam was born in Huddersfield in 1815. Joseph was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 1st June, 1832.

Joseph Hebergam was interviewed by Michael Sadler and his House of Commons Committee on 7th July, 1832.

Question: At what age did you start work?
Answer: Seven years of age.

Question: At whose mill?
Answer: George Addison's Bradley Mill, near Huddersfield.

Question: What were your hours of labour?
Answer: From five in the morning till eight at night.

Question: What intervals had you for refreshment?
Answer: Thirty minutes at noon.

Question: Had you no time for breakfast or refreshment in the afternoon?
Answer: No, not one minute; we had to eat our meals as we could, standing or otherwise.

Question: You had fourteen and a half hours of actual labour, at seven years of age?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Did you become very drowsy and sleepy towards the end of the day?
Answer: Yes; that began about three o'clock; and grew worse and worse, and it came to be very bad towards six and seven.

Question: How long was it before the labour took effect on your health?
Answer: Half a year.

Question: How did it affect your limbs?
Answer: When I worked about half a year a weakness fell into my knees and ankles: it continued, and it got worse and worse.

Question: How far did you live from the mill?
Answer: A good mile.

Question: Was it painful for you to move?

Answer: Yes, 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 to the mill, and my legs dragged on the ground; in consequence of the pain I could not walk.

Question: Were you sometimes late?
Answer: Yes, and if we were five minutes too late, the overlooker would take a strap, and beat us till we were black and blue.

Question: When did your brother start working in the mill?
Answer: John was seven.

Question: Where is your brother John Working now?
Answer: He died three years ago.

Question: What age was he when he died?
Answer: Sixteen years and eight months.

Question: What was his death attributed to?
Answer: He died from a spinal affection after working long hours in the factory?

Question: Did his medical attendants state that the spinal affection was owing to his having been so over-laboured at the mill?
Answer: Yes.

Question: Have you found that, on the whole, you have been rendered ill, deformed and miserable, by the factory system?
Answer: Yes. If I had a thousand pounds, I would give them to have the use of my limbs again. 

Benjamin Gomersal, Child Labourer 

William Dodd toured Britain in 1841 to collect evidence to help Lord Ashley and the factory reform movement. His book The Factory System Illustrated was published in 1842. The book included and interview with Benjamin Gomersal from Bradford.

Benjamin Gomersal of Bowling Lane, Bradford, was interviewed by William Dodd in 1842.

I am about twenty-five years old. I have been a piecer at Mr. Cousen's worsted mill, I have worked nowhere else. I commenced working in a worsted mill at nine years of age. Our hours of labour were from six in the morning to seven and eight at night, with thirty minutes off at noon for dinner. We had no time for breakfast or drinking. The children conceive it to be a very great mischief; to be kept so long in labour; and I believe their parents would be very glad if it was not so. I found it very hard and laborious employment. I had 2s. per week at first. We had to stoop, to bend our bodies and our legs.

I was a healthy and strong boy, when I first went to the mill. When I was about eight years old, I could walk from Leeds to Bradford (ten miles) without any pain or difficulty, and with a little fatigue; now I cannot stand without crutches! I cannot walk at all! Perhaps I might creep up stairs. I go up stairs backwards every night! I found my limbs begin to fail, after I had been working about a year. It came on with great pain in my legs and knees. I am very much fatigued towards the end of the day. I cannot work in the mill now.

The overlooker beat me up to my work! I have been beaten till I was black and blue and I have had my ears torn! Once I was very ill with it. He beat me then, because I mixed a few empty bobins, not having any place to put them in separate. we were beaten most at the latter end of the day, when we grew tired and fatigued. The highest wages I ever had in the factory, were 5s. 6d. per week.

My mother is dead; my father was obliged to send me to the mill, in order to keep me. I had to attend at the mill after my limbs began to fail. I could not then do as well as I could before. I had one shilling a week taken off my wages. I had lost several inches in height. I had frequently to stand thirteen and fourteen hours a day, and to be continually engaged. I was perfectly straight before I entered on this labour.

Other boys were deformed in the same way. A good many boys suffered in their health, in consequence of the severity of their work. I am sure this pain, and grievous deformity, came from my long hours of labour. My father, and my friends, believe so to. It is the opinion of all the medical men who have seen me.