David
Rowland
worked
as a piecer at a textile mill in Manchester.
David Rowland was interviewed by Michael Sadler
and his House of Commons Committee on 10th
July, 1832.
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Labour Debate Activity (International School of Toulouse)
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David Rowland was interviewed by Michael
Sadler and his House of Commons Committee
on 10th July, 1832.
Question:
At what age did you commence working in a cotton mill?
Answer: Just when I had turned six.
Question: What employment had you in a mill in the first instance?
Answer: That of a scavenger.
Question: Will you explain the nature of the work that a scavenger
has to do?
Answer: The scavenger has to take the brush and sweep under the wheels,
and to be under the direction of the spinners and the piecers generally.
I frequently had to be under the wheels, and in consequence of the
perpetual motion of the machinery, I was liable to accidents constantly.
I was very frequently obliged to lie flat, to avoid being run over
or caught.
Question: How long did you continue at that employment?
Answer: From a year and a half to two years.
Question: What did you go to then?
Answer: To be a piecer.
Question: Did the employment require you to be upon your feet perpetually?
Answer: It did.
Question: You continued at that employment for how long?
Answer: I was a piecer till I was about fifteen or sixteen years of
age.
Question: What were your hours of labour?
Answer: Fourteen; in some cases, fifteen and sixteen hours a day.
Question: How had you to be kept up to it?
Answer: During the latter part of the day, I was severely beaten very
frequently.
Question: Will you state the effect that the degree of labour had
upon your health?
Answer: I never had good health after I went to the factory. At six
years of age I was ruddy and strong; I had not been in the mill long
before my colour disappeared, and a state of debility came over me,
and a wanness in my appearance.
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