Abraham
Whitehead
was
a cloth merchant from Holmfirth who joined
the campaign for factory legislation. He was interviewed by Michael
Sadler and his House of Commons Committee
on 21st May, 1832.
Child
Labour Debate Activity (International School of Toulouse)
Child
Labour Simulation (Spartacus Educational)
(1)
Abraham Whitehead was interviewed by Michael
Sadler and his House of Commons Committee
on 21st May, 1832.
Question:
Where do you reside?
Answer: At Scholes, near Holmfirth.
Question: Is not that in the centre of very considerable woollen-mills?
Answer: Yes, for the space of three or four miles. I live nearly in
the centre of thirty or forty woollen-mills.
Question: Have you had the opportunity of observing the manner in
which these mills are regulated and conducted?
Answer: Yes.
Question: At how early an age are children employed?
Answer: The youngest age at which children are employed is never under
five, but some are employed between five and six, in woollen-mills,
as piecers.
Question: How early have you observed these young children going to
their work?
Answer: I have frequently seen them going to work between five and
six in the morning.
Question: How late in the evening have you seen them returning from
work.
Answer: Between nine and ten in the evening.
Question: How do they get their breakfast?
Answer: They get their breakfast as they eat; they eat and work; there
is generally a pot of water porridge, with a little treacle in it,
placed at the end of the machine.
Question: Do they frequently fall into errors and mistakes in piecing?
Answer: Yes, the errors they make when they are fatigued is that instead
of placing the cording in this way (he described it with his hands),
they are apt to place them obliquely, and that causes a flying, which
makes bad yard; and when the spinner sees that, he takes his strap,
or the billy-roller, and he smites the child.
Question: What moral effect do you think it has on the minds of the
children who labour at this early period of life?
Answer: I have seen a little boy, only this winter, who works in the
mill, and who lives within two hundred or three hundred yards of my
own door; he is not yet six years old, and I have seen him, when he
had a few coppers in his pocket, go to a beer shop, call for a glass
of ale, and drink as boldly as any full-grown man, cursing and swearing.
Question: Can children employed in this way obtain any instructions
from day-schools?
Answer: There is no possibility of that; but since this Factory Bill
has been agitated, when I have been at mills the children have gathered
round me for a minute or two, as I have passed along, and have said:
"When shall we have to work ten hours a day? Will you get the
Ten Hours' Bill? We shall have a rare time then; surely somebody will
set up a night school, I will learn to write, that I will."
Young
girl factory worker
Available from Amazon Books
(order below)
