thinkingthroughsources

Source 17.1: The Experience of an English Factory Worker

The early Industrial Revolution represented not only a technological breakthrough of epic proportions but also a transformation in the organization of work, expressed most fully in the factory. Unlike the artisan’s workshop, which it largely replaced, the factory concentrated human labor in a single place and separated workers from the final product by assigning them highly specialized and repetitive tasks. In the name of efficiency and productivity, owners and managers imposed strict discipline in their factories and regulated workers’ lives according to clock time. Finally, workers were wage earners, dependent for their economic survival on a very modest income and highly uncertain employment, both of which were subject to the vagaries of the market. One such worker was Elizabeth Bentley, who had worked in a factory since the age of six. In 1831, when she was twenty-three years old, Bentley testified before a British parliamentary committee investigating conditions in textile mills. A subsequent inquiry elicited testimony from William Harter, a mill owner. As a result of these investigations, legislation in 1833 limited the hours of employment for women and children.

Questions to consider as you examine the sources:

Child labor was nothing new, for children had long worked in the fields and workshops of preindustrial Europe. What was different about the conditions under which children worked in early industrial factories?
Why do you think the investigator queried Elizabeth Bentley specifically about the treatment of girls?
How does William Harter’s testimony explain the willingness of factory owners to impose these conditions on their workers? How might he respond to Elizabeth Bentley’s testimony?

Source 17.1A

Elizabeth Bentley, Factory Worker

Testimony, 1831

What age are you? — Twenty-three.

Where do you live? — At Leeds.

What time did you begin to work at a factory? — When I was six years old.

What kind of mill is it? — Flax-mill.

What was your business in that mill? — I was a little doffer [cleaner of the machines].

What were your hours of labour in that mill? — From 5 in the morning till 9 at night, when they were thronged [busy].

For how long a time together have you worked that excessive length of time? — For about half a year.

What were your usual hours when you were not so thronged? — From 6 in the morning till 7 at night.

What time was allowed for your meals? — Forty minutes at noon.

Had you any time to get your breakfast or drinking? — No, we got it as we could.

Explain what it is you had to do? — When the frames are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the flyers off, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller; and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going again.

Does that keep you constantly on your feet? — Yes, there are so many frames, and they run so quick.

Suppose you flagged a little, or were too late, what would they do? — Strap us.

Are they in the habit of strapping those who are last in doffing? — Yes.

Constantly? — Yes.

Girls as well as boys? — Yes.

Have you ever been strapped? — Yes.

Severely? — Yes.

Were the girls struck so as to leave marks upon their skin? — Yes, they have had black marks many times, and their parents dare not come to him about it, they were afraid of losing their work.

Could you eat your food well in that factory? — No, indeed I had not much to eat, and the little I had I could not eat it, my appetite was so poor, and being covered with dust; and it was no use to take it home, I could not eat it, and the overlooker took it, and gave it to the pigs.

How far had you to go for dinner? — We could not go home to dinner.

Where did you dine? — In the mill.

Did you live far from the mill? — Yes, two miles.

Supposing you had not been in time enough in the morning at these mills, what would have been the consequence? — We should have been quartered. If we were a quarter of an hour too late, they would take off half an hour; we only got a penny an hour, and they would take a halfpenny more.

Were you also beaten for being too late? — No, I was never beaten myself, I have seen the boys beaten for being too late.

Were you generally there in time? — Yes; my mother had been up at 4 o’clock in the morning, and at 2 o’clock in the morning; the colliers used to go to their work about 3 or 4 o’clock, and when she heard them stirring she has got up out of her warm bed, and gone out and asked them the time; and I have sometimes been at Hunslet Car at 2 o’clock in the morning, when it was streaming down with rain, and we have had to stay until the mill was opened.

Source 17.1B

William Harter, Mill Owner

Testimony, 1832

What effect would it have on your manufacture to reduce the hours of labor to ten? — It would instantly much reduce the value of my mill and machinery, and consequently far prejudice my manufacture. . . . To produce the same quantity of work under a ten-hours bill will require an additional outlay of 3,000 or 4,000 pounds; therefore a ten-hours bill would impose upon me the necessity of this additional outlay in such perishable property as buildings and machinery, or I must be content to relinquish one-sixth portion of my business.

Source: British Sessional Papers, vol. 15 (London, 1832), 195196; vol.21, pt. D-3 (London, 1833), 2628.