Sadler commission on child labor 1832

The Sadler Commission: Report on Child Labor (1832) In 1832 the British Parliament established a committee, headed by Michael Thomas Sadler, to investigate the situation of children employed in British factories. The following testimonies are drawn from the records of the Sadler Commission. Committee on Factories Bill: Minutes of Evidence; [April 12,] 1832 Michael Thomas Sadler, Esquire, in the Chair. William Cooper, called in; and Examined. MTS: What is your age? WC: I was eight-and-twenty last February. MTS: When did you first begin to work in mills or factories? WC: When I was about 10 year of age. MTS: What were your usual hours of working? WC: We began at five, and gave over at nine; at five o’clock in the morning. MTS: And you gave over at nine o’clock? WC: At nine at night. MTS: At what distance might you have lived from the mill? WC: About a mile and a half. MTS: At what time had you to get up in the morning to attend to your labor? WC: I had to be up soon after four o’clock. MTS: Every morning? WC: Every morning. MTS: What intermission had you for meals? WC: When we began at five in the morning, we went on until noon, and then we had 40 minutes for dinner. MTS: Had you no time for breakfast? WC: No, we got it as we could, while we were working. MTS: Had you any time for an afternoon refreshment? WC: No; when we began at noon, we went on till night; there was only one stoppage, the 40 minutes for dinner. MTS: Is there not considerable dust in a flax mill? WC: A flax mill is very dusty indeed. MTS: Was not your food therefore frequently spoiled? WC: Yes, at times with the dust; sometimes we could not eat it, when it had a lot of dust on it. MTS: What were you when you were ten years old? WC: What is called a bobbin-doffer; when the frames are quite full, we have to doff them.1 MTS: Then as you lived so far from home, you took your dinner to the mill? WC: We took all our meals with us, living so far off. MTS: During the 40 minutes which you were allowed for dinner, had you ever to employ that time in your turn cleaning the machinery? WC: At times we had to stop to clean the machinery, and then we got our dinner as well as we could; they paid us for that. … MTS: Did you ever work even later than the time you have mentioned? WC: I cannot say that I worked later there. I had a sister who worked up stairs, and she worked till 11 at night, in what they call the card-room.2 MTS: At what time in the morning did she begin work? WC: At the same time as myself. MTS: And they kept her there until 11 at night? WC: Till 11 at night. MTS: You say that your sister was in the cardroom? WC: Yes. MTS: Is not that a very dusty department? WC: Yes, very dusty indeed. MTS: She had to be at the mill at five, and was kept at work until 11 at night? “Frames” are the spinning machines; “doff” mean to lift off the spindles full of yarn; a bobbin-doffer was usually a child, whose job was to remove the spindles (bobbins) when they became filled with thread or yarn. 2 In the card-room was a machine for separating cotton or wool fibers from one another, before being spun into yarn. 1 Unit 3: Industrial Revolution – PS The Sadler Commission on Child Labor WC: Yes. MTS: During the whole time she was there? WC: During the whole time; there was only 40 minutes allowed at dinner out of that. MTS: To keep you at your work for such a length of time, and especially towards the termination of such a day’s labour as that, what means were taken to keep you awake and attentive? WC: They strapped [beat] us at times, when we were not quite ready to be doffing the frame when it was full. MTS: Were you frequently strapped? WC: