http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7QL_uG2GSZo

BBC - Learning Zone Class Clips - Workers' songs from the Industrial Revolution - History Video

Women and Children in the Industrial revolution

•To identify where roles have changed over time•To explain where roles have changed for some more than others•To analyse why some changes have been greater than others•http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7JPmVBxsTa8&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhL5DCizj5c

What title would you Give this picture?

Why?

Source 1

You are living in Britain at the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. As we have seen the population of Britain is growing and people are moving from jobs in cottages and farms to jobs in towns working in big factories. These factories have been set up to use new machines to produce more goods for the growing number of people living in Britain. As a Newspaper reporter it is going to be your job to investigate claims that these factories are using child workers. You also need to write a newspaper article on: • ‘The conditions in factories for Children’

To help you with writing this report you will need to:A) Look at the sources 1-5 and consider what each source tells us about:• The Jobs children did• Accidents which often happened• Punishments children faced• The Food children were given• The Hours children workedB) Begin writing your newspaper article by thinking of a good heading and detailing what your investigation of the sources has found.

Source 2‘There were terrible accidents. Sometimesthe children's hands and arms were caught in the machinery; in many instances themuscles, and the skin is stripped down to the bone, and in some instances a finger or two might be lost.’Comment from a Doctor in Manchester

Source 3"I have seen the factoryowner with a horse whipstanding outside the mill.He punished thechildren who came late.John Fairbrother, anoverlooker, interviewedin 1819

Source 4‘Our common food wasoatcake. It was thick andcoarse. This was ourbreakfast and supper. Ourdinner was potato pie withboiled bacon it, it tastedawful, but we were hungryenough to eat anything.’Written by a child worker

Source5"Very often the children are woken at 4am. They work for 16 hours, with little breaks, until they gohome at night to their parents”Richard Oastler, interviewed in 1832

What do these pictures tell you about conditions in the mines in the early 19th Century?

Woman and a boy working in a coal mine, Bolton, Lancashire, 1848. A woman and boy underground in a coal mine moving a basket containing 3-4 cwt of coal

Task

• In groups you will now see 5 sources from the 1842 Ashley Commission on mines.

• Read them through and brainstorm down what you find out about the role and conditions of women in the mines.

Description of job Conditions

Family life Interesting facts

Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of 1842 (1)

• No. 116. — Sarah Gooder, aged 8 years.• I'm a trapper in the Gawber pit. It does not tire me, but I have to

trap without a light and I'm scared. I go at four and sometimes half past three in the morning, and come out at five and half past. I never go to sleep. Sometimes I sing when I've light, but not in the dark; I dare not sing then. I don't like being in the pit. I am very sleepy when I go sometimes in the morning. I go to Sunday-schools and read Reading made Easy. She knows her letters, and can read little words. They teach me to pray. She repeated the Lord's Prayer, not very perfectly, and ran on with the following addition:--"God bless my father and mother, and sister and brother, uncles and aunts and cousins, and everybody else, and God bless me and make me a good servant. Amen." I have heard tell of Jesus many a time. I don't know why he came on earth, I'm sure, and I don't know why he died, but he had stones for his head to rest on. I would like to be at school far better than in the pit.

Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of 1842 (2)

• No. 14— Isabella Read, 12 years old, coal-bearer• Works on mother's account, as father has been dead two years.

Mother bides at home, she is troubled with bad breath, and is sair weak in her body from early labour. I am wrought with sister and brother, it is very sore work; cannot say how many rakes or journeys I make from pit's bottom to wall face and back, thinks about 30 or 25 on the average; the distance varies from 100 to 250 fathom.

• I carry about 1 cwt. and a quarter on my back; have to stoop much and creep through water, which is frequently up to the calves of my legs. When first down fell frequently asleep while waiting for coal from heat and fatigue.

• I do not like the work, nor do the lassies, but they are made to like it. When the weather is warm there is difficulty in breathing, and frequently the lights go out.

Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of 1842 (3)

• No. 134. — Isabel Wilson, 38 years old, coal putter.• When women have children thick (fast) they are compelled to take them down

early. I have been married 19 years and have had 10 bairns; seven are in life. When on Sir John's work was a carrier of coals, which caused me to miscarry five times from the strains, and was gai ill after each. Putting is no so oppressive; last child was born on Saturday morning, and I was at work on the Friday night.

• Once met with an accident; a coal brake my cheek-bone, which kept me idle some weeks.

• I have wrought below 30 years, and so has the guid man; he is getting touched in the breath now.

• None of the children read, as the work is no regular. I did read once, but no able to attend to it now; when I go below lassie 10 years of age keeps house and makes the broth or stir-about.

• Nine sleep in two bedsteads; there did not appear to be any beds, and the whole of the other furniture consisted of two chairs, three stools, a table, a kail-ot and a few broken basins and cups. Upon asking if the furniture was all they had, the guid wife said, furniture was of no use, as it was so troublesome to flit with.

Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of 1842 (4)

• No. 26. — Patience Kershaw, aged 17, May 15.• My father has been dead about a year; my mother is living and has ten children, five lads and five

lasses; the oldest is about thirty, the youngest is four; three lasses go to mill; all the lads are colliers, two getters and three hurriers; one lives at home and does nothing; mother does nought but look after home.

• All my sisters have been hurriers, but three went to the mill. Alice went because her legs swelled from hurrying in cold water when she was hot. I never went to day-school; I go to Sunday-school, but I cannot read or write; I go to pit at five o'clock in the morning and come out at five in the evening; I get my breakfast of porridge and milk first; I take my dinner with me, a cake, and eat it as I go; I do not stop or rest any time for the purpose; I get nothing else until I get home, and then have potatoes and meat, not every day meat. I hurry in the clothes I have now got on, trousers and ragged jacket; the bald place upon my head is made by thrusting the corves; my legs have never swelled, but sisters' did when they went to mill; I hurry the corves a mile and more under ground and back; they weigh 300 cwt.; I hurry 11 a-day; I wear a belt and chain at the workings, to get the corves out; the getters that I work for are naked except their caps; they pull off all their clothes; I see them at work when I go up; sometimes they beat me, if I am not quick enough, with their hands; they strike me upon my back; the boys take liberties with me sometimes they pull me about; I am the only girl in the pit; there are about 20 boys and 15 men; all the men are naked; I would rather work in mill than in coal-pit.

Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of 1842 (5)

• No. 7- — Benjamin Miller, Underlooker at Mr. Woolley's, near Staley Bridge, April 14, 1841.

• How do you account for women being used so frequently as drawers in the coal-pits? — One reason is, that a girl of 20 will work for 2s. a-day or less, and a man of that age would want 3s. 6d.: It makes little difference to the coal-master, he pays the same whoever does the work; some would say he got his coal cheaper, but I am not of that opinion, the only difference is that the collier can spend 1s. to 1s. 6d. more at the alehouse, and very often the woman helps him to spend it.

• Do women ever become coal-getters? — Not one woman in a hundred ever becomes a coal-getter, and that is one of the reasons the men prefer them.

What do these pictures tell you about the role and condition of women in the mills and factories of the Industrial Revolution?

Now in pairs read the role play interview between a Parliamentary commissioner and

Elizabeth Bentley• What does this source tell you about the role

and status of women in the early part of the 19th Century?

• Are there any similarities / differences with women involved in mining?

How did the Mine Commission improve the situation?

• Up until 1842, women and children worked underground for a pittance doing hard labour that even robust men avoided or would find difficult. Some women actually wielded picks, but most were just treated as beasts of burden. They carried coal in baskets on their backs as they climbed up stairs out of the mine and in some collieries, they even had chains around their waists in order to haul wagons through narrow passages on all fours. Conditions were abysmal, the working day was long and there were no occupational health and safety regulations, and women and children were almost considered dispensible by many colliery owners. The accident rate was high - from falls or encounters with machinery and railtracks - some of which might have occurred due to the cumbersome female clothing of the era. Testimony evidence given to the Ashley Commission makes for distressing reading. Some women endured miscarriages as a result of the work and even after giving birth they would be expected to be back at work the next day.

How did the Mine Commission improve the situation?

• After the 1842 reforms initiated by Lord Shaftesbury came into force, women and children were banned from working underground but they were given other surface jobs such as sorting and screening coal by hand. But this was also arduous dirty work and they still had to carry coal in baskets on their backs.

How did things improve in the factories?

• In 1832 a man called Michael Sadler secured a parliamentary investigation of conditions in the textile factories and he sat as chairman on the committee. The evidence in the role play is taken from the large body published in the committee's report and is representative rather than exceptional. It will be observed that the questions are frequently leading; this reflects Sadler's knowledge of the sort of information that the committee were to hear and his purpose of bringing it out. This report stands out as one of three great reports on the life of the industrial class — the two others being that of the Ashley Commission on the mines and Chadwick's report on sanitary problems. The immediate effect of the investigation and the report was the passage of the Act of 1833 limiting hours of employment for women and children in textile work.

Listed below are details of the legislation (laws) that was introduced to improve working conditions in factories

.

Date Industry Details of law

1833 Textiles

No child workers under nine yearsReduced hours for children 9-13 yearsTwo hours schooling each day for childrenFour factory inspectors appointed

1844 Textiles

Children 8-13 years could work six half-hours a dayReduced hours for women (12) and no night work

1847 TextilesWomen and children under 18 years of age could not work more than ten hours a day.

1867 All Industries Previous rules applied to workhouses if more than five workers employed

1901 All Industries Minimum age raised to 12 years.

Plenary

• Where have women’s roles in mines and factories have changed over time?

• Explain where some roles have changed more than others.

• Analyse why some changes have been greater than others?