April 25, 1830

Dear Journal,

Today was not a good day. This morning my mother did not wake

me up on time; because of this I was late for work at the textile

factory. From here things did not go well. My employer decided to

weight me. I was forced to wear a heavy weight on my neck and

walk down all the isles in the factory so the other children could

“learn from me”. This took about an hour and left my neck feeling

horrible. Then, my work really began. I had to work around the

machines all day. I almost got my arm caught in one of the

machines, but luckily I just avoided it. My friend Thomas was not so

lucky. He got his hair caught in a machine and our employers did

nothing to help him; they just let him lose his scalp. On top of the

danger of the machines themselves, the dust makes it very hard for

me to see when I’m in the factory. Dust is in the air and covers the

walls and floors. I can barely see in front of me and I also think it is

hurting my lungs. I have a horrible cough that I think is from

breathing in the dust.

My day wasn’t great, but my brother’s day was probably worse.

He’s not old enough to work the machines yet and is an assistant

still. Today the person he served beat him pretty badly, I don’t even

know why. The worst part of our days in the factory isn’t the abuse

though. It isn’t breathing in the dust. It isn’t even the fear of the

machines harming us (which, if they do, we’re fired because of it).

It’s the fact that we work horrible hours and we don’t get paid well

at all. My brother’s not even nine years old and I’m eleven, but we

both work over twelve hours a day. One would think that such young

children working hours like these would get paid fairly for their

work, but we are hardly paid at all. I only get paid “two eighths”

and he gets paid even less. A man’s wage is fifteen schillings. We do

just as much work but don’t even get paid a fraction of what they

are.

Every day is now a struggle. If I am late I often get weighted;

some of us are dragged out of bed naked and sent to the factory

only holding their clothes. This way they won’t be late at all, not

even by a few minutes. We have to dodge dangerous machinery and

work with it, and sometimes someone will die during the day

because of them. I work until night and don’t want to get up in the

morning, but I have to keep working, even if the wages aren’t worth

it. I guess I’ll just keep on working through everything until it gets

better.

George Reynolds.

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/history/victorian/children/080712_rfoster_mp_his_vict_children

_textile2.jpg

This is an image of children working in a textile factory. I chose this image because my

identity is a child working in a textile factory. This is a perfect image because it demonstrates the

working conditions very well. The children are forced to work with dangerous machines because

they are the smallest people there and have small, nimble fingers. This was one of the biggest

dangers of working in a factory as a child. They could very easily be injured by a machine, but

were forced to work near them all the time. If they were injured they were fired. This image is a

great summary of one of the most dangerous and important aspects of not only the jobs of the

children working in textile factories, but their lives as well.

For my primary document I decided to use the factory act of 1833. This was a very good

document to use because it clearly outlines the problems that were trying to be fixed. It was also

a very convenient document for this particular assignment because it has a lot of aspects about

child labor in it. One rule it made was that children couldn’t work until they were nine and that

employers had to verify the children’s ages with certificates. The document also had some rules

about the hours children could work. A child could not clock more than nine hours a day if he or

she was nine to thirteen years old; and if he or she fell between thirteen and eighteen the limit

was twelve hours, also children were not allowed to work at night. Children also had to be

educated at their places of work (with two hours of school every day). Finally, factory inspectors

were to make sure that the rules were being followed. Even though these laws were a step in

improving working conditions for children, a lot of rules were still not followed. Although there

were inspectors to enforce the laws, many employers still found ways around them. However,

the document was an attempt to fix problems, and it clearly shows what problems needed to be

solved.

• “Child labor in factories”. 3/6/10.

http://nhs.needham.k12.ma.us//cur/Baker_00/2002_p7/ak_p7/childlabor.html#intro

• “Working Conditions in the Industrial Revolution”. Schools History. 3/6/10.

http://www.schoolshistory.org.uk/IndustrialRevolution/workingconditions.htm

• “1833 Factory Act”. A The National Archives. 3/6/10.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/education/lesson13.htm

• United Kingdom. “Factory Act of 1833.” United Kingdom: 1833.

• Child Labor Photograph. East Riding of Yorkshire Council. 3/6/10.

http://www.eriding.net/media/photos/history/victorian/children/080712_rfoster_mp_his_

vict_children_textile2.jpg