Working Conditions of Children in Textile Mills

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Working Conditions of Children in Textile Mills

After thorough investigation into 5 sources referring to the working

conditions for children in factories during the late eighteenth and

early nineteenth centuries, we now have the opportunity to bind all

the facts together and create a detailed account. However, there are

still questions over the reliability of some of the sources, so

further research and comparisons with other mills need to be made.

Making comparisons will also indicate the typicality of Styal.

Hopefully, by the end of this essay I will be able to prioritise the

best way of finding out about the treatment of children in textile

mills.

The first source we examined was an eyewitness account of a visit to

Quarry Bank Mill. This source was taken from Frederick Engles, ‘The

Condition of The Working Class’ 1845. Engles was a writer and

campaigner for the rights of the labouring classes. He also didn’t

support the way the Samuel Greg worked. Frederick Engles worked with

the founder of Communism and Socialism, Carl Marx. He hated the way

poor people were treated and educated. He believed that society was

unfair. This therefore means that this source is very biased,

unbalanced and one-sided.

The source refers to things that are hard to recreate, such as the

“…lofty airy rooms,” which suggests that they must have existed. It

also says that there were, “…healthy looking operatives”, which you

may think are hard to recreate. However, these could be new fit

employees told to pretend they had been working at the mill for a long

period of time so that the conditions seemed healthy. The writer of

the piece also makes a poi...

... middle of paper ...

...s young employees as he did provide food, shelter and an education

for them. Though, I feel that he could have done more with his money,

like Robert Owen did, such as increase the syllabus of education. It

is important that we compare Styal with other specific mills;

otherwise we would be comparing it with the stereotypical idea of a

mill which is danger, cruelty and filth. Comparing Styal with New

Lanark and Cromford has shown that Samuel Greg is not the only one who

chose to take a more human approach to the welfare of workers.

Finally, I have realised that the best way to find out about the

treatment of children in textile mills is to find out from the

children themselves. However most of the children were illiterate or

feared the consequences too much. Also, at the time, their priorities

were not to tell the world.

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