Testimony Gathered by Ashley's Mines Commission
Added by Laura Del Col,
West Virginia University
[Parliamentary Papers, 1842, vols. XV-XVII, Appendix
I, pp. 252, 258, 439, 461; Appendix II, pp. 107, 122, 205. The second of the
three great reports embodies the results of the investigation into the
conditions of labor in the mines made by Lord Ashley's Mines Commission of
1842. The Mines Act of 1842 that resulted prohibited the employment in the
mines of all women and of boys under thirteen.]
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.
No. 137.--Thomas Wilson, Esq., of the Banks, Silkstone,
owner of three collieries.
Girl pulling a coal tub in mine. From
official report of the parliamentary commision.
The employment of females of any age in and about the mines is most
objectionable, and I should rejoice to see it put an end to; but in the present
feeling of the colliers, no individual would succeed in stopping it in a
neighbourhood where it prevailed, because the men would immediately go to those
pits where their daughters would be employed. The only way effectually to put
an end to this and other evils in the present colliery system is to elevate the
minds of the men; and the only means to attain this is to combine sound moral
and religious training and industrial habits with a system of intellectual
culture much more perfect than can at present be obtained by them.
I object on general principles to government interference in the conduct of
any trade, and I am satisfied that in mines it would be productive of the
greatest injury and injustice. The art of mining is not so perfectly understood
as to admit of the way in which a colliery shall be conducted being dictated by
any person, however experienced, with such certainty as would warrant an
interference with the management of private business. I should also most
decidedly object to placing collieries under the present provisions of the
Factory Act with respect to the education of children employed therein. First,
because, if it is contended that coal-owners, as employers of children, are bound
to attend to their education, this obligation extends equally to all other
employers, and therefore it is unjust to single out one class only; secondly,
because, if the legislature asserts a right to interfere to secure education,
it is bound to make that interference general; and thirdly, because the mining
population is in this neighbourhood so intermixed with other classes, and is in
such small bodies in any one place, that it would be impossible to provide
separate schools for them.
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.
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 consisited 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.
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.
This girl is an ignorant, filthy, ragged, and deplorable-looking object, and
such an one as the uncivilized natives of the prairies would be shocked to look
upon.
No. 72--Mary Barrett, aged 14. June 15.
I have worked down in pit five years; father is working in
next pit; I have 12 brothers and sisters--all of them but one live at home;
they weave, and wind, and hurry, and one is a counter, one of them can read,
none of the rest can, or write; they never went to day-school, but three of
them go to Sunday-school; I hurry for my brother John, and come down at seven
o'clock about; I go up at six, sometimes seven; I do not like working in pit,
but I am obliged to get a living; I work always without stockings, or shoes, or
trousers; I wear nothing but my chemise; I have to go up to the headings with
the men; they are all naked there; I am got well used to that, and don't care now
much about it; I was afraid at first, and did not like it; they never behave
rudely to me; I cannot read or write.
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.
[The material above was reprinted in an old history textbook, Readings in European History Since 1814, edited by Jonathan F. Scott and Alexander Baltzly, and was published by Appleton-Century-Crofts, Inc. in 1930. The original sources of the material are listed in footnotes in the book; I've put them in brackets after each subject heading. The explanatory notes between sections are by Scott and Baltzly; the links were, of course, added by me. --L.D.C.]