U.S. Labor and Work

One Textile Operative's Testimony on Child Labor in Pennsylvania's Mills, 1838

"... The greatest evils known are, first, the number of hours of labor, and the number of young children employed. [Textile worker William Shaw] Has worked in four different factories in nine years; in John P. Crozier's, nearly three years; Samuel Riddle's, nearly two years; Joseph Dean, nearly two, and Jonathan Hatch, nearly one year, and now at Jos. Fleming's; is twenty-six years old. At Fleming's, about fifty persons employed; about eighteen females; about four children under twelve years old; about fifteen under eighteen years old. The proportion of children varies in different establishments; has known more than one-fourth to be children under twelve years of age; under twenty years, would include, in many cases, three-fourths; not many are apprenticed; they are usually hired to employers by parents and guardians. The hours vary in different establishments; in some I have worked fourteen and a-half hours. I have known work to commence as early as twenty minutes past four o'clock, in the summer season, and to work as late as half an hour before eight, P.M., an hour and a-half allowed for breakfast and dinner, when the hands all leave to go to dinner--children and all; the ringing of the bell was the notice to begin, and docking wages the penalty; the foreman rings the bell and stops the machinery. In the cities, the engineer rings the bell and stops the machinery.

"The period of labor is not uniform; in some cases, from sun to sun. It is most common to work as long as they can see; in the winter they work until eight o'clock, receiving an hour and a-half for meals; an hour and a half is the entire time allowed for going, eating and returning; and that time is often shortened by the ringing of the bell too soon."

"The labor of the children is, in some cases, excessive--in others it is not. The children are employed at spinning and carding. The question of excessive labor is more upon the kind of work; carding is the hardest work; their work is regulated by the operation of the machinery, at carding; and they must stand during the whole time; considers twelve or fourteen hours labor excessive at either branch for a child. I have known children of nine years of age to be employed at spinning--at carding, as young as ten years. Punishment by whipping, is frequent; they are sometimes sent home and docked for not attending punctually; never knew both punishments to be inflicted; generally the children are attentive, and punishments are not frequent. The carder, or person having charge of the children, inflicts the chastisement."

"Boys and girls work together; no attention is paid by the manufacturer, or others in the factory, to the personal cleanliness of the children. Rules, sometimes printed, are posted in some of the factories, for the government."

"The children are tired when they leave the factory; has known them to sleep in corners and other places, before leaving the factory, from fatigue. The younger children are generally very much fatigued particularly those under twelve years of age; has not heard frequent complaints of pain; more of being worried; has known the children to go to sleep on arriving at home, before taking supper; has known great difficulty in keeping children awake at their work; has known them to be struck, to keep them awake."

"The children are more healthy when they first enter the factories, than afterwards; they lose colour, loss of appetite, and sometimes, not frequently, complain themselves; has known them to be compelled in some instances, to quit the factories, in consequence of ill health, particularly females. Boys quit frequently to go to trades; has known no deformity produced by the labor."

"Parents are favorable to a reduction of hours; I think no attention is paid to education during the time they are employed in factories, except what they receive from Sabbath schools, and some few at night schools, when they are in an unfit condition to learn; the children attend Sabbath school with great reluctance; many will not attend in consequence of the confinement of the week."

"No particular attention is paid to morals; the boys and girls are not kept separate in the factories; they have different water closets; generally separated only by a partition; obscene language is frequently used; not often by females; profane language is frequently used; care is seldom taken to prevent these things; if their work is done, it is all that is required; girls and boys work together and talk together; no pains are taken to ventilate factories; sometimes the windows are nailed down; sometimes fifty are employed in one room; in small factories, as few as ten; has never known a thermometer to be kept in the rooms; in the winter they are generally kept too cold. The machinery is propelled in the city by steam, in the country by water. In the carding room, the air is frequently filled with flyings [cotton in the air?--MF]. The only instance of a contageous disease being generated in a factory, was near Baltimore, some years ago, when the yellow fever broke out in the factory of the Messrs Buchanan's, when it was not in the city. The superintendents are generally careful in their language, not to set a bad example."

"The wages of children are not regulated by the number of hours they labor; I have known some to get no more than fifty cents per week; I have known some to get as much as $1.25; the common rate is $1.00; oftener less than greater; most of the children are boys."