Modern World History Fall 2001
Web-linked documents for Week 1
Evidence Given to the Sadler Committee (England, 1832)
Click on the link near the bottom of this page to go to a set of documents that are taken from the web page "The Life of the Industrial Worker in 19th-Century Britain." at http://65.107.211.206/victorian/history/workers1.html
Specifically, I want you to read the excerpts from an 1832 investigation of working conditions in textile factories in England, known as the "Sadler Committee Investigation."
In 1832, a reformer named Michael Sadler convinced the British Parliament (England's legislature) to conduct a major investigation of conditions in textile mills. The introduction to the web page on which these documents are located provides a good brief introduction to the Sadler Committee's report, and you should read the introductory paragraph carefully.
The excerpts included in this web-based document are testimonies from the following people, who were among the dozens interviewed by the "Sadler Committee": Joshua Drake, Matthew Crabtree, John Hall, Elizabeth Bentley, and Peter Smart.
These interviews were first published in the British Parliamentary Papers, 1831-1832, vol. XV. pp. 44, 95-97, 115, 195, 197, 339, 341-342.
Think about the following questions while reading these interviews:
What were working and living conditions like for children who worked in textile factories in the 1800s?
Why would factory owners employ children? What advantages were there in employing children?
Why would parents allow their children to work in factories? What does this tell you about the standard of living for ordinary working people in the early decades of the industrial revolution?
Link to http://65.107.211.206/victorian/history/workers1.html