An extract of a transcription by Peter Livsey

An extract of a transcription by Peter Livsey

Collections forming a General History of Coal, Collieries, Colliery-Engineering and Mining, Together with the Local History of the Collieries and Coal Trade of the North of England: Printed by John Gray Bell, 17. Bedford St., Covent Garden. Volume 9.

NRO 3410/ Bell 9/71-72:

Newcastle Journal, Saturday June 11th, 1842:

“The details furnished by the Commission of Inquiry are certainly revolting in the highest degree, but it is satisfactory to know that the employment of females and the binding of pauper apprentices are unknown in the colliery districts of Northumberland and Durham.”

“Lord Ashley’s Bill, if carried as originally proposed, will affect the employment of children in the coal mines of this district, for he proposes to limit the age of employment to thirteen years, and it is well known that many go to work long before that period. Their work, however, is not laborious, and the mines are in general well ventilated. The average period at which boys are used to work in the mines of Northumberland and Durham is between nine and ten years; occasionally some are sent as early as six or seven, but when that is the case it generally happens through the cupidity of the parents, who are alone to blame.”

Extracts from House of Commons Debate:

Lord Ashley: “Fourthly he would abolish the present system of apprenticing the boys [workhouse orphans] who were kept until 21 in a state of slavery exceeding the hardship of anything ever known in the West Indies, while their masters lived in utter idleness on their labour. There was no pretence for any binding; for the business had nothing in it that could not be learned in ten or twelve days. He instanced some cases of cruelty scarcely equalled in the records of African slavery; and attended with this aggravation, that the young sufferers in the mine had none to whose sympathies they could appeal.”