AUTHOR’S NOTE
196 Words
AUTHOR’S NOTEIt was not until 1842 that the first report by the Children’s Employment Commission awoke the conscience of the country. The descriptions of the conditions in the British coalmines described in this novel are all taken from that report.
Safety devices were slow in being introduced. The John Buddles Air Pump in 1807 was the first, the Davy lamp in 1816, then John Martin’s Air Lock and Fan, which was not in use until 1835.
What struck the moral minded Victorians, even more than the ever-present danger of explosions, was that girls and boys were employed together. Naked to the waist with chains between their legs, the future mothers of Englishmen crawled on all fours down tunnels under the earth drawing gigantic burdens.
Women by the age of thirty were often old and infirm cripples, worn out by the harsh conditions as well as the exhausting regime of bringing up large families on very low incomes. Such labour was often accompanied by debauchery and terrible cruelty.
When, a month after the report, Lord Ashley introduced a Bill to exclude all women and girls from the pits, as well as boys under thirteen, he was acclaimed a national hero.
- Writer
