British Coal Mines Of The 1800s
In the British coal mines of the 1800’s, jobs for women and children were harsh and unfavorable due to dangerous environments, long hours, and extremely heavy physical demand on the workers. The mines were fraught with opportunities to be hurt, as evidenced by the words of Robert North and the article “Women in the British Mines.” North shared how, while dragging buckets of coal using a girdle and chain, the straps cut into the children deeply enough that blood would run down, and that any who complained would be physically beaten. “Women in the British Mines” reported that hurriers (employees who dragged and carried coal out of the mines) were often at risk of being hit with containers of coal weighing two hundred pounds if the straps of
these containers broke. Such conditions no doubt made going to a job every day stressful and tense, producing a place of negativity. Besides the constant possibility of harm coming to the women and children in the mines, long hours made their work even worse. Patience Kershaw, a seventeen-year-old girl, stated that she went to her job at five in the morning, and did not leave until five in the evening. According to Friedrich Engels, author of The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, even four- and five-year-olds endured twelve hours of labor each day by opening doors to the mines for their job. These hours were unfair to the adolescents who had to work them, and exhausting for such young workers. Lastly, those employed in the coal mines faced intense physical labor. An illustration showed how hurriers dragged heavy carts with no wheels loaded with coal through tunnels only three feet high, and “Women in the British Mines” described the way that women carried 150 pounds of coal up ladders that total the same height as St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a fortunate thing that the government passed legislation to put an end to this cruel treatment of workers in the mines, because no person should have had to work this hard to simply provide for their family, putting their lives at risk in the process. Overall, the workers in the mines were brave to have endured these despicable jobs and the treatment there.
these containers broke. Such conditions no doubt made going to a job every day stressful and tense, producing a place of negativity. Besides the constant possibility of harm coming to the women and children in the mines, long hours made their work even worse. Patience Kershaw, a seventeen-year-old girl, stated that she went to her job at five in the morning, and did not leave until five in the evening. According to Friedrich Engels, author of The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, even four- and five-year-olds endured twelve hours of labor each day by opening doors to the mines for their job. These hours were unfair to the adolescents who had to work them, and exhausting for such young workers. Lastly, those employed in the coal mines faced intense physical labor. An illustration showed how hurriers dragged heavy carts with no wheels loaded with coal through tunnels only three feet high, and “Women in the British Mines” described the way that women carried 150 pounds of coal up ladders that total the same height as St. Paul’s Cathedral. It was a fortunate thing that the government passed legislation to put an end to this cruel treatment of workers in the mines, because no person should have had to work this hard to simply provide for their family, putting their lives at risk in the process. Overall, the workers in the mines were brave to have endured these despicable jobs and the treatment there.