After the invention of first the Spinning Jenny and then the power loom, the factories took off. There was more than enough work for everyone to go around and that included children. I worked in the cotton mill in Manchester with my parents starting about 1830. I was 10 years old. We all worked together starting at about 6a.m. and we would finish usually about 8p.m. It wasn't that my parents really wanted me to work but our family needed the money. It was just expected that I would go to work as soon as I was able. Also, since my parents and my older siblings all worked, there would be no one at home to take care of me anyway since my mother had started working at the mill. There really was no other choice.

A typical day in the mill would go something like this: my parents would haul me out of bed usually half asleep. We would walk about a mile and arrive at the mill a little before 6a.m. to make sure we were in the mill by 6. If we were ever late, even by just a couple of minutes, we would be fined or sometimes we were beaten although this didn't happen to me often. My parents tried to make sure we were there on time. After a few minutes the doors would be locked and if

These children could start working very young, sometimes as young as 6 or 7 years old and up until the Factory Act of 1833 was passed, they would also be required to work 12 or more hours a day. After the Factory Act of 1833 was implemented, a child under 13 could not work more than 9 hours in a day and was prohibited from working at night between the hours of 8:30pm and 5:30am. A young person between 13 and 18 could not be required to work more than 12 hours in a day. (www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IR1833.htm R. W. Cooke-Taylor, The Factory System, 1833 Factory Act).

In many towns, the factory owners would hire pauper children who were under the supervision of the government. "Many were orphans; a few were victims of negligent parents or parents whose health or lack of skills kept them from earning sufficient income to care for a family. All were in the custody of 'parish authorities'" (www.mackinac.org/3879, Essay by Lawrence W. Reed). There were several children of this background in the mill that I worked at. They were treated a bit worse than the other children who worked beside their parents. They had no one to protect them from the owners of the mill.

As I said, I was one of the lucky ones. Yes, I had to work in a mill and yes, I had to work very hard but many of the other children had it worse than I did. Today I am just glad that children no longer have to work in mills. I am grateful that after I had your mother I did not have to go back and I thank god everyday that she did not have to endure working in a mill as a child. You should also consider yourself lucky that times are different now and that you were never forced to go to work at the age of 10. Consider yourself fortunate that you get to go to school, sit at a desk and learn instead of working from 6 in the morning until 8 at night.

My parents protected me as much as they could but one thing they couldn't protect me from was the physical pain and deformity that working in the mill caused. My knees would ache and I would rub them and rub them but eventually after sta

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Approximate Word count = 1397
Approximate Pages = 6 (250 words per page double spaced)