J P Kay, 1832: "The population (in Manchester) is crowded into one dense mass of cottages separated by unpaved and almost pestilential streets. This is an atmosphere loaded with the exhalation of a large manufacturing city." Andrew Ure: "The fine spinning mills at Manchester so grossly disparaged by the partisans of the ten-hours Bill, are the triumph of art and the glory of England. In the beauty, delicacy and ingenuity of the machines, they have no parallel among the works of man." J P Kay: "Whilst the engine runs, the people must work - men, women and children yoked together with iron and steam. The animal machine - breakable in the best case is chained fast to the iron machine, which knows no suffering and no weariness." C Turner Thackray: "I observed the operatives as they left the mill. I saw a degenerate race, stunted and enfeebled - children that were never to be healthy adults." Samuel Finney, 1787: "The bad effects of the cotton business have already appeared in the pale sallow complexions of the people in it, and some tender constitutions have already fallen sacrifice to it." Mr Grant, a Manchester spinner, April 20th 1833: "Much was said of the black slaves and their chains. No doubt they were entitled to freedom, but were there no slaves except those of sable hue? Has slavery no sort of existence among children of the factories?" Pamphlet attacking R H Greg (who owned sugar plantations in the West Indies), 1837: "What would be the feeling of a proprietor of slaves in the West Indies, permitted to work his black apprentices only eight hours during the day, were he to visit this free country to see these white apprentices labour twelve hours during the day? Would he not turn to their proprietor and say 'and are you Sir one of those who took an active part in calling for the abolition of slavery?'" The Union & Co-operative Intelligencier, March 17th 1832: "Who does not consider the use of machinery as one of the greatest evils there ever was in this country? Who should not rejoice at a return to the simple ways of work which allowed people to be healthy, happy and contented?" W Cooke Taylor, Notes of a Tour of the Manufacturing Districts of Lancashire, 1842: "I remember my earliest view of Manchester, when I looked upon the town for the first time and saw the forest of chimneys pouring forth volumes of steam and smoke, forming an inky canopy which seemed to embrace and involve the entire place." Anon: "The steam engine had no precedent, the spinning-jenny is without ancestry, the mule and the power-loom entered on no prepared heritage: they sprang into sudden existence." Thomas Carlyle, Sign of the Times, 1829: "Were we required to characterise this age of ours by any single epithet, we should be tempted to call it the Mechanical Age." edited by Adam Daber View the Social commentators collection to find out more > |
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Contemporary quotes on life in Cottonopolis Living and working in Manchester in the 1840s from contemporary cameos |
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