The real Oliver Twist

[izzy eckerslike]

Just reading 'The Real Oliver Twist by John Waller.

It tells the horrific cruelty suffered by workhouse children sent to work in cotton mills up North.

It tells the true story from the memoirs of Robert Blinkoe who was a Parish orphan from St. Pancras workhouse around 1790 & it is thought that Charles Dickens having read Blinkoe's account of his early life then went on to write Oliver Twist.

The children, both girls & boys were signed up as apprentices from the age of around 6 or 7 & led to believe they would learn a proper trade but in reality they were only ever to be cheap labourers
They were starved & beaten & abused by the sadistic overlookers some of whom had once been abused when working there as children & thought that if they themselves had suffered then so shall all others.

Often made to work 17 hours a day the would fall asleep at their job & be beaten awake or even worse they would fall into the moving machinery. Having to crawl under the looms to collect cotton waste whilst the water powered machinery clattered inches above their heads led to horrific injuries for many girls & boys.
Starved of any decent food, far worse than the workhouse where at least they were reasonably fed & clothed & allowed to wash with soap they were covered in bruises & sores from head to foot.
Very few mills treated the children properly & even when parliament set out new rules for working children that limited the hours they should work it was totally ignored & checks were few & far between.

I am only half way through the book so far & it's been a real eye opener & altho we are all aware that back then children were made to work at a very early age it comes as a nasty shock to read some of the abuse & torture the children were made to endure with no escape

 

[db84124]

Izzy,
Not too far removed from the North (Nottingham, in this case), industrial Birmingham's greatness, fame and wealth (for some) was unfortunately based on a similar sort of treatment.
Has your giraffe escaped? David

 

[robert]

My grandfather worked in a cotton mill in 1881 up north (Manchester) aged 12. I hope he had better conditions.

 

[G G Jean]

Thanks for that Izzy. Unfortunately this goes on in many countries today and is so sad. Jean.

 

[izzy eckerslike]

The guardian did a revue of this book a while back :

Nicholas Blincoe on whether Oliver Twist was based on story of real-life orphan, Robert Blincoe | Books | The Guardian

here's an excerpt

The Memoirs of Robert Blincoe is aimed squarely at exposing industrialised slavery. Robert was seven when he was sold from the workhouse and, under the terms of his apprenticeship, he would not be free until he was 21. His memoirs recount a gruelling life, hidden away in the most secluded parts of Nottinghamshire and Derbyshire. The details of the many industrial accidents are grim: fingers lost, kuckles torn out and worse. Robert's 10-year-old friend Mary is dragged into a machine by her skirt, her bones broken and her skull squashed in front of Robert.
But it is the forms of punishment that are most shocking. The children were hung by their wrists over the loom, forced to lift their legs each time the machinery hurtled beneath them. When beaten, they were put inside a skip to prevent them running. Heavy weights were often attached to their ears by clamps. The scars behind Robert's ears were central to his testimony when he finally spoke before a parliamentary commission

 

[JohnO]

The 'Industrialisation' of Britain was fraught with many, and varied evils. I recall an old lecturer of mine saying ''If you wish to know how we became so barbaric as to promulgate the slave-trade; you need look no further than the treatment of our our people!'' Something that is often either forgotten, or not wholly understood!

From the 'Dissolution of the Monasteries' (the real starting-point of the industrialisation of Britain) until the ending of the Second World War, the average height of us Brits fell by nearly five inches! Although there are several other contributary factors, the main one was the remove of people from the relatively healthy enviroment of the countryside, to the foul, over-crowded and insanitary towns. Poor sanitation and polluted water-supplies, together with the merciless grind of the almost unfettered demands of employers (the protection of old 'Guild System' was in decline) produced a race of short-lived midgets! And yet, it was these people who won Britain a Empire - amazing! Similarly amazing, was the affect of 'rationing' during the last war, and it's subsequent general improvement on the bulk of the nation! (no pun intended!)

 

[izzy eckerslike]

It's a little known fact that slaves working the cotton fields in the US were often treated far better than the child slaves in England who worked in coal mines or the mills with those very same bales of cotton.
Slaves were expensive & it paid to keep them in good condition whereas child slaves in Englands cotton mills were easily & cheaply replaceable from the workhouses

It's pointed out that many land owners & politicians of the day rose up in favour of banning the slave trade whilst at the same time many were owners of those very same mines & mills employing 7 year old boys & girls made to work 16 hours a day.

 

[JohnO]

It's a little known fact that slaves working the cotton fields in the US were often treated far better than the child slaves in England who worked in coal mines or the mills with those very same bales of cotton.
Slaves were expensive & it paid to keep them in good condition whereas child slaves in Englands cotton mills were easily & cheaply replaceable from the workhouses

It's pointed out that many land owners & politicians of the day rose up in favour of banning the slave trade whilst at the same time many were owners of those very same mines & mills employing 7 year old boys & girls made to work 16 hours a day.

Exactly! A 'nail on the head' job. Slaves cost money; whereas 'urchins' were 'ten a penny' .....the only difference being, the 'slaves' didn't volunteer; whereas, the 'urchins' had no option! 'Freedom' can be rather more complicated than one might first think!