Mule scavenger facts for kids
Scavengers were children who worked in cotton mills during the 1700s and 1800s, mostly in the United Kingdom and the United States. Their job was to clean up the area under large spinning machines called "mules." These machines made cotton thread. Bits of cotton would fall onto the floor, and factory owners thought this cotton was too valuable to waste. So, they hired very young children to crawl under the machines and collect it. This job was very dangerous, and many children got badly hurt. Their fingers, hands, and sometimes even their heads could be crushed by the moving parts of the machines. Laws were made in 1819 to try and make working conditions better, but children still died in these factories even in the mid-1800s.
What Scavengers Did
Scavengers were often the youngest and lowest-paid workers in the cotton mills. They had to work in the worst conditions. Their main task was to go under the spinning machines to clean up dust and oil. They also collected cotton that had fallen off the machine as it vibrated. The adult workers, called "tenters," were paid based on how much cotton they produced. Because of this, they would not stop the machines to let the scavengers work safely.
Children had to quickly sweep and gather cotton while the huge machines moved back and forth. They needed to be very careful and time their movements perfectly to avoid getting caught in the many moving parts. These children often started working in the mills as young as four years old. They worked as scavengers until they were about eight. After that, they usually moved on to a job called "piecers," which involved joining broken threads. They worked for 14 to 16 hours a day and faced harsh punishments if they got tired or fell asleep. They continued working long hours until they were about 15 years old.
Dangers of the Job
Working as a mule scavenger was one of the most dangerous jobs in history because of the terrible conditions. Children had to pay constant attention to the machine's movements to avoid serious injury. If they weren't careful, they could be badly hurt.
Factory owners were not required to keep records of most accidents. However, many stories from that time tell of scavengers suffering serious, and sometimes deadly, injuries. Some children lost fingers or a hand. Others were said to have suffered fatal head injuries.
One famous scavenger was Robert Blincoe. He later started his own cotton-spinning business. He wrote a book called A Memoir of Robert Blincoe about his life as a child worker. He described how badly workers were treated and the difficult conditions they faced in the cotton mills. He wrote that he was almost crushed by a machine once. Even though he hurt his head, he was punished for not finishing his cleaning job in one go.
Laws to Help Children
Many children were sent to mills in areas like Derbyshire, Yorkshire, and Lancashire. They came from workhouses in London and other cities in southern England. In 1818 and 1819, surveys showed that about half of the workers in cotton factories in Manchester and Stockport had started working before they were ten years old.
The Factory Act of 1802 was an early law meant to make conditions better for children. But it was not enough. In 1819, the 1819 Cotton Mills and Factories Act updated the law. It said that no children under nine years old could be hired. It also limited children aged 9 to 16 years to a maximum of 16 hours of work per day. It was hard to make sure this law was followed.
However, by 1835, the number of workers under 18 in cotton mills in England and Scotland had dropped to 43%. Children still worked in cotton mills throughout the 1800s. Many more laws were passed to cut down hours and make conditions safer. Still, children under 14 were allowed to work in factories until the Education Act 1918 made going to school required for all children.
