England -- Social life and customs -- 19th century; Great Britain -- History -- William IV, 1830-1837
Strapped?--Yes, I was strapped most severely, till I could not
bear to sit down on a chair without pillows, and I was forced to
lie upon my face in the night-time, at one time; and through that
I left. I was strapped both on my own legs, and then I was put on
a man's back, and then strapped, and buckled with two straps to
an iron pillar, and flogged, and all by one overlooker; after
that, he took a piece of tow, and twisted it in the shape of a
cord, put it in my mouth, and tied it behind my head.
He gagged you?--Yes; and then he ordered me to run round a part
of the machinery where he was overlooker, and he stood at one
end, and every time I came there, he struck me with a stick,
which I believe was an ash plant, and which he generally carried
in his hand; and sometimes he hit me, and sometimes he did not;
and one of the men in the room came and begged me off, and that
he would let me go, and not beat me any more; and, consequently,
he did.
You have been beaten with extraordinary severity?--Yes; I was so
beaten that I had not power to cry at all, or hardly to speak, at
one time.
What age were you at that time?--Between ten and eleven.
What had you done?--I believe that in the machinery I did not
like the part he put me to, because I had never been in a mill
where there was any machinery before in my life, and it was
winter time, and we worked by gas-light, and I could not catch
the revolutions of the machinery to take the tow out of the
hackles. I desired him to remove me to another part, which he did
for some part of the day, and then sent me back to that which we
call doffing the hackles.
You say that you were so beat that you could not even cry?--I
cannot assign any other reason for it; it was not because I had
not sufficient punishment: I did my endeavours. When he had used
some mode of language which gave me to understand that he wanted
me to cry when he had flogged me on the man's back, I remember he
repeated a verse about devils trembling, and said, 'But this
hardened wretch will not shed a tear.' He was a member of a
religious society, and I suppose that was the reason that made
him use those words.
Was he discharged from that society?--Yes, I believe he was; my
grandmother went to the class, it was held in the chapel, and he
was discharged from it.
Were young women as well as young men beaten?--Yes, I never saw
any distinction between boys and girls."
"ELIZA MARSHALL called in and examined.
Where did you get work first?--At Mr. Marshall's in Water Lane.
Was that a flax mill?--Yes.
How happened you to leave that mill?--It was so dusty: it stuffed
me so much that I could scarcely speak.
Did it affect your health?--Yes, I should not have lived long if
I had not left.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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