, “ It is as much as they can do when they are not very much fatigued to keep up with their work, and toward the close of the day, when they come to be more fatigued, they cannot keep up with it very well, and the consequence is that they are beaten to spur them on.” So Matthew is basically saying that towards the end of the day, when fatigue and exhaustion has set in, the children are beaten so they finish their work. Matthew proceeds to say that it is a daily occurrence for him to be beat. Even though he is so tired and knows that if he doesn’t keep up with his work, that he will be beaten, it doesn’t faze him anymore. To make matters even worse then they already are, the children are paid three shillings a week. One would think that the owner of the mill would see what he was doing to these poor children, but he didn’t. After reading the Sadler Report, which was the report that led to child labor reform in the Factory Act of 1833, I was in complete shock. I couldn’t even imagine the hardships these children had to face on a daily basis. They were deprived of all the fun and healthy activities that children now enjoy regularly. I was also amazed how strong these children were. Day after day, they were forced to wake up early, work all day, come home, and were so exhausted it made them ill. I think that because of Sadler and his report, it helped the parliament see what kind of abuse children are going through. ...
