Richard Oastler on Yorkshire Slavery, 1831

(Oastler was not discouraged by the failure of an 1831 bill to limit working hours in factories. In a renewed call for reform, he called for a Ten Hour factory bill—a goal that would take nearly two decades to achieve. Oastler was a Tory reformer and he warned his audiences that they should not trust the liberal credentials of those who claimed to be liberals but refused factory reform. Leeds Intelligencer, 20, Leeds Patriot, 22 October 1831; in J. T. Ward, ed., The Factory System, Vol..II, Birth and Growth (New York: Barnes & Noble, 1970), pp.76-79.)

SLAVERY IN YORKSHIRE

TO THE WORKING CLASSES OF THE WEST RIDING OF THE COUNTY OF YORK

My Friends,Sir J. C. Hobhouse's bill for shortening the hours of labour in ALL factories is lost! Yes, the bill, on which you had fixed your fondest hopes, is vanished! Aye, my friends, that bill which had enlivened the hearts of your poor Factory children, which had for once implanted the gleam of hope in their hearts, and taught them to chaunt in songs of praise the name of Hobhouseis abandoned by its author! Your hopesyour infants' hopes, are suddenly blighted! ... Bend not, however, to despair but trust in God, and in yourselvesthe God of justice, of mercy, and of truth, still reignsand lie will plead your cause ...

After all, we are told that we live in the land of liberty; and if we attempt to rescue British infants from slavery, we are, forsooth, the friends of the slave trade, and are only raising the hue and cry to turn the attention of the nation from West Indian slavery. Yes, my fellowcountrymen, this has been said a thousand times since the factory system was exposed. The real friends of tyranny have put on the mask of philanthropy, and, with the cry of 'no slavery', would rivet the chains upon your children, all the time persuading you they are the only 'Liberals' of the day. From such turn away! And be ye assured that no man, be his pretensions what they may, can really wish to emancipate the poor black slave in the West Indies, who refuses his aid and assistance in emancipating your children from a state of slavery more horrid than that by which the infants of the slaves in the West Indies are cursed. Be duped no longer! Willingly lend your assistance to emancipate black slaves; but imperatively require from those members of parliament, ministers of religion and its professors, as well as the 'factory masters' who solicit your aid in favour of the blacks, that they shall prove their sincerity, and that they really do hate slavery, by encouraging and signing petitions in favour of 'ten hours a day' as the limit of your children's work ...

. . For the future your path is plain. Let no promises of support from any quarter sink you to inactivity. Consider that you must manage this cause yourselves, nor think a single step is taken so long as any constitutional effort is left untried. Establish, instantly establish, committees in every manufacturing town and village, to collect information and publish facts. The public, generally, do not know what it is; then tell them how it has gone on destroying the health and morals of the people; how it operates in families by preventing the growth of those parental and filial affections which nature has implanted in every breast, but which this hateful system habitually eradicates. Show also how the baneful effects of the destruction of these feelings, afterwards, operate on society! Tell, how the factory system beggars the industrious domestic manufacturer! Count, if you can, the hundreds of respectable families who have been driven from comfort and independence by the all powerful operation of this monopolising system! Point to the poor rates, and show how it has filled the ranks of the paupers; and never forget that these 'liberal factory masters' are not quite so 'liberal' as the tyrannical slaveholder! ...

... Yes, yes! bring all these facts before the public, and show the hideous monster in his native glare. Then ask, shall he go on conquering and to conquer, until the manufacture of the empire is concentrated under one large roof, and the world is supplied by one gigantic firm? Till human nature is almost physically and morally destroyed, and all the inhabitants of this land shall be the slaves of one great manufacturing nabob. Let your committees call on every Christian, and particularly on every Christian minister, and respectively solicit their aid. Surely no follower of Christ can withhold his assistance. In due time call public meetings, and there plead the cause of the poor infant sufferers, and expose the horrors of the factory system; then prepare petitions to parliament, praying it to interfere in the sacred cause of suffering humanity; and, on every election for members of parliament, use your influence throughout the empire to prevent any man being returned who will not distinctly and unequivocally pledge himself to support a 'Ten Hours a day and a Timebook Bill'. If you will instantly begin to work on this plan, and steadily pursue it, you are sure of success. It is impossible that a system so cruel, so injurious, so unjust, so unchristian, can stand in a Christian country when once the eyes of the public are open to its horrors. Your present failure points the road to your certain success! ...

... Let your politics be 'TEN HOURS A DAY, AND A TIMEBOOK'; and whoever offers himself as a candidate at any future election, unless lie will solemnly pledge himself to these two points, REFUSE HIM YOUR SUPPORT! Don't be deceived: you will hear the cries of

'No slavery''Reform''Liberal principles''No monopoly', &c. But let your cries be'No Yorkshire slavery''No slavery in any part of the empire''No factorymongers''No factory monopolists'. If you are determined, rest assured you will succeed. Your children will be liberated from a bondage greater than they would have inherited had they been born of negro slaves. Once morebe not led astray by the perpetual cry of 'liberal principles'. Depend upon it, the man who will refuse to 'liberate' your children is neither 'liberal' nor a 'hater of slavery'. Now then, my friends, for 'a long pull, a strong pull, and a pull altogether!' Victory is yours, if you are true to yourselves! Let the tyrants know that you have sworn, 'OUR CHILDREN SHALL BE FREE!' I am, my friends, a sincere enemy to slavery in every form, in every part of the world, and your sincere wellwisher,

RICHARD OASTLER

Fixby Hall, near Huddersfield, Oct. 10th, 1831