Kids were not only physically abused and forced to work long hours standing without breaks but they were also forced to eat dirty pieced of candle and to lick up tobacco spittle as punishment (17). This power to use this type of brutality was shown by two main parties. The factory oversees and dormitory captains which had the power to beat, give, fire and rape and below them were the skilled male spinners, who hired child helpers and were allowed to terrorize their changes (17). Furthermore, the inhumane living conditions also reflected the impact of global capitalism. Approximately 2,220 out of 7,000 houses did not have a toilet and 900 were inhabitable. However, this was not the worst living condition at the time, there were about twenty thousand people living in basements of these slums, often alongside livestock (18). These are the challenges that obligated workers to take action. When petitions failed and strikes broke out, the government responded by implementing the Combinations Act which outlawed trade unions for the next twenty-five years in 1799
Kids were not only physically abused and forced to work long hours standing without breaks but they were also forced to eat dirty pieced of candle and to lick up tobacco spittle as punishment (17). This power to use this type of brutality was shown by two main parties. The factory oversees and dormitory captains which had the power to beat, give, fire and rape and below them were the skilled male spinners, who hired child helpers and were allowed to terrorize their changes (17). Furthermore, the inhumane living conditions also reflected the impact of global capitalism. Approximately 2,220 out of 7,000 houses did not have a toilet and 900 were inhabitable. However, this was not the worst living condition at the time, there were about twenty thousand people living in basements of these slums, often alongside livestock (18). These are the challenges that obligated workers to take action. When petitions failed and strikes broke out, the government responded by implementing the Combinations Act which outlawed trade unions for the next twenty-five years in 1799