Industrial Sector/Condition #2

"“Been married 37 years; it was the practice to marry early, when the coals were all carried on women's backs, men needed us; from the great sore labour false births are frequent and very dangerous.

I have four daughters married, and all work below till they bear their bairns [children] - one is very badly now from working while pregnant, which brought on a miscarriage from which she is not expected to recover.

Collier-people [coal miners] suffer much more than others - my guid [good] man died nine years since with bad breath;  he lingered some years and was entirely off work 11 years before he died...”

Isabel Hogg, coal bearer, testimony to the Childrens Employment Comission, Scotland, 1842