Match Girls Sources Questions

Conni Donaldson, History G.C.S.E Coursework

The Matchgirls' strike

Question 1: Study Source A

What can you learn from Source A about the grievances of the Match Girls in 1888?

Source A is taken from a newspaper article written by Annie Besant. It was published in ‘The Link’; a magazine, which campaigned for better working conditions. The article gives an insight into the working conditions in factories. To get first-hand information, she interviewed matchgirls at the Fairfeild Works (The factory).

The employees’ complaints were based in four areas; physical and verbal abuse, dangerous working conditions, low wages and fines.

Their grievances about low wages and fines was the fact that the matchgirls were earning 4 to 8 shillings a week; this is the equivalent to 20 to 40p. Fines were deducted from their wages if the girls have dirty feet or were late for work. There was one employee who was fined 5 shillings, which was about 5 hours of piece-work, for letting a piece of material twist around a machine to save her fingers being cut.

The abuse they received was awful; the foreman would hit the girls when he was having a bad day or ‘when he was mad’. The girls, as mentioned previously, complained about dangerous conditions in the working environment.

The health and Safety standards were shocking, the employees had to dip matches in phosphorous, which is a highly dangerous chemical. They were also force to eat their ‘poor meals’ in the room in which they worked. The phosphorous chemicals in the air would mix with their food and they would therefore be eating a poison which rotted away at their jawbone, this became known by the Fairfeild workers as ‘phossy-jaw’.

Question 2: Study Sources A and B

How far does Source B challenge the account given by Annie Besant in The Link (Source A)?

From reading source B I can see that it challenges Annie Besant’s article in The Link in many ways, firstly I can see that The Link is aimed at the working class people, and Source B is taken from The Times, which was aimed at the middle class people.

The articles contradict each other in some ways. For example Annie Besant in Source A states that the girls were paid ‘average’ wages, Source B challenges this. It says ‘the lowest rate of wages paid to unskilled apprentices…was given as the average to all workers’. This implies that the Matchgirls supporter was either lying or over exaggerating about the facts and figures she used in her article.

The differences of opinion about the wages, between Source A and Source B, are immense. Source B tries to justify the low wages by blaming the of the overdue crop harvesting. The extract states that the girls’ wages have been low lately because the workers who usually leave in the summer have not due to the late harvest, so the factory had to keep on more staff even though the demand for matches had dropped dramatically during the summer months. This article does not challenge any of the employees’ other grievances, because they know that the grievances such as abuse fines and dangerous conditions are genuine and there is much evidence to support their other accusations, such as bruises and ‘phossy-jaw’.

Question 3: Study Sources C and D

A. What different impressions of the Match Girls are given off by Sources C and D?

Source C is a late nineteenth century drawing showing the matchgirls at work. The girls in the factory are appropriately dressed and well groomed. This indicates a high wage. The girls all look pretty young - approximately twenty years old, and none of them look overly thin, which most of them would have done being paid on the outrageously low wages. There are only two children in this picture this would not have been the case in a real factory. The factory in Source C is very clean and clear. The two levels of floors and the stairs make the factory look a lot bigger and spacious, which again would not have been the case. There are also no health hazards made obvious; the girls look happy and content with their work and their lives in general.

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Source D is the exact opposite of Source C. The thing that I immediately noticed about this picture was that it was a very cold kind of picture. It was taken outside of the building, so we have no concept of the conditions inside. It shows a group of matchgirls who are on strike. Not one of the girls are wearing any kind of expensive clothing, but instead are dressed in rags Contradicting Source C is the fact that. The girls in Source D are a lot younger that the other girls in Source C, they look about 12-16 years old, their faces are screwed up and reflect the misery in their lives. It is obvious they have had a hard time. One of the girls looks as though they have a disfigured jaw; this may be the beginning of what the workers knew as phossy-jaw. This demonstrates that the portrayals of the factories were very contrasting.

B. Does the photograph (Source D) give a more reliable impression of the match factory workers than the artist’s drawing (Source C)? Explain your answer using Sources C and D and your own knowledge

After studying both of the above sources I found them to show the work of a match girl very differently.

Source C is not very reliable. It is a drawing, this means it may not have been of a real place and using real people. The factory owner may have paid the artist extra to do a drawing of a more elaborate factory. The artist of this drawing is unknown which also makes this piece of work unreliable. This could have been used as an advertisement or campaign of some sort to make all factories look good.

Source D on the other hand is a photograph. Although photographs cannot lie, they can be manipulated. People can be told to look happy or sad, and so on. The people in the picture may not even be matchgirls, but I actually do believe that they are matchgirls and they worked in the factories. Again the photographer is unknown or at least unnamed which could make this more implausible. I, therefore think that source D is a more reliable piece of evidence, although neither of the pieces are fully dependable because they could have been artists/photographers impressions.

Question 4: Study Sources B, F and G.

The Times (Source B) expected the strike to collapse. Why did the Match Girls’ strike succeed? Use Sources B, F and G and your own knowledge to explain your answer.

The writer of the article in The Times (Source B) believed that the strike would not continue and stated that ‘The strike can not go on indefinitely’ The article suggests that the Match Girls have been ‘egged on’ to strike by ‘sympathisers’.

I think the Match Girl’s strike was such a success because they believed, not only in themselves but in what they saw as right and they were prepared to fight and take action against any one or any thing that stood in their way. As you can see in Source F, the match factory workers are holding a peaceful protest against their employers and how they were being treated.

The Match Girl’s gained a lot of publicity through their campaign manager Annie Besant, public demonstrations and newspaper articles. Source G is an extract from Annie Besant’s autobiography, in it she says ‘if ever we worked, we worked that fortnight’ This put an emphasis on their determination to get their point across, because every body knew how hard the Match Girl’s labour was.

Newspaper articles were printed in a range of newspapers so every body would know whether they were middle or working class. These articles earned them money and the support not only of other people, but also of local businesses. Some people such as Charles Bradlaugh who was a Member of Parliament also helped the match girls win their fight by making other M.P’s aware of these issues during parliamentary discussions. The money they received was distributed widely to fund their demonstrations and so that the girls on strike would receive strike pay, which, if they had not been receiving the strike may have collapsed due to the fact that the workers needed money to support themselves and their family.

The fact that their previous strikes had failed in 1871 and 1885 did not stop them. They wisely used the knowledge of these strikes to prevent mistakes and setbacks that could lead to their defeat by factory owners. The Match Girls had well-supported and well-organised demonstrations and protests, most of these lead by Annie Besant who used her middle-class status to her advantage which helped the Match Girls to win their case.

The strike was a great success, so to conclude, they won due to many, many factors some of them being the amount of support, money, publicity and organisation they received. ‘The girls went back to work, fines were abolished, and better wages paid.’

Question 5: Study Source H.

Source H says that ‘the workers are well looked after’.

How far is this statement supported by the evidence of Sources A to E?

Source H was written by Bryant and May, the owners of the company. It states that the girls were ‘well looked after’ Of course they were not going to say publicly that their staff were treated badly.

Using sources A –E I am going to find out how far Bryant and May’s statement was supported, and how strongly it can be argued.

Source A is an extract from The Link, This was a magazine that campaigned for better conditions for the working class population, and was written by Annie Besant. Annie Besant was a socialist, who were seen by businesses such as Bryant and May as nuisance and their strike actions as ‘stupidity’. The extract states that ‘they also suffer…’ this not only implies that they suffered in a different way, but is going on to other grievances and sufferings the Match Girls have endured. This was written for the large percentage of the population, who, at that time were working class, therefore Annie, may have over exaggerated the facts to win the support of the reader; this Source in anyway does not support Source H.

Source B is also taken from a newspaper, The Times. This paper as previously mentioned was written for the middle class people of that day. The article’s author was un-named, but it obviously reinforces Source H’s statement. This extract was written in an effort to halt the strike procedures and in hope of the Match Girls returning to their work under the same conditions, I can see this because it states ‘Before the strike…’. Source B discusses the ways in which the factory has helped the girls by continuing to employ the staffs who usually leave in the summer to harvest even though the demand for matches was low. This implies that the articles and complaints have been taken out of all proportion, ‘Every grievance has been listened to and accepted as the truth and exaggerated in print.’ This source clearly backs up Bryant and May’s statement by writing ‘the Match Girls have been egged on to strike.’

Source C, the nineteenth century drawing of a match factory supports Source H without a doubt. The factory is clean, spacious and organised. The ladies working there are all quite young and fresh looking, around about 20 years old. They are well dressed and look happy and content within their work, the perceived image here is a very positive one.

Nevertheless this source is not very reliable at all; the artist is unknown and its origin unidentified. There is no evidence to prove that this is a real factory, just a figment of the artist’s imagination, although unlikely as it is, this factory may have been an outstandingly good factory. The owner of this piece of art is also unknown; therefore this could have either been used as an advertisement for more staff or could have been for a factory owner. This may have even been drawn for the factory owner to give as a gift to the company directors.

Either way the drawing itself of this magnificent factory supports Bryant and May’s statement in Source H.

Source D is a photograph taken of some of the Match Girls on strike. This picture contrasts with Source H’s statement about the Match Girls being well treated. The girls in this picture are very melancholy looking, the girls here are very badly dressed, wearing dirty ripped clothing and they are aged from about 12-16. The picture is taken from the outside of the building, therefore I can not comment on the interior state of the factory. The photograph having being taken on the outside of the building straight away gives the picture a cold, solemn look. You can see the girls have had times hard because their faces are screwed up and one girl seems to have ‘phossy-jaw’ as her jaw line is rather disfigured.

This source, being a photograph, makes its reliability more valid than Source C’s, although I am aware of the fact that photographs too can be manipulated to give off the desired impression.

Source E, again is an article written for a middle class audience and middle class newspaper called The Echo. It clearly believes Bryant and May’s statement in Source H to be true because it states that some of the Match Girls’ supporters are members of parliament whom ‘champion the poor and oppressed.’ They also ask how they ‘can they face the public when their employees in the East End of London exist on next to starvation wages?’ This implies that the employees of Bryant and May at the Fairfeild workers are paid better wages than M.P’s pay their staff.

In conclusion, from studying the five Sources, A-E that there are more sources to support Bryant and May’s statement, three supports it- two oppose the statement, so statistically they are right. This does not mean, however, that the statement given in Source H, a public statement by Bryant and May, is true, it only means that with my limited amount of sources I was able to use this is my outcome. If I was enabled to utilise an unlimited number of sources I may have reached a different conclusion. So personally I would say it is not really possible to reach a reliable conclusion, as the evidence given is contradictory and questionable due to its dependability.

Question 6: Many school history books about the development of trade unions at the end of the nineteenth century do not mention the Match Girls’ strike. Does this mean that the Match Girls’ strike was not an important event in the history of trade unions? Explain your answer using these sources and your own knowledge.

The fact that the strike held by the Match Girls in 1888 may not have been mentioned in many history books could be due to several reasons. It in no way means that the strike was not an important event in history.

The fact that if you compare this strike to others it to other strikes such as the Jarrow March and the London Dockers strike it was of a rather small scale, may be one of the main reasons as to why this strike is left out in history. But the winning of the strike was a great victory and triumph to the Match Girls although it never really affected anybody else in a big way.

Up until recently male domination was a way of life in all countries around the world. The fact that this was a victory for women may have hindered its entry in to many history books and in history text books in the past women have been ignored and disregarded.

The Match Girls achieved things that was not considered possible for women or unskilled workers at that time, you could say they opened the door for women’s rights and working class people. They proved that women could do things alone without having to be over-looked my men.

Also the previous strikes held by the N.A.L.U, National Agricultural Labourers Union had failed and so the girls knew by using their examples what to avoid, and how to do things right, to enable them to win. The Match Girls Strike was a great success as this was the first victorious strike for unskilled workers. The organisation and support of the Match Girls’ strike was clearly one of the middle classes’ biggest oppositions of that time, as they refer to the staff having being ‘influenced’, and it was ‘a pity’ the workers were ‘egged on’ by ‘sympathisers’

The publicity, organisation and support form local businesses and middle class people was a big factor as to why the strike was successful. Money that the girls received, helped fund their demonstrations and gave them strike pay also upheld the length of the strike.

The girls changed their own lives and the way in which working class employees were treated. Not only by this strike having been constructed by women it had been victorious in its attempts to improve working conditions. This showed that everybody has the potential to be able to revolt, strike and win, whether they were male or female.

They were an inspiration to the other workers of that times, and were to many other strikes and demonstrations that were held throughout Britain and particularly to other women. This strike may have encouraged the London Dockers and Gas workers to rebel, stand up for their rights and to strike; who in 1889 had both organised strikes and succeeded.

Although this strike was left out of history textbooks, I feel that it was a very significant time in history as it caused a chain reaction when other middle class workers also started to revolt and strike.

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