Preston mill-workers’ strike

Historical Context Note

Litencyc Editors (Independent Scholar - Europe)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 1.2.1.07: English Writing and Culture of the Victorian Period, 1837-1901.
Vol. editors: Gillian Fenwick (University of Toronto), Grace Moore (University of Otago)

Domains

Strikes and wages

Dates

Date of occurrence 1847-10-15-1848-04-20

Places

United Kingdom (Location)

During the financial crisis of 1847 workers in Lancashire cotton mills had been forced to accept a ten percent cut in wages. In most cases these cuts were later restored, but the Preston mill-owners obstinately refused to restore wages to their 1847 level. Strike action brewed in the summer of 1853 and eventually the Preston Masters' Association agreed to shut a large number of mills. Some 20,000 men found themselves without work and income. The lock-out lasted for seven months, until April 1854, and attracted national attention: the nascent trades-union movement and the factory owners agreed only in seeing the strike as deciding who would have the right to establish the terms of labour relations. Charles Dickens published an …

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212 words

Citation: Editors, Litencyc. "Preston mill-workers’ strike". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 25 January 2008 [https://staging.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=5486, accessed 23 November 2024.]

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Preston mill-workers’ strike

Domains

Dates

Places

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