1 00:00:01,200 --> 00:00:04,160 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff You Missed in History Class from how 2 00:00:04,200 --> 00:00:14,800 Speaker 1: Stuff Works dot com. Hello and welcome to the podcast. 3 00:00:14,960 --> 00:00:17,880 Speaker 1: I'm Tracy V. Wilson. I'm'm Holly Frying. Then we have 4 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:20,759 Speaker 1: a listener request we have gotten a few times before, 5 00:00:21,040 --> 00:00:23,880 Speaker 1: most recently from Maggie back in April, and that is 6 00:00:23,920 --> 00:00:27,960 Speaker 1: the London match girls strike of This is an event 7 00:00:28,000 --> 00:00:30,840 Speaker 1: I had heard of. Have you heard of it? Oh? Yes, yes, 8 00:00:31,360 --> 00:00:34,600 Speaker 1: I knew it was really important to labor rights history 9 00:00:34,600 --> 00:00:39,680 Speaker 1: in Britain. That was the sum of my knowledge. Mine 10 00:00:39,720 --> 00:00:43,080 Speaker 1: doesn't go far past that, right, Uh, my knowledge was 11 00:00:43,159 --> 00:00:46,519 Speaker 1: so limited that I thought these girls who were striking, 12 00:00:47,159 --> 00:00:50,720 Speaker 1: we're girls who sold matches. That's because of the sad 13 00:00:50,800 --> 00:00:53,440 Speaker 1: Christmas song, I would bet well, I I know it 14 00:00:53,520 --> 00:00:57,040 Speaker 1: more as a as a sad Christmas story with sad illustrations. 15 00:00:57,040 --> 00:01:00,560 Speaker 1: Oh yeah, yeah yeah, but it's not. Nope, it's not 16 00:01:00,600 --> 00:01:03,760 Speaker 1: about girls who sold matches. And most of them not 17 00:01:04,360 --> 00:01:07,280 Speaker 1: Some of them are women. Some of them are girls, 18 00:01:08,480 --> 00:01:11,960 Speaker 1: the girls who they made the matches. So that's just 19 00:01:12,000 --> 00:01:15,280 Speaker 1: to clear up the first misconception. Uh, and this is 20 00:01:15,680 --> 00:01:18,360 Speaker 1: not quite as jovial a story is. Maybe the tone 21 00:01:18,400 --> 00:01:22,840 Speaker 1: of what we just said might make it sound like, Yeah, 22 00:01:22,920 --> 00:01:25,840 Speaker 1: it's got some parts in it that are hard, as 23 00:01:25,920 --> 00:01:29,280 Speaker 1: much of history does. Family. So we're going to talk 24 00:01:29,319 --> 00:01:31,640 Speaker 1: first a little bit about life in East London, because 25 00:01:31,640 --> 00:01:34,760 Speaker 1: even today the name the East End still conjures images 26 00:01:34,800 --> 00:01:40,160 Speaker 1: of poverty. And writer Charles Dickens died uh a little 27 00:01:40,200 --> 00:01:43,320 Speaker 1: more than a decade slightly less than two decades before 28 00:01:43,360 --> 00:01:45,759 Speaker 1: the event that we're talking about today took place, but 29 00:01:45,880 --> 00:01:47,880 Speaker 1: he was one of the most famous writers to write 30 00:01:47,920 --> 00:01:50,920 Speaker 1: about the Victorian East End of London. So think about 31 00:01:50,920 --> 00:01:53,040 Speaker 1: Oliver Twist and you will kind of get where we're 32 00:01:53,040 --> 00:01:55,600 Speaker 1: going with this. The East End as a term for 33 00:01:55,640 --> 00:01:57,720 Speaker 1: this neighborhood was actually cooling near the end of the 34 00:01:57,760 --> 00:02:01,000 Speaker 1: seventeen hundreds, but it was really in the eighteen eighties 35 00:02:01,040 --> 00:02:04,120 Speaker 1: that it started to take on a more insulting connotations, 36 00:02:04,240 --> 00:02:10,120 Speaker 1: synonymous with poverty, overcrowding, illness, and crime. In eighteen eighty nine, 37 00:02:10,160 --> 00:02:13,120 Speaker 1: a book called Labor and Life of the People basically 38 00:02:13,240 --> 00:02:17,440 Speaker 1: surveyed and mapped East and South London, chronicling the incidents 39 00:02:17,480 --> 00:02:20,799 Speaker 1: of poverty and how people lived in these neighborhoods. And 40 00:02:21,400 --> 00:02:24,080 Speaker 1: from a review of the book is this quote quote. 41 00:02:24,680 --> 00:02:27,520 Speaker 1: Much has been written of late about the squalor and 42 00:02:27,760 --> 00:02:31,840 Speaker 1: vice of East London and of that seemingly vast horde, 43 00:02:32,160 --> 00:02:36,520 Speaker 1: the army of the unemployed. Most realistic pictures of starving 44 00:02:36,600 --> 00:02:40,440 Speaker 1: mothers and naked children have filled the newspapers, and that's 45 00:02:40,480 --> 00:02:43,000 Speaker 1: the end of the quote. So even though the book 46 00:02:43,040 --> 00:02:46,160 Speaker 1: itself reported that a lot of people living in East 47 00:02:46,160 --> 00:02:48,720 Speaker 1: and South London had their basic day to day meet 48 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,359 Speaker 1: needs meant like they had enough to eat as kind 49 00:02:52,400 --> 00:02:56,480 Speaker 1: of a minimum standard, the area was notorious, even at 50 00:02:56,520 --> 00:02:59,919 Speaker 1: this time that we're talking about, for being uh synonymous 51 00:03:00,040 --> 00:03:04,640 Speaker 1: with poverty and crime, and this so called outcast London 52 00:03:04,840 --> 00:03:07,920 Speaker 1: didn't have its reputation simply because of the income level 53 00:03:08,000 --> 00:03:11,400 Speaker 1: and living conditions of its residents. Many of the area's 54 00:03:11,440 --> 00:03:14,720 Speaker 1: residents were immigrants and minorities, regarded with a certain degree 55 00:03:14,720 --> 00:03:17,880 Speaker 1: of suspicion and disdain by much of middle and upper 56 00:03:17,880 --> 00:03:22,000 Speaker 1: class Britain. Another culprit for the East Ends reputation was 57 00:03:22,080 --> 00:03:25,839 Speaker 1: the industries that were headquartered there. Many of them were 58 00:03:25,880 --> 00:03:29,040 Speaker 1: so called sweating industries, so the types of places where 59 00:03:29,040 --> 00:03:32,640 Speaker 1: people worked long hours in windowless rooms doing work that 60 00:03:32,760 --> 00:03:35,560 Speaker 1: was sometimes dangerous and often looked down upon by the 61 00:03:35,560 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: people in most and the more affluent occupations. One of 62 00:03:39,840 --> 00:03:44,640 Speaker 1: these employers was Bryant and May Match Company. Most matchmakers 63 00:03:44,680 --> 00:03:47,800 Speaker 1: at this time were young women, and in the hierarchy 64 00:03:47,920 --> 00:03:51,360 Speaker 1: of working poor in Victorian England, these so called match 65 00:03:51,400 --> 00:03:54,760 Speaker 1: girls attended to be some of the lowest of the low. 66 00:03:54,920 --> 00:03:57,280 Speaker 1: People really looked down on girls who made matches and 67 00:03:57,360 --> 00:04:01,040 Speaker 1: women who made matches. In eight eight the Bryant and 68 00:04:01,120 --> 00:04:04,400 Speaker 1: May Match factories came to the attention of Annie Bessant. 69 00:04:04,840 --> 00:04:08,080 Speaker 1: Uh most American pronunciations of this seemed to rhyme with crescent, 70 00:04:08,560 --> 00:04:11,680 Speaker 1: so we're going with that. She was a socialist, feminist 71 00:04:11,680 --> 00:04:15,160 Speaker 1: reformer who by this point had been advocating for social 72 00:04:15,240 --> 00:04:19,239 Speaker 1: change for decades. In the eighteen seventies, she had edited 73 00:04:19,279 --> 00:04:23,280 Speaker 1: the National Reformer along with Charles Bradlaw, which advocated for 74 00:04:23,320 --> 00:04:27,200 Speaker 1: things like labor rights, women's suffrage, and birth control and 75 00:04:27,279 --> 00:04:29,800 Speaker 1: that last one got The two of them tried for obscenity, 76 00:04:29,800 --> 00:04:32,960 Speaker 1: but they were acquitted. Bessant was also a member of 77 00:04:33,000 --> 00:04:36,880 Speaker 1: the Fabian Society, founded in eighteen eighty four. The Fabian 78 00:04:36,920 --> 00:04:40,920 Speaker 1: Society is a socialist organization established to advocate non violent 79 00:04:41,000 --> 00:04:44,039 Speaker 1: political change, and in particular to try to establish a 80 00:04:44,040 --> 00:04:47,919 Speaker 1: great Britain as a democratic socialist state. Some of the 81 00:04:48,000 --> 00:04:51,760 Speaker 1: other famous members and the Fabian Society's early years where 82 00:04:51,800 --> 00:04:55,960 Speaker 1: George Bernard Shaw, H. G. Wells, and Beatrice and City 83 00:04:56,080 --> 00:05:00,440 Speaker 1: Web the Famians. The Fabian Society helped form Britain's Labor 84 00:05:00,480 --> 00:05:02,880 Speaker 1: Party in nineteen o six and has continued to be 85 00:05:02,920 --> 00:05:06,680 Speaker 1: affiliated with the Labor Party since then. On June fIF 86 00:05:07,560 --> 00:05:10,159 Speaker 1: the Bryant and May Match factory was discussed at a 87 00:05:10,160 --> 00:05:15,479 Speaker 1: Fabian Society meeting following a presentation by trade unionist Clementina Black. 88 00:05:16,320 --> 00:05:19,120 Speaker 1: The topic of the conversation was the fact that shareholders 89 00:05:19,160 --> 00:05:23,640 Speaker 1: in the factory received a dividend of more than twenty However, 90 00:05:23,800 --> 00:05:26,640 Speaker 1: the employees who made its boxes were paid two and 91 00:05:26,720 --> 00:05:30,159 Speaker 1: a quarter pence or pennies per gross for their work. 92 00:05:30,800 --> 00:05:33,360 Speaker 1: So to catch folks up really briefly on British money 93 00:05:33,360 --> 00:05:35,799 Speaker 1: at the time, there were twelve pence in a shilling 94 00:05:36,080 --> 00:05:39,760 Speaker 1: and twenty shillings in a pound, so this was basically nothing. 95 00:05:40,600 --> 00:05:43,680 Speaker 1: The members of the Society pledged not to use Bryant 96 00:05:43,720 --> 00:05:46,960 Speaker 1: and may matches or to buy any products from them. 97 00:05:47,160 --> 00:05:50,359 Speaker 1: Bessett wanted to investigate this a little further, so she 98 00:05:50,440 --> 00:05:53,640 Speaker 1: went to the factory to talk to these workers herself. 99 00:05:53,720 --> 00:05:56,480 Speaker 1: They weren't, however, actually the same people that had been 100 00:05:56,480 --> 00:05:58,560 Speaker 1: discussed at the meeting. There's people who were making the 101 00:05:58,600 --> 00:06:00,680 Speaker 1: two in a quarter pence for every hundred and forty 102 00:06:00,680 --> 00:06:03,400 Speaker 1: four boxes. Those are people that worked at home, often 103 00:06:03,440 --> 00:06:06,480 Speaker 1: with their whole families, making boxes as fast as possible. 104 00:06:07,240 --> 00:06:10,520 Speaker 1: Beessn't met workers instead leaving from their shift. These are 105 00:06:10,520 --> 00:06:13,720 Speaker 1: people who did things in the factory itself, doing jobs 106 00:06:13,760 --> 00:06:16,480 Speaker 1: like taking the matches off of the frames and putting 107 00:06:16,480 --> 00:06:19,559 Speaker 1: them into their boxes. And the conditions that these people 108 00:06:19,640 --> 00:06:25,400 Speaker 1: described to her were pretty appalling. On June she published 109 00:06:25,440 --> 00:06:28,920 Speaker 1: the findings of her investigation in the Link, a journal 110 00:06:28,960 --> 00:06:32,120 Speaker 1: for the Servants of Ma'am. Some of Brian and May's 111 00:06:32,160 --> 00:06:35,280 Speaker 1: match girls were as young as eight years old. Many 112 00:06:35,320 --> 00:06:38,480 Speaker 1: were immigrants from Ireland whose families had moved to London 113 00:06:38,520 --> 00:06:41,600 Speaker 1: in the wake of the famine earlier in the century. 114 00:06:41,640 --> 00:06:44,159 Speaker 1: In the summer, they started work at six thirty in 115 00:06:44,160 --> 00:06:46,920 Speaker 1: the morning and in the winter at eight am, and 116 00:06:46,960 --> 00:06:50,120 Speaker 1: either way the work day ended at six pm, although 117 00:06:50,200 --> 00:06:52,360 Speaker 1: in other accounts the days were often as long as 118 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,160 Speaker 1: fourteen hours. I found a lot of site of sources 119 00:06:56,160 --> 00:07:00,640 Speaker 1: citing the fourteen hour number, which is a little longer 120 00:07:00,680 --> 00:07:03,640 Speaker 1: than was described in this particular article that sparked this 121 00:07:03,680 --> 00:07:07,800 Speaker 1: whole thing. Apart from these really long days, all of 122 00:07:07,839 --> 00:07:10,920 Speaker 1: the work was done standing, and the workers whose job 123 00:07:11,040 --> 00:07:13,680 Speaker 1: was emptying the frames of their matches also had to 124 00:07:13,760 --> 00:07:16,640 Speaker 1: run up and down flights of stairs every time they 125 00:07:16,680 --> 00:07:20,080 Speaker 1: needed a new frame, because they were only allowed one 126 00:07:20,200 --> 00:07:22,680 Speaker 1: frame at a time in their working stations. So this 127 00:07:22,760 --> 00:07:24,360 Speaker 1: meant that they had to run up and down the 128 00:07:24,400 --> 00:07:28,160 Speaker 1: stairs about three times an hour, and they were running 129 00:07:28,240 --> 00:07:30,760 Speaker 1: because all but a few married women were paid by 130 00:07:30,760 --> 00:07:33,320 Speaker 1: the piece, not by the day or by the hour, 131 00:07:33,880 --> 00:07:35,840 Speaker 1: so the more work they did, the more money they 132 00:07:35,920 --> 00:07:38,960 Speaker 1: got paid. Because the pay for each unit was tiny, 133 00:07:39,200 --> 00:07:43,360 Speaker 1: for example three quarter pence per gross for filling boxes 134 00:07:43,400 --> 00:07:46,720 Speaker 1: of matches, they were really motivated to work as quickly 135 00:07:46,800 --> 00:07:50,920 Speaker 1: as humanly possible because most of Bryant and May's products 136 00:07:50,960 --> 00:07:55,040 Speaker 1: were strike anywhere matches, which, as their names suggest, can 137 00:07:55,080 --> 00:07:58,920 Speaker 1: be struck anywhere. This led to problems of your work 138 00:07:59,000 --> 00:08:03,280 Speaker 1: spontaneously schng fire while you were handling strike anywhere matches 139 00:08:03,360 --> 00:08:07,120 Speaker 1: as fast as you possibly could. But the employees at 140 00:08:07,120 --> 00:08:09,960 Speaker 1: the factory didn't get to take home all of their 141 00:08:10,000 --> 00:08:13,280 Speaker 1: minimal pay. There was this long list of out of 142 00:08:13,320 --> 00:08:15,960 Speaker 1: pocket costs in which the workers had to pay for 143 00:08:16,000 --> 00:08:19,000 Speaker 1: the tools that they needed to do their jobs. On 144 00:08:19,120 --> 00:08:21,880 Speaker 1: top of that, there were fines. These are some of 145 00:08:21,920 --> 00:08:28,400 Speaker 1: the fines. The workers Besson interviewed reported dirty feet threepence, 146 00:08:29,480 --> 00:08:33,400 Speaker 1: leaving the area around the bench untidy threepence. I want 147 00:08:33,400 --> 00:08:35,400 Speaker 1: to clarify that the bench in the situation is like 148 00:08:35,440 --> 00:08:37,319 Speaker 1: the table or the counter that they're working on. It 149 00:08:37,400 --> 00:08:40,680 Speaker 1: was not a seat that you sat on. Putting matches 150 00:08:40,800 --> 00:08:43,600 Speaker 1: that had burned up during work onto the bench one 151 00:08:43,679 --> 00:08:47,440 Speaker 1: or two sellings, leaving matches on the bench while going 152 00:08:47,480 --> 00:08:53,520 Speaker 1: to get a fresh frame threepence, talking threepence, being late, 153 00:08:54,240 --> 00:08:57,440 Speaker 1: the loss of half a day's pay. This was due 154 00:08:57,480 --> 00:08:59,839 Speaker 1: to not being allowed in to work and the for 155 00:09:00,040 --> 00:09:03,160 Speaker 1: they're fine of five pence, So if you relate, you 156 00:09:03,240 --> 00:09:06,040 Speaker 1: lost your pay until like the break in the day 157 00:09:06,040 --> 00:09:08,360 Speaker 1: where they let you in, and then you also had 158 00:09:08,360 --> 00:09:10,960 Speaker 1: to pay a fine on top of your lost pay. 159 00:09:11,840 --> 00:09:14,520 Speaker 1: Workers these matches caught fire while they were working, which 160 00:09:14,520 --> 00:09:17,240 Speaker 1: happened a lot because these were strike anywhere matches being 161 00:09:17,280 --> 00:09:20,839 Speaker 1: handled very quickly. They basically watched their pay burn up 162 00:09:20,880 --> 00:09:22,760 Speaker 1: in front of them, because all that work they were 163 00:09:22,800 --> 00:09:25,880 Speaker 1: doing was now gone, and then if the frames were 164 00:09:25,960 --> 00:09:29,680 Speaker 1: damaged in the fire, they could be fined or sacked. 165 00:09:30,920 --> 00:09:33,760 Speaker 1: Bessant also described one girl who had been fined for 166 00:09:33,880 --> 00:09:36,240 Speaker 1: letting the web that was used to make the matches 167 00:09:36,360 --> 00:09:39,520 Speaker 1: wrap around a machine. She had done this because her 168 00:09:39,559 --> 00:09:42,480 Speaker 1: fingers were about to be caught, and she was told, quote, 169 00:09:42,520 --> 00:09:46,959 Speaker 1: never mind your fingers. Even so, another employee had lost 170 00:09:46,960 --> 00:09:49,600 Speaker 1: a finger in just such an incident and had been 171 00:09:49,640 --> 00:09:53,080 Speaker 1: given absolutely no support from the company while she recovered. 172 00:09:54,040 --> 00:09:56,040 Speaker 1: To add insult to injury and something that could just 173 00:09:56,040 --> 00:09:59,000 Speaker 1: go into a bad management journal as an example of 174 00:09:59,000 --> 00:10:02,760 Speaker 1: what not to do. Bessant also reported that Mr Theodore 175 00:10:02,840 --> 00:10:05,480 Speaker 1: Bryant of Bryant and May had decided to show his 176 00:10:05,559 --> 00:10:08,560 Speaker 1: respect to Prime Minister William Gladstone by putting up a 177 00:10:08,640 --> 00:10:12,680 Speaker 1: statue of him at the factory, and he docked a 178 00:10:12,800 --> 00:10:16,599 Speaker 1: shilling from every worker's pay to pay for the statue 179 00:10:17,000 --> 00:10:19,320 Speaker 1: that would go in their work area, and then he 180 00:10:19,360 --> 00:10:22,120 Speaker 1: gave them half a day off without pay as a 181 00:10:22,200 --> 00:10:25,839 Speaker 1: holiday to celebrate the unveiling of the statue they'd had 182 00:10:25,880 --> 00:10:32,360 Speaker 1: to pay for themselves. I just want to make grumbling noises, 183 00:10:33,640 --> 00:10:37,200 Speaker 1: Bessant ends her report quote, such is a bald account 184 00:10:37,320 --> 00:10:40,520 Speaker 1: of one form of white slavery as it exists in London. 185 00:10:41,240 --> 00:10:44,000 Speaker 1: With chattel slaves. Mr Bryant could not have made his 186 00:10:44,080 --> 00:10:47,200 Speaker 1: huge fortune, for he could not have fed, clothed and 187 00:10:47,320 --> 00:10:50,520 Speaker 1: housed them for four shillings a week each, and they 188 00:10:50,559 --> 00:10:52,840 Speaker 1: would have had a definite money value which would have 189 00:10:52,880 --> 00:10:55,920 Speaker 1: served as a protection. But who cares for the fate 190 00:10:55,960 --> 00:10:59,880 Speaker 1: of these white wage slaves born in slums, driven to work, 191 00:11:00,000 --> 00:11:05,160 Speaker 1: all still children, undersized because under fed, oppressed because helpless, 192 00:11:05,600 --> 00:11:08,559 Speaker 1: flung aside as soon as worked out. Who cares if 193 00:11:08,559 --> 00:11:11,400 Speaker 1: they die or go on the streets, provided only that 194 00:11:11,440 --> 00:11:15,320 Speaker 1: the Brian and may shareholders get their tent, and Mr 195 00:11:15,360 --> 00:11:19,480 Speaker 1: Theodore Bryant can erect statues and buy parks. Oh, if 196 00:11:19,520 --> 00:11:21,960 Speaker 1: we had but a people's Dante to make a special 197 00:11:21,960 --> 00:11:24,520 Speaker 1: circle in the inferno for those who live on this 198 00:11:24,600 --> 00:11:28,360 Speaker 1: misery and suck wealth out of the starvation of helpless girls. 199 00:11:29,080 --> 00:11:31,480 Speaker 1: Failing a poet to hold up their conduct to the 200 00:11:31,520 --> 00:11:36,200 Speaker 1: execration of posterity enshrined in deathless verse, let us strive 201 00:11:36,280 --> 00:11:39,920 Speaker 1: to touch their consciences i e. Their pockets, and let 202 00:11:40,000 --> 00:11:43,400 Speaker 1: us at least avoid being partakers of their sins by 203 00:11:43,440 --> 00:11:48,000 Speaker 1: abstaining from using their commodities. And with that call to 204 00:11:48,040 --> 00:11:51,160 Speaker 1: action to boycott Bryant and May, we will take a 205 00:11:51,360 --> 00:12:03,760 Speaker 1: brief word talk about sponsor to get back to our story. Unsurprisingly, 206 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:06,400 Speaker 1: the Briant and May match company, which was at this 207 00:12:06,480 --> 00:12:09,600 Speaker 1: point the largest matchmaker in Britain, was not happy at 208 00:12:09,600 --> 00:12:13,160 Speaker 1: all by Annie Bessent's report in the link. They immediately 209 00:12:13,160 --> 00:12:16,440 Speaker 1: started trying to strong arm their employees into denying that 210 00:12:16,520 --> 00:12:20,440 Speaker 1: the allegations were true. On July four, an anonymous worker 211 00:12:20,520 --> 00:12:23,280 Speaker 1: wrote a letter to Annie Bessent that said, in part quote, 212 00:12:23,320 --> 00:12:25,480 Speaker 1: they have been trying to get all the poor girls 213 00:12:25,480 --> 00:12:27,880 Speaker 1: to say that it is all lies that has been printed, 214 00:12:28,120 --> 00:12:30,520 Speaker 1: and trying to make us sign papers that it is 215 00:12:30,559 --> 00:12:36,240 Speaker 1: all lies. On July about two hundred workers walked off 216 00:12:36,240 --> 00:12:40,200 Speaker 1: the job. Soon about twelve hundred of the Bryant and 217 00:12:40,240 --> 00:12:43,720 Speaker 1: May employees who made strike anywhere matches had gone on strike, 218 00:12:44,320 --> 00:12:46,880 Speaker 1: and another three hundred who worked in the nearby wax 219 00:12:46,920 --> 00:12:51,240 Speaker 1: match factory joined them. Accounts at the time were all 220 00:12:51,240 --> 00:12:54,040 Speaker 1: over the place about exactly why they had stopped their 221 00:12:54,080 --> 00:12:57,160 Speaker 1: work on that particular day. According to one account, they 222 00:12:57,160 --> 00:12:59,840 Speaker 1: were just tired of all the fines and poor working condition. 223 00:13:00,559 --> 00:13:03,560 Speaker 1: And another two women had been fired for talking to 224 00:13:03,600 --> 00:13:06,680 Speaker 1: Annie Besset about her investigation, and in a third it 225 00:13:06,800 --> 00:13:09,040 Speaker 1: was one young woman who had been fired for not 226 00:13:09,160 --> 00:13:12,000 Speaker 1: following a foreman's orders to fill a matchbox in a 227 00:13:12,040 --> 00:13:14,720 Speaker 1: particular way, but her friends at the factory had thought 228 00:13:14,720 --> 00:13:18,599 Speaker 1: her firing was unfair. And it was this last explanation 229 00:13:18,720 --> 00:13:21,440 Speaker 1: that Brian and May tried to claim when talking to 230 00:13:21,600 --> 00:13:25,520 Speaker 1: the press. And for decades this strike was positioned mostly 231 00:13:25,640 --> 00:13:29,360 Speaker 1: as Annie Bessett's work, but she wasn't particularly involved in it. 232 00:13:29,960 --> 00:13:32,640 Speaker 1: In Victorian England, strikes did not have a good track 233 00:13:32,679 --> 00:13:36,320 Speaker 1: record of leading to reforms for workers, so Bessett thought 234 00:13:36,320 --> 00:13:38,800 Speaker 1: the best course of action would be to press consumers 235 00:13:38,800 --> 00:13:42,280 Speaker 1: to boycott Bryant in May, which they did. Most of 236 00:13:42,320 --> 00:13:45,240 Speaker 1: her involvement with the strike itself was through raising funds 237 00:13:45,280 --> 00:13:49,320 Speaker 1: and spreading the word. Donors included Frederick Ingalls and George 238 00:13:49,320 --> 00:13:52,760 Speaker 1: Bernard Shaw became a clerk for the fundraising effort. The 239 00:13:52,840 --> 00:13:56,520 Speaker 1: striking workers themselves were really the ones who actually organized 240 00:13:56,559 --> 00:13:59,040 Speaker 1: the strike and the protests that went along with it. 241 00:13:59,440 --> 00:14:02,760 Speaker 1: They ultimately formed the Union of Women Matchmakers which was 242 00:14:02,800 --> 00:14:06,040 Speaker 1: the largest union of women and girls in Britain. They 243 00:14:06,080 --> 00:14:09,440 Speaker 1: formed a picket line. They arranged demonstrations and meetings with 244 00:14:09,520 --> 00:14:12,240 Speaker 1: speakers at Mile End Waste, which was a nearby open 245 00:14:12,320 --> 00:14:15,520 Speaker 1: area and Mile End Waste also served as the meeting 246 00:14:15,559 --> 00:14:18,760 Speaker 1: point to distribute donations to the people who needed them. 247 00:14:18,800 --> 00:14:22,400 Speaker 1: About fifty workers went directly to Parliament to discuss their 248 00:14:22,520 --> 00:14:27,320 Speaker 1: grievances directly in person with the MP's. Overall, the striking 249 00:14:27,320 --> 00:14:30,520 Speaker 1: workers really got a lot of support. One reason was 250 00:14:30,560 --> 00:14:33,280 Speaker 1: that Annie Bessent was quite good at the publicity side 251 00:14:33,320 --> 00:14:36,200 Speaker 1: of it. She had titled her original article on their 252 00:14:36,240 --> 00:14:40,400 Speaker 1: working conditions white Slavery in London and had closely tied 253 00:14:40,440 --> 00:14:43,440 Speaker 1: the idea of these women's terrible pay and poor working 254 00:14:43,440 --> 00:14:47,960 Speaker 1: conditions to the idea of chattel slavery. Britain had abolished 255 00:14:48,000 --> 00:14:50,920 Speaker 1: slavery more than fifty years prior, so the idea that 256 00:14:50,960 --> 00:14:53,480 Speaker 1: there was slavery going on right there in the East 257 00:14:53,600 --> 00:14:57,560 Speaker 1: End really horrified a lot of Victorian London, even though 258 00:14:57,600 --> 00:14:59,960 Speaker 1: to be clear, what was happening at the match factor 259 00:15:00,240 --> 00:15:03,320 Speaker 1: was definitely not chattel slavery. That was just a comparison 260 00:15:03,360 --> 00:15:06,760 Speaker 1: that she had very articulately drawn. Yeah, that's and I 261 00:15:06,800 --> 00:15:10,480 Speaker 1: wanted to point that out because they're definitely cases where 262 00:15:10,480 --> 00:15:13,920 Speaker 1: people continue to use slavery as like a one to 263 00:15:14,000 --> 00:15:18,720 Speaker 1: one direct parallel with things that were not slavery. So 264 00:15:18,800 --> 00:15:22,960 Speaker 1: this was terrible. It was not chattel slavery. The striking 265 00:15:22,960 --> 00:15:26,200 Speaker 1: women also got the support of some of London's skilled 266 00:15:26,240 --> 00:15:30,440 Speaker 1: trade unions, including the London Trades Council. The LTC had 267 00:15:30,440 --> 00:15:34,640 Speaker 1: traditionally shunned the needs of unskilled labor. They represented skilled 268 00:15:34,720 --> 00:15:37,720 Speaker 1: workers and so pretty much all of the unskilled labor 269 00:15:38,480 --> 00:15:41,640 Speaker 1: in Britain. They're pretty much on their own, but in 270 00:15:41,640 --> 00:15:44,080 Speaker 1: this case it stepped in and tried to negotiate with 271 00:15:44,120 --> 00:15:48,360 Speaker 1: Brian and may on behalf of the striking workers. Initially, 272 00:15:48,440 --> 00:15:51,680 Speaker 1: the factory refused to budge, saying only that if the 273 00:15:51,720 --> 00:15:54,800 Speaker 1: women returned to work, all but the ringleaders could have 274 00:15:54,840 --> 00:15:59,040 Speaker 1: their jobs back. But the support was definitely not universal. 275 00:15:59,440 --> 00:16:02,240 Speaker 1: There is a widely quoted piece from The Times quote 276 00:16:02,560 --> 00:16:04,840 Speaker 1: the pity is that the match girls have not been 277 00:16:04,840 --> 00:16:07,360 Speaker 1: suffered to take their own course, but have been egged 278 00:16:07,360 --> 00:16:11,400 Speaker 1: on to strike by irresponsible advisors. No effort has been 279 00:16:11,440 --> 00:16:14,640 Speaker 1: spared by those pests of the modern industrialized world to 280 00:16:14,720 --> 00:16:18,280 Speaker 1: bring this quarrel to a head. I tried really hard 281 00:16:18,320 --> 00:16:21,680 Speaker 1: to figure out exactly, like this quote comes up again 282 00:16:21,720 --> 00:16:26,160 Speaker 1: and again and stuff about the about the strike, and 283 00:16:26,200 --> 00:16:28,880 Speaker 1: I'm like, okay, what is the context of this piece 284 00:16:28,880 --> 00:16:30,840 Speaker 1: and the Times? This is a quote that somebody said 285 00:16:30,840 --> 00:16:33,360 Speaker 1: that the Times printed, or was like in an editorial 286 00:16:33,400 --> 00:16:37,200 Speaker 1: in the Times, Like what actually, uh what what was it? 287 00:16:37,280 --> 00:16:40,280 Speaker 1: But I did not find the answer to that. Soon, 288 00:16:40,520 --> 00:16:44,960 Speaker 1: Social Settlement organization Toynbee Hall was investigating, and boycott was 289 00:16:45,120 --> 00:16:49,040 Speaker 1: rolling through the consumer market, and bad press was putting 290 00:16:49,080 --> 00:16:52,480 Speaker 1: an extreme amount of pressure on Bryant and May. So 291 00:16:52,560 --> 00:16:56,080 Speaker 1: after about two weeks, the company started negotiating with the strikers. 292 00:16:56,160 --> 00:17:00,080 Speaker 1: That negotiations started on July six, and an agreement it 293 00:17:00,240 --> 00:17:04,520 Speaker 1: was reached the next day. Bryant and May, insisting to 294 00:17:04,640 --> 00:17:07,600 Speaker 1: the press that they surely would have addressed any complaints 295 00:17:07,960 --> 00:17:11,720 Speaker 1: if only they had known that anyone was unhappy about anything, 296 00:17:12,600 --> 00:17:16,280 Speaker 1: rehired all of the striking workers. I feel like that's 297 00:17:16,320 --> 00:17:19,280 Speaker 1: like a model that has happened so many times throughout history, 298 00:17:19,400 --> 00:17:22,000 Speaker 1: when companies are like, we didn't know anybody was miserable 299 00:17:22,119 --> 00:17:27,320 Speaker 1: in their incredibly cruel jobs. Don't people love that they're fine, 300 00:17:27,520 --> 00:17:30,720 Speaker 1: But nobody said anything. It was a problem that nobody 301 00:17:30,760 --> 00:17:33,359 Speaker 1: said it was a problem that we were docking them 302 00:17:33,400 --> 00:17:36,520 Speaker 1: threepence for dirty feet and not paying them anything and 303 00:17:36,760 --> 00:17:39,439 Speaker 1: like making them run up and downstairs with strike anywhere matches. 304 00:17:40,440 --> 00:17:46,240 Speaker 1: They were unhappy. As a result of the negotiations, all 305 00:17:46,280 --> 00:17:49,240 Speaker 1: of the fines were abolished, as well as all deductions 306 00:17:49,280 --> 00:17:51,720 Speaker 1: from the workers pay for the tools they needed to 307 00:17:51,760 --> 00:17:55,119 Speaker 1: do their job. There were also pay adjustments and the 308 00:17:55,240 --> 00:17:58,199 Speaker 1: policy was instituted in which grievances could be taken to 309 00:17:58,240 --> 00:18:01,360 Speaker 1: the managing director right and having to go through the foreman, 310 00:18:02,000 --> 00:18:05,400 Speaker 1: and the union had to stay to advocate for the workers. 311 00:18:05,960 --> 00:18:09,600 Speaker 1: One last concession that the striker's got was the establishment 312 00:18:09,640 --> 00:18:12,600 Speaker 1: of a breakfast room, and the breakfast dream was enormously 313 00:18:12,640 --> 00:18:15,359 Speaker 1: important for reasons that we will talk about after another 314 00:18:15,400 --> 00:18:25,840 Speaker 1: brief sponsor break. So one of the things that we 315 00:18:25,960 --> 00:18:28,439 Speaker 1: haven't really talked about in terms of the Bryant and 316 00:18:28,520 --> 00:18:32,719 Speaker 1: may Workers workplace hazards was risks to their health. In 317 00:18:32,760 --> 00:18:35,920 Speaker 1: addition to all the things Bessent documented in her report, 318 00:18:36,359 --> 00:18:39,399 Speaker 1: women working in match stick factories were susceptible to a 319 00:18:39,440 --> 00:18:43,679 Speaker 1: condition known as fossey jaw, sometimes described at the time 320 00:18:43,960 --> 00:18:47,440 Speaker 1: as phosphorus poisoning, and this was because the strike Anywhere 321 00:18:47,480 --> 00:18:51,440 Speaker 1: matches that they were making used white phosphorus, sometimes also 322 00:18:51,480 --> 00:18:55,480 Speaker 1: called yellow phosphorus, and exposure to white phosphorus can cause 323 00:18:55,520 --> 00:18:59,040 Speaker 1: osteo necrosis, which is the death of bone tissue. Here 324 00:18:59,080 --> 00:19:04,960 Speaker 1: are the symptoms of fossy jaw swelling, tooth pain, swollen gums, 325 00:19:05,600 --> 00:19:10,439 Speaker 1: swollen cheeks and jaws, tooth decay, decay of the jawbones, 326 00:19:11,160 --> 00:19:16,560 Speaker 1: festering sores that it's exposed, the decaying bone, necrotic gang greenness, 327 00:19:16,640 --> 00:19:20,359 Speaker 1: tissue in the face and jaw, and death. Up to 328 00:19:21,119 --> 00:19:25,400 Speaker 1: the time, Bryant and May were in fact using half 329 00:19:25,440 --> 00:19:29,560 Speaker 1: of all the yellow phosphorus in the entire matchmaking industry, 330 00:19:29,680 --> 00:19:32,320 Speaker 1: and this was a departure from its original business plan, 331 00:19:32,400 --> 00:19:35,320 Speaker 1: which was to use red phosphorus, which does not cause 332 00:19:35,400 --> 00:19:39,480 Speaker 1: osteo necrosis, to make those strike on the box matches. 333 00:19:40,040 --> 00:19:43,280 Speaker 1: These were more expensive, which made strike Anywhere matches much 334 00:19:43,320 --> 00:19:47,720 Speaker 1: more popular. Often, workers who found themselves displaying the early 335 00:19:47,840 --> 00:19:50,399 Speaker 1: symptoms of this condition would try to hide it because 336 00:19:50,400 --> 00:19:53,440 Speaker 1: they knew that the factory, trying to protect its own interests, 337 00:19:53,440 --> 00:19:55,920 Speaker 1: would fire them if it found out that they were sick. 338 00:19:57,080 --> 00:19:59,480 Speaker 1: One of the reasons that a separate space for food 339 00:19:59,520 --> 00:20:02,720 Speaker 1: and eating was so important to the strike negotiations was 340 00:20:02,800 --> 00:20:06,560 Speaker 1: that without one, Bryant and May workers had to bring 341 00:20:06,600 --> 00:20:09,639 Speaker 1: their meals with them, keep them next to their work area, 342 00:20:09,800 --> 00:20:13,639 Speaker 1: and then sometimes eat at their workbenches. Eating in the 343 00:20:13,640 --> 00:20:16,680 Speaker 1: working area with the food having also been stored there 344 00:20:16,680 --> 00:20:22,199 Speaker 1: in the working area, increased their phosphorus exposure dramatically. Another 345 00:20:22,280 --> 00:20:25,520 Speaker 1: thing we haven't talked about, it's a total surprise to 346 00:20:25,560 --> 00:20:28,920 Speaker 1: me to learn, is that William Bryant and Francis May, 347 00:20:29,040 --> 00:20:32,840 Speaker 1: founders of Bryant and May Match Company, h we're Quakers, 348 00:20:33,840 --> 00:20:36,320 Speaker 1: and based on literally any other time we have ever 349 00:20:36,400 --> 00:20:39,400 Speaker 1: talked about Quakers in the podcast, ever, this might come 350 00:20:39,440 --> 00:20:42,480 Speaker 1: as a surprise to people. They had founded the business 351 00:20:42,480 --> 00:20:45,720 Speaker 1: in eighteen fifty and in eighteen sixty three the Commission 352 00:20:45,800 --> 00:20:49,120 Speaker 1: on the Employment of Children in Industry investigated their business 353 00:20:49,119 --> 00:20:51,960 Speaker 1: and found it to be quote a very nicely conducted place. 354 00:20:52,920 --> 00:20:57,560 Speaker 1: In eighteen sixty one, though Wilberforce Bryant, William Bryant's oldest son, 355 00:20:58,200 --> 00:21:01,639 Speaker 1: became the general manager there. He wanted to expand the 356 00:21:01,640 --> 00:21:05,800 Speaker 1: business as much as possible over the objections of Francis May. 357 00:21:05,840 --> 00:21:09,160 Speaker 1: The younger Bryant forced May out in eighteen seventy five, 358 00:21:09,400 --> 00:21:11,960 Speaker 1: following the threat of a lawsuit that May was afraid 359 00:21:12,000 --> 00:21:16,840 Speaker 1: would tarnish the reputation of the Quaker religion. Obviously, May's 360 00:21:16,920 --> 00:21:18,919 Speaker 1: quiet the parts are from the company did not have 361 00:21:19,040 --> 00:21:22,120 Speaker 1: the effect he was hoping for at all, because without 362 00:21:22,160 --> 00:21:26,359 Speaker 1: his more tempering influence, the sons of William Bryant took 363 00:21:26,400 --> 00:21:29,600 Speaker 1: the business in a very different and a much more 364 00:21:29,680 --> 00:21:33,639 Speaker 1: exploitive direction. A lot of the pay and working conditions 365 00:21:33,680 --> 00:21:37,280 Speaker 1: that the striking workers were advocating to change had actually 366 00:21:37,320 --> 00:21:41,560 Speaker 1: been illegal for years following the passage of the Factory 367 00:21:41,560 --> 00:21:45,000 Speaker 1: Acts in Britain. For a couple of years after the strike, 368 00:21:45,240 --> 00:21:48,280 Speaker 1: Bryant and May tried to restore its reputation as being 369 00:21:48,320 --> 00:21:52,600 Speaker 1: a socially minded employer. As was expected of a Quaker business, 370 00:21:53,200 --> 00:21:56,520 Speaker 1: It took a more fair, but perhaps somewhat paternal approach 371 00:21:56,560 --> 00:22:00,840 Speaker 1: to its workers. It also made charitable contributions to organizations 372 00:22:00,840 --> 00:22:03,679 Speaker 1: that would benefit the people who worked there, who continued 373 00:22:03,760 --> 00:22:07,720 Speaker 1: to be quite poor. Soon the press were describing Briant 374 00:22:07,720 --> 00:22:10,800 Speaker 1: and May as a model employer, offering jobs to British 375 00:22:10,840 --> 00:22:13,560 Speaker 1: workers and looking after the poor ladies who worked there. 376 00:22:14,000 --> 00:22:16,760 Speaker 1: They're doing things like donating lots of food to the 377 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:21,200 Speaker 1: soup kitchens where the people who worked for them eight 378 00:22:21,280 --> 00:22:24,040 Speaker 1: from time to time because they weren't being paid enough 379 00:22:24,680 --> 00:22:30,840 Speaker 1: to buy food elsewhere. Uh. It's a little unclear whether 380 00:22:32,000 --> 00:22:37,080 Speaker 1: whether the Bryant's sons continued to identify as Quakers or not. 381 00:22:37,160 --> 00:22:43,600 Speaker 1: I found contradictory uh evidence on that. But regardless, this 382 00:22:43,840 --> 00:22:48,879 Speaker 1: more philanthropic but sometimes definitely paternalistic way of running their 383 00:22:48,920 --> 00:22:52,840 Speaker 1: business did not last. The Star reported a case of 384 00:22:52,880 --> 00:22:58,800 Speaker 1: fossy jaw at the factory in a subsequent investigation found 385 00:22:59,040 --> 00:23:02,880 Speaker 1: numerous safe the issues with how phosphorus was being handled there. 386 00:23:02,920 --> 00:23:06,040 Speaker 1: And then ten years after the strike, Brian and May 387 00:23:06,080 --> 00:23:09,280 Speaker 1: appeared in the in court following the death of one 388 00:23:09,320 --> 00:23:12,040 Speaker 1: of their workers from phosphorus poisoning, and it was revealed 389 00:23:12,080 --> 00:23:17,440 Speaker 1: that the factory had seventeen unreported cases of phosphorus poisoning, 390 00:23:17,480 --> 00:23:20,840 Speaker 1: which by law had to be reported to health authorities 391 00:23:20,880 --> 00:23:24,680 Speaker 1: whenever they occurred. Bryant and May had not only failed 392 00:23:24,680 --> 00:23:28,480 Speaker 1: to report these cases, but had also actively concealed the 393 00:23:28,480 --> 00:23:31,840 Speaker 1: fact that they had even happened, and six people had died. 394 00:23:32,600 --> 00:23:37,360 Speaker 1: They were fined twenty five pounds nine shillings. I laugh 395 00:23:37,359 --> 00:23:39,000 Speaker 1: out of stadness, because that does not sound like a 396 00:23:39,000 --> 00:23:42,840 Speaker 1: lot of exactly even in late nineteenth century dollars. The 397 00:23:42,960 --> 00:23:46,800 Speaker 1: company ultimately had to merge with other matchmakers to stay 398 00:23:46,840 --> 00:23:52,679 Speaker 1: afloat because their reputations cannot really recover, and this strike 399 00:23:52,880 --> 00:23:56,160 Speaker 1: of eight eight led to increased awareness of the dangers 400 00:23:56,240 --> 00:23:58,920 Speaker 1: of working with yellow phosphorus and a push to ban 401 00:23:59,040 --> 00:24:03,480 Speaker 1: its use. In the Salvation Army opened a competing match 402 00:24:03,520 --> 00:24:07,480 Speaker 1: factory using only red phosphorus and paid double what Briant 403 00:24:07,480 --> 00:24:11,320 Speaker 1: and May did. Briant and May stopped using yellow phosphorus 404 00:24:11,320 --> 00:24:15,679 Speaker 1: in nineteen o one. The International Association of Labor Legislation 405 00:24:15,760 --> 00:24:19,720 Speaker 1: began advocating a global ban on yellow phosphorus and matchmaking 406 00:24:19,760 --> 00:24:23,639 Speaker 1: in the early nineteen hundreds as well. An international agreement 407 00:24:23,680 --> 00:24:27,240 Speaker 1: was signed in eight and Britain banned the import, sale, 408 00:24:27,320 --> 00:24:35,560 Speaker 1: or manufacturer of white phosphorus matches in nineteen ten. The 409 00:24:35,600 --> 00:24:39,879 Speaker 1: strike anywhere matches seem incredibly dangerous to me. Yeah, and 410 00:24:39,960 --> 00:24:42,560 Speaker 1: so it's like it surprised me as I was reading 411 00:24:42,600 --> 00:24:45,840 Speaker 1: this that like the people favored the cheapness of the 412 00:24:45,880 --> 00:24:49,919 Speaker 1: strike anywhere matches over the safety of a match that 413 00:24:50,000 --> 00:24:53,639 Speaker 1: does not just light on fire against anything with the 414 00:24:53,680 --> 00:24:58,919 Speaker 1: most minor friction, right. Yeah, And this strike also had 415 00:24:58,920 --> 00:25:02,560 Speaker 1: a huge influence on organized labor in Britain. Following the 416 00:25:02,600 --> 00:25:05,160 Speaker 1: success of the matchworkers strike, there was a move toward 417 00:25:05,320 --> 00:25:10,320 Speaker 1: unionizing among other unskilled labor all across the nation. It 418 00:25:10,400 --> 00:25:13,560 Speaker 1: grew into the new Unionism movement, and as we alluded 419 00:25:13,600 --> 00:25:16,359 Speaker 1: to earlier, it eventually led to the establishment of the 420 00:25:16,400 --> 00:25:20,600 Speaker 1: Independent Labor Party. Yeah. Prior to this, as we said earlier, 421 00:25:20,920 --> 00:25:24,240 Speaker 1: like not, strikes hadn't traditionally been very successful in getting 422 00:25:25,240 --> 00:25:29,560 Speaker 1: workers uh changes in their working environment and the time 423 00:25:29,680 --> 00:25:31,840 Speaker 1: right around this and this the success of this strike 424 00:25:32,440 --> 00:25:36,040 Speaker 1: shifted that a little bit um and the the idea 425 00:25:36,320 --> 00:25:41,960 Speaker 1: of unskilled labor having a union became a much bigger 426 00:25:42,160 --> 00:25:44,800 Speaker 1: deal because before that, most of the unions were about 427 00:25:45,200 --> 00:25:50,399 Speaker 1: more skilled trades uh, and the people who were working 428 00:25:50,400 --> 00:25:52,879 Speaker 1: in unskilled jobs a lot of times with basically no 429 00:25:53,080 --> 00:25:57,240 Speaker 1: protections UH, weren't really seen as being worthy of being 430 00:25:57,240 --> 00:26:03,320 Speaker 1: in an union. And that changed after the point. Yeah, 431 00:26:04,600 --> 00:26:11,719 Speaker 1: he's your listener, male peppy this time around, it's pretty peppy. Yeah. 432 00:26:12,160 --> 00:26:14,480 Speaker 1: Annie Bessett was also a really interesting person, and she 433 00:26:14,520 --> 00:26:17,200 Speaker 1: went on to do other things completely unrelated to this strike. 434 00:26:17,240 --> 00:26:19,960 Speaker 1: And originally, as I started researching this article or this 435 00:26:20,280 --> 00:26:21,960 Speaker 1: podcast was going to be a lot more about her, 436 00:26:22,280 --> 00:26:24,879 Speaker 1: and then I realized that it's really a big misperception 437 00:26:24,920 --> 00:26:27,720 Speaker 1: that the strike was all her doing. Um, a lot 438 00:26:27,920 --> 00:26:32,320 Speaker 1: of the writing about the strike for decades was pretty 439 00:26:32,440 --> 00:26:36,439 Speaker 1: dismissive and judgmental about the women who were striking and 440 00:26:36,440 --> 00:26:38,880 Speaker 1: sort of made it like they were unruly children who 441 00:26:38,880 --> 00:26:43,560 Speaker 1: were goaded into a successful strike by the heroic work 442 00:26:43,600 --> 00:26:47,080 Speaker 1: of Annie Besson, And that was not true at all. No, 443 00:26:47,400 --> 00:26:51,240 Speaker 1: they were on it. They organized, Yeah, they really. They 444 00:26:51,240 --> 00:26:53,760 Speaker 1: had a whole lot of solidarity, and they organized a 445 00:26:53,760 --> 00:26:55,800 Speaker 1: bunch of stuff and they got things that they were after, 446 00:26:56,760 --> 00:26:59,760 Speaker 1: which included not being forced to pay for their own 447 00:26:59,760 --> 00:27:01,680 Speaker 1: work tools to do their work that they were making 448 00:27:01,680 --> 00:27:03,840 Speaker 1: almost no money for us. So anyway, now I'll get 449 00:27:03,840 --> 00:27:09,600 Speaker 1: to them much more cheery listener mail. Uh, this listener 450 00:27:09,640 --> 00:27:13,680 Speaker 1: mail is from Ali. I'm gonna skip ahead a little 451 00:27:13,680 --> 00:27:16,080 Speaker 1: bit because she said that she had written to us 452 00:27:16,080 --> 00:27:19,000 Speaker 1: really recently, really recently, and she's writing again because she 453 00:27:19,160 --> 00:27:21,320 Speaker 1: just listened to the episode on and Bonnie and Mary 454 00:27:21,359 --> 00:27:24,760 Speaker 1: reid um. I'm sure, she says. I just had to 455 00:27:24,760 --> 00:27:27,840 Speaker 1: write in again after yesterday's and Bonnie and Mary read episode, 456 00:27:27,880 --> 00:27:34,680 Speaker 1: because guess what, I'm a pirate historian. Yay, and boy 457 00:27:34,760 --> 00:27:36,840 Speaker 1: do I feel your pain when it comes to a 458 00:27:36,880 --> 00:27:40,240 Speaker 1: general history of the pirates. Although my own history with 459 00:27:40,320 --> 00:27:42,640 Speaker 1: pirates really begins a long time ago when my mom, 460 00:27:42,680 --> 00:27:46,600 Speaker 1: an anthropologist, and my dad, a marine archaeologist who brought 461 00:27:46,640 --> 00:27:50,040 Speaker 1: the first Emerald up from the shipwreck Atocha, instilled me 462 00:27:50,240 --> 00:27:53,000 Speaker 1: and my brother with an early love for pirates by 463 00:27:53,040 --> 00:27:56,200 Speaker 1: teaching us how to say something I'm not going to 464 00:27:56,320 --> 00:27:58,400 Speaker 1: repeat because it has a word we don't normally say 465 00:27:58,440 --> 00:28:02,960 Speaker 1: on the show Small Children. It is a very priraty 466 00:28:02,960 --> 00:28:06,639 Speaker 1: saying that, uh, I'll start with grad school. When I 467 00:28:06,640 --> 00:28:09,440 Speaker 1: first entered my history program, I had no idea wanted 468 00:28:09,520 --> 00:28:12,080 Speaker 1: what I wanted to study, which put me way behind 469 00:28:12,080 --> 00:28:14,880 Speaker 1: the rest of my classmates at the beginning. A lot 470 00:28:14,920 --> 00:28:17,920 Speaker 1: of them introduced themselves with either a specific period or 471 00:28:18,000 --> 00:28:20,679 Speaker 1: a region of interest where I would go. I'm Ali, 472 00:28:20,800 --> 00:28:26,040 Speaker 1: and I guess I like pirates. Before before too long, 473 00:28:26,119 --> 00:28:29,000 Speaker 1: my wonderful adviser helped me hammer out a primary field 474 00:28:29,200 --> 00:28:32,360 Speaker 1: with a little more specificity, which ended up being Atlantic 475 00:28:32,400 --> 00:28:35,560 Speaker 1: Piracy from fifteen hundred to seventeen fifty, with a focus 476 00:28:35,600 --> 00:28:40,200 Speaker 1: on British and Spanish perceptives perspectives, but it was rough 477 00:28:40,360 --> 00:28:43,440 Speaker 1: getting there, and part of that is absolutely the fault 478 00:28:43,480 --> 00:28:48,959 Speaker 1: of a general history. Originally, I had wanted to focus 479 00:28:48,960 --> 00:28:52,240 Speaker 1: on Atlantic pirates and gender, using a body Mary Read 480 00:28:52,280 --> 00:28:55,400 Speaker 1: and other pirate women as specific examples of the masculine 481 00:28:55,440 --> 00:28:58,960 Speaker 1: image of pirates, but that very quickly proved to be impossible. 482 00:28:59,280 --> 00:29:02,000 Speaker 1: There really is is not enough evidence of Reading Bonnie 483 00:29:02,040 --> 00:29:04,560 Speaker 1: to do anything with them in a scholarly fashion, or 484 00:29:04,560 --> 00:29:08,240 Speaker 1: at least nothing new. Because plenty of scholars Marcus Hddicker 485 00:29:08,560 --> 00:29:10,840 Speaker 1: is first to come to mind, have tried. They always 486 00:29:10,880 --> 00:29:14,000 Speaker 1: end up being these kind of weird, nebulous examples you 487 00:29:14,040 --> 00:29:16,200 Speaker 1: can only talk about theoretically, so they end up being 488 00:29:16,640 --> 00:29:19,280 Speaker 1: much more interesting and almost a fictional sense than a 489 00:29:19,320 --> 00:29:23,720 Speaker 1: real one. I had to abandon gender and pirates pretty quickly, uh, 490 00:29:23,760 --> 00:29:27,600 Speaker 1: though that remains a facet of piracy that I am 491 00:29:27,760 --> 00:29:31,880 Speaker 1: still very interested in. UH. And so then all it 492 00:29:32,000 --> 00:29:36,160 Speaker 1: goes on UH to recommend as a future episode topic 493 00:29:36,600 --> 00:29:41,200 Speaker 1: a a podcast on Captain William kidd Um because the 494 00:29:41,400 --> 00:29:44,680 Speaker 1: I'm gonna read this bit. In the end, I focused 495 00:29:44,760 --> 00:29:48,880 Speaker 1: on the fine line between pirates and privateers, using Captain 496 00:29:48,960 --> 00:29:52,440 Speaker 1: William Kidd as a primary example. Kid is also in 497 00:29:52,480 --> 00:29:55,000 Speaker 1: A General History in a much Romandi sized fashion, and 498 00:29:55,000 --> 00:29:57,520 Speaker 1: like pretty much everybody who studies pirates, my thesis had 499 00:29:57,560 --> 00:30:00,400 Speaker 1: to include Johnson's book has more of a friends than 500 00:30:00,400 --> 00:30:03,400 Speaker 1: a real source, and my bibliography A General History is 501 00:30:03,440 --> 00:30:06,600 Speaker 1: even attributed to Daniel Defoe, simply because the published version 502 00:30:06,640 --> 00:30:08,920 Speaker 1: that I had in my personal library listed him as 503 00:30:08,960 --> 00:30:11,680 Speaker 1: the author and no one else. My adviser and I 504 00:30:11,720 --> 00:30:13,520 Speaker 1: went back and forth a lot on that point, and 505 00:30:13,560 --> 00:30:16,200 Speaker 1: I think I mentioned somewhere that A General History probably 506 00:30:16,360 --> 00:30:18,760 Speaker 1: wasn't written by de Foe. But all in all, that 507 00:30:18,760 --> 00:30:21,240 Speaker 1: book is sometimes more trouble than it's worth as a 508 00:30:21,280 --> 00:30:25,400 Speaker 1: scholarly source. So I absolutely responsible for the world's fascination 509 00:30:25,440 --> 00:30:28,880 Speaker 1: and romanticization of pirates, but its existence makes it twice 510 00:30:28,920 --> 00:30:31,600 Speaker 1: as hard to verify the facts of piracy, because so 511 00:30:31,760 --> 00:30:34,000 Speaker 1: much of it is based in history that is then 512 00:30:34,040 --> 00:30:38,520 Speaker 1: embellished beyond recognition. It's a pain, but unfortunately we can't 513 00:30:38,520 --> 00:30:42,000 Speaker 1: ignore it either. Thankfully, for me, Kid's life and death 514 00:30:42,040 --> 00:30:44,479 Speaker 1: are well documented elsewhere, and if you want to put 515 00:30:44,520 --> 00:30:47,520 Speaker 1: another pirate on your suggestions of why highly recommend him, 516 00:30:47,520 --> 00:30:50,600 Speaker 1: if only for his trial transcripts, which at times are 517 00:30:50,680 --> 00:30:55,160 Speaker 1: unintentionally hilarious because he continuously interrupts the officials and they 518 00:30:55,200 --> 00:30:59,840 Speaker 1: hate it. I love these transcripts because documents from pirates 519 00:30:59,880 --> 00:31:02,840 Speaker 1: the selfs simply do not exist. So we pirate historians 520 00:31:02,840 --> 00:31:05,120 Speaker 1: have to take what we can get from official documents 521 00:31:05,160 --> 00:31:08,240 Speaker 1: that frequently twist pirates words to suit their own needs. 522 00:31:08,360 --> 00:31:11,840 Speaker 1: See the Last Dying Speeches of pirates and other criminals 523 00:31:11,840 --> 00:31:15,800 Speaker 1: published on broadsides. It's pretty rare to see any personality 524 00:31:15,800 --> 00:31:18,680 Speaker 1: from a pirate in historical documents that isn't a barbaric, 525 00:31:18,720 --> 00:31:22,880 Speaker 1: profanity spewing monster. But kids personality is so clear in 526 00:31:22,880 --> 00:31:26,560 Speaker 1: the transcripts that it's pretty remarkable. If you're interested, they 527 00:31:26,560 --> 00:31:30,720 Speaker 1: happen to be online, they're well worth a read. Anyway, 528 00:31:30,760 --> 00:31:33,040 Speaker 1: the suffage pretty significantly from Bonnie and read, so I 529 00:31:33,080 --> 00:31:34,960 Speaker 1: guess I'll end this note with a thank you, thank 530 00:31:34,960 --> 00:31:37,440 Speaker 1: you for tackling a podcast what I couldn't in thesis, 531 00:31:37,440 --> 00:31:39,440 Speaker 1: and thank you for reminding me why I studied pirates 532 00:31:39,440 --> 00:31:41,959 Speaker 1: in the first place. I was pretty pirated out by 533 00:31:41,960 --> 00:31:44,240 Speaker 1: the time I finished grad school, but listening to yesterday's 534 00:31:44,280 --> 00:31:47,880 Speaker 1: episode reignited my love for these disruptive or manticized rebels 535 00:31:47,920 --> 00:31:50,680 Speaker 1: of the sea. Pirate history is a pretty small niche 536 00:31:50,720 --> 00:31:53,000 Speaker 1: in a wider history of the Atlantic and the Caribbean, 537 00:31:53,200 --> 00:31:55,200 Speaker 1: but I'm glad part of me knew that's what I 538 00:31:55,200 --> 00:31:57,360 Speaker 1: wanted to study before the rest of me did. Pirates 539 00:31:57,400 --> 00:31:59,720 Speaker 1: are pretty great. Thanks again for all you do. Ali. 540 00:31:59,840 --> 00:32:03,800 Speaker 1: Thank you so much Ali for reading this, for for 541 00:32:03,840 --> 00:32:06,640 Speaker 1: sending us this letter. Yes number one, it's great. Number two. 542 00:32:07,080 --> 00:32:11,160 Speaker 1: Past hosts already did a podcast on Captain William Kidd, 543 00:32:11,600 --> 00:32:14,840 Speaker 1: which uh robs me of the chance to read their 544 00:32:14,960 --> 00:32:20,760 Speaker 1: hilarious uh court transcripts online. Uh, but I might read 545 00:32:20,760 --> 00:32:24,400 Speaker 1: them anyway for fun someday when I have time. But yeah, 546 00:32:24,440 --> 00:32:26,560 Speaker 1: that's that is one that past hosts tackled already. But 547 00:32:26,600 --> 00:32:28,600 Speaker 1: we will put the link to them in our show 548 00:32:28,640 --> 00:32:31,240 Speaker 1: notes so other people can read them. To Thank you 549 00:32:31,280 --> 00:32:34,120 Speaker 1: again so much, Allie. It was so good and actually 550 00:32:34,160 --> 00:32:39,640 Speaker 1: kind of validating to hear from a pirate historian that 551 00:32:39,640 --> 00:32:42,480 Speaker 1: that our our perception of a general history of the 552 00:32:42,560 --> 00:32:45,480 Speaker 1: pirates is pretty right on the money in terms of scholarship. 553 00:32:45,640 --> 00:32:48,000 Speaker 1: So if you would like to write to us word 554 00:32:48,120 --> 00:32:50,880 Speaker 1: History Podcast at how stuff works dot com. We're also 555 00:32:50,920 --> 00:32:53,440 Speaker 1: on Facebook. Uh well, let me do this the way 556 00:32:53,480 --> 00:32:55,760 Speaker 1: Holly does it. If you want to come find us 557 00:32:55,760 --> 00:32:59,200 Speaker 1: on social media. Missed in History is our name. That 558 00:32:59,320 --> 00:33:03,640 Speaker 1: is our name on Facebook and Twitter and Tumbler and Instagram. 559 00:33:03,680 --> 00:33:06,040 Speaker 1: And I might have missed another one, but it's missed 560 00:33:06,040 --> 00:33:07,800 Speaker 1: in History pretty much everywhere. And the only thing that 561 00:33:07,880 --> 00:33:10,120 Speaker 1: is different from missing history is our email address, which 562 00:33:10,200 --> 00:33:13,360 Speaker 1: is History Podcast at how stuff works dot com because 563 00:33:13,400 --> 00:33:17,600 Speaker 1: that was our address from way before. You You can 564 00:33:17,640 --> 00:33:20,280 Speaker 1: come to our parent company's website, which is how stuff 565 00:33:20,280 --> 00:33:23,000 Speaker 1: works dot com find all kinds of stuff about, all 566 00:33:23,120 --> 00:33:25,280 Speaker 1: kinds of fascinating information. And then you can come to 567 00:33:25,320 --> 00:33:27,440 Speaker 1: our website, which is missed in History dot com, where 568 00:33:27,480 --> 00:33:30,120 Speaker 1: you will find show notes to all of our episodes. 569 00:33:30,160 --> 00:33:33,880 Speaker 1: I will put the links to these, uh these trials 570 00:33:33,880 --> 00:33:38,479 Speaker 1: againscripts William Kidd and there. Uh you said, you can 571 00:33:38,520 --> 00:33:40,600 Speaker 1: do all that a whole lot more and how stuff 572 00:33:40,640 --> 00:33:47,080 Speaker 1: works dot com or missed in History dot com for 573 00:33:47,200 --> 00:33:49,520 Speaker 1: more on this and thousands of other topics. Is it 574 00:33:49,600 --> 00:34:02,840 Speaker 1: how stuff works dot com