Background information: In 1832, a man named Michael Sadler ordered a parliamentary investigation into working conditions in textile factories. This is testimony from that investigation. What would happen to Crabtree if he was ever late to work?

Crabtree would be beaten up or abused in some other way if he was late for work in a textile factory. Sadler had alleged in his investigation that textile factories were hotbed of sexual immorality. Sadler had suggested that you could hardly be in a mill without hearing constant weeping and that towards the end of the working day chastisement was going on perpetually. The Commission confirmed that anecdotal evidence abounded of mill children being beaten, but went on to put this in a significantly different context from Sadler.