Sheffield Outrages

Sheffield's early success in steel production had involved long working hours, in conditions which offered little or no safety protection. In The Condition of the Working Class in England in 1844, Friedrich Engels quotes^[1] a local doctor, Dr. Knight, regarding the so-called "Grinder's Asthma" suffered by the Sheffield cutlery workers in the mid 19th century:

They usually begin their work in the fourteenth year, and if they have good constitutions, rarely notice any symptoms before the twentieth year. Then the symptoms of their peculiar disease appear. They suffer from shortness of breath at the slightest effort in going up hill or up stairs, they habitually raise the shoulders to relieve the permanent and increasing want of breath; they bend forward, and seem, in general, to feel most comfortable in the crouching position in which they work. Their complexion becomes dirty yellow, their features express anxiety, they complain of pressure on the chest. Their voices become rough and hoarse, they cough loudly, and the sound is as if air were driven through a wooden tube.

The city became one of the main centres for trade union organisation and agitation in the United Kingdom.

By the mid-late 1860s the majority of the objectives of the Chartist movement had been frustrated. These social and political reformers had not accomplished all they had hoped to, although they had succeeded in lobbying for the establishment of the first town council in 1843.

According to historian Arthur Downing, rattenings were "morally acceptable punishments" employed by trade unions to keep "recalcitrant" members in line and ensure union solidarity, such as: sending threatening letters from "Mary Ann", damaging machinery or physical intimidation, so called because the aftermath looked like "the rats had been". Downing argues that the Outrages should be seen within this social context.^[2]

بحسب تقرير لجنة التحقيق (انظر أدناه)، شملت حوادث التضييق على العمال في ستينيات القرن التاسع عشر مصادرة أحزمة الطحن من المصانع وأصحابها، وذبح الماشية، وحفر الآبار، وقطع المنافيخ بسبب توظيف عمال غير منضمين إلى النقابات، وتوظيف متدربين، وإدخال الآلات، ودفع أجور أقل من أجور النقابات. ^{[ 2 ]} إضافةً إلى ذلك، هدد عمال طحن الشوك بإحراق مصنع، ودُمر 17000 طوبة لأحد صانعي الطوب عقابًا له على توظيف عمال غير منضمين إلى النقابات، وأُطلق النار على جوشوا تيزاك. ^{[ 2 ]}