These figures indicate the great importance of coal to the Industrial Revolution, coal was the fuel that powered it.
At the beginning of the Industrial Revolution (1770's for Scotland) lowland Scotland was the scene of numerous saltworks, potteries, breweries, candle works, cotton and other textile mills and iron works (The demand for the production of iron greatly boosted the demand for coal, as it was found to be far superior for fuelling blast furnaces than the previously used charcoal), all eagerly devouring more and more coal. These kilns, furnaces, vats, boilers and steam engines not only meant a huge increase in the amount of coal needed, but also the number of men women and children who mined it, particularly so in the mining areas of lowland Scotland.

To read about the conditions these people endured in mining coal and other minerals click on "conditions" in the menu at left.

Eighteenth century Scottish miners were virtually slaves or 'collier serfs’ in their mines.
Even the Scottish Habeas Corpus Act of 1701 which protected people from ‘wrongous imprisonment' specifically excluded salters and colliers.
Mine owners could treat them more or less as they pleased, forcing them to accept only their housing and wages, with no rights to seek better conditions elsewhere.
If a pit was sold, they became the property of the new owner; children were often bound to the coal master for life at baptism. The masters were obliged in return to keep them all their days, in sickness and old age and to provide a coffin for their burial. This extraordinary set of affairs, was sanctioned by Scots law in 1606.
This meant among other things, that miners could not remove themselves from that occupation. Beggars, tramps and those guilty of minor crimes were forced into lifelong bondage in the mines. This law was not changed until 1775 when it was then allowed that all new men entering the mines were allowed to be free, however it was not fully remedied until 1799.

This form of slavery was justified in the eyes of the coalmasters & the law.
Most colliery operators were landowners & men of substance & "social import". Men who had a great deal of influence in state affairs.
Miners who absented themselves from their work could be imprisoned or transported for "stealing" their services from their master(s).

Other ways in which miners were enslaved was the binding of colliers to their masters.
This bound the miner for the period of a year and a day, if he or she wanted to change employment they could only do it on one day of the year, if they missed that opportunity for any reason (including monetary rewards such as “bonus” payments) they were by default by bound over.
Whilst on the face of it this seems to be not so harsh, it pays to bear in mind that these people in most cases were illiterate & had no need for calendars. (How would we get on even today without such things as digital watches, clocks, newspapers, calendars, televisions or radios to tell us what the time or date was?)

If these methods of gaining servitude from the workers wasn’t enough, the other method masters had recourse to was the tradition of “Arling”.
Arles was bounty money paid to the workers at the commencement of his employment.
Acceptance of Arles bound the miner for life. Another aspect of arling was that a master could offer arles for the children of the miner, thereby ensuring their future labour. In time this arling custom became part of the baptismal ceremony of miners’ children, thereby ensuring that they were bound to their “master” almost from the cradle to the grave.

This serfdom not only tied miners & their families to the coalmasters & the collieries but it socially ostracised them from the greater community.
The community looked down upon miners who were stigmatised by this enslaved condition they had to endure.
In parts of Fife in the 18th century, miners could not be buried in church graveyards or other consecrated ground. Even in the very churches, barriers were erected so that the rest of the community wouldn’t have to mingle with or even look upon the miners & their families.
In some cases they even had to enter & leave the church by a separate door to prevent contact with the better quality members of the congregation!

In the 19th century the Scottish picture began to change. In the West of Scotland many coal masters introduced machines; horses, and then steam-powered drainage pumps and winding gear which replaced the women and children who formerly had bucketed water or had carried coal on their backs to the surface.

But in the East of Scotland the situation sadly remained in place. In 1826 for example, the Clackmannan Colliery employed 226 people of whom 25 were still children aged less than 13 years old. This situation was sadly not rectified until some years later after a Parliamentary Commission into the Employment and Condition of Children in Mines & Manufactories was completed in 1842.

An extract from a report from this Commission can be viewed on the "Conditions" page.