John Barton was a weaver and lived with his family in Manchester. He had a daughter, Mary, and a son. The boy was not strong and died when he was a child. John Barton was out of work at that time and could not buy good food for the boy. John's wife died soon after the boy.
Years passed. Mary Barton worked as a dressmaker and helped her father. John Barton was an active member of the Trade Union. One evening Mary was coming home from work with her friend Margaret.
The girls saw many people running in the street. They heard that Carson’s mill was on fire. The girls ran to see the fire. On the way, they met John Barton and told him about the fire. John said that Carson would not be sorry. The mill was insured and the machines were very old.
At the mill, people saw two men on the fourth floor. They could not get down because the wooden staircase was on fire. One of the men was George Wilson, a friend of John Barton. Across the street, Jim Wilson and a fireman were holding a long ladder to help them.
The ladder was short, and the fire was near. More men came to help and held the ladder. Jim stepped on it and carried one man safely to the house opposite. Then he returned and carried the other man. The people in the street were silent. Jim Wilson was very brave, and everyone said so.
John Barton was right: Carson would not be sorry that the mill was damaged. The millowners decided to buy new machines. This took a long time, and many workers were out of work. Families had little money to buy food. Some mills shortened work hours, others stopped work. Barton worked short hours. Wilson had no work.
Millowners in Manchester paid low wages. People asked them to raise wages. Some workers stopped working. There was a strike in the factories and mills. John Barton helped organize the strike. Many Trade Unions gave money to support the Manchester weavers.
The prices of food grew higher. Some families had nothing to eat. The workers thought the government did not know about their problems. They decided to send a petition to Parliament.
In 1839, thousands of workers signed the petition. They asked Parliament to hear their representatives. John Barton was one of the delegates. His friends asked him to tell Parliament about children who had no clothes for school and people who were very poor.
The next day, the Manchester delegates went to London. They walked slowly in the streets carrying the petition in a big box. Their faces were thin and pale. Their clothes were old and torn.
Near the Queen’s palace, the police did not let them pass. The delegates could not get to the Houses of Parliament. They went back home and had little hope of getting help from the government.
After that, John Barton lost his job. As a Trade Union member, he could not find work easily.
