Child Labor

Time of great technological and social change. Advent of faster means of production. Surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. The agricultural system in England had become more advanced allowing farmers to produce more crops using less resources. Farmers could now afford to buy more than just the ‘needs’, they could now get their ‘wants’ too.

The farming advances and people moving towards the cities in search of work were early catalysis to the industrial revolution Added wealth associated with the increased productivity of the agricultural sector increased the demand for manufactured goods. The demand required record numbers of laborers to produce the necessary goods.

Use of the steam engine in the mills allowed the mills to move into the cities and towns. The increased work that could be done in the mills required more labor. Open up work to more children. Victorian England was a child-dominated society. One out of every three was under the age of fifteen.

Factory and Mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. Child labor was more “cost effective”. “Parish apprentice children” were some of the first children to be brought into the factory setting. These were children who had been taken in by the government and placed in orphanages.

Factory owners approached parish leaders with the idea of them taking in children and feeding, housing and providing for those children in exchange for the children’s work in their factories. These children were not paid a wage for the work they did; the compensation in basic needs was considered enough.

“Free labor children” Families with many children could use any extra income possible. Factory owners employed these children for extremely low wages, in some case a mere penny a day. Children ages 5 to 18 worked fourteen hour days within the factory system, with the allowance of a one hour break.

Deadliest working conditions were in the mines. Mine accidents. Working in the dark, no candles - expensive extravagance. Entered mining pits by use of a cage lowered into crevices. Many children found work above ground in homes as servants, and as chimney sweeps.

Children exploited by the adults they worked for and neglected by their parents. Some claim that the factory system was founded on the backs of its child laborers and that the “Industrial Revolution” could have never occurred without them.