Child Labour During The Industrial Revolution

The age of the Industrial Revolution was a significant period in Western History. During the period from 1760-1850, profound economic change took place in Great Britain, as a result of a flood of technical innovations, increases in manufacturing production, a resurgence of world trade and rapid population growth in urban areas. The use of child labor was the crucial ingredient, which allowed Britain’s Industrial Revolution to succeed. Although children had been helping around the house or farm as well as in family businesses prior to this period, the young ages and long hours required of young children were never before seen. Edward Thompson alleged, “That the exploitation of little children, on this scale and with this intensity, was one

of the most shameful events in our history” (Nardinelli 739). Many believed at the time, factories could not run without the addition of this child labor, resulting in the creation of an economic system dependent on children, yet exhibiting little or no concern for their social or physical well being.
The rise in the use of child labor was due to these main attributes: poverty, demand (children were a cheap source of labor), and a child working was a traditional component of family life. During this time, families depended on the male head of household to be the primary breadwinner. When these men had to go to war and either did not return or returned unable to assume their financial role in the family or simply left the family it was left to the children to fill the financial void. Additionally, at the time existed a poor law where the government required families “to do everything they could do to help themselves before they could be judged deserving of poor relief. Self-help included the employment of children, even young children, whose duty it was to help support mothers and siblings” (Humphries 414).
Families sent their children to work because they desperately needed the money. “..real wages did not grow consistently until the second third of the nineteenth century, and that occupational, regional and demographic pockets of poverty persisted. In such pockets, conditions were rife for child labor” (Humphries, 400). Additionally, some children wanted out of the homes due to abusive situations. “Many children seem unhappy, neglected even abused. One in four children in the UK come from a fatherless family with mothers the vast majority of single parents. Lone parenthood sets the scene for child poverty; fatherlessness contributes to emotional and psychological problems…” (Humphries, 398).
Factories usually would prefer children to adults due to the fact that children were a cheap source of labor. This allowed factories to stay competitive. According to Robert Collyer, the “Local supply of ‘help’ could not begin to meet the demand; and so the owners of the factories went or sent south to scour the asylums where children were found to be in swarms, to bring them north and set them to work as apprentices…” (Humphries 405). With increased use of machinery, unskilled child workers for lower wages could replace many of the skilled workers. Further, the size of the smaller children provided advantages to work in underground mines, as well as, machines that were built with low clearance underneath. Additionally, the dexterity and the size of the children’s hands and fingers provided manufacturers with another advantage. The use of child labor, however, caused competition in the markets between these older skilled worker and the younger lower waged unskilled workers. “ When family incomes were inadequate, children became ‘added workers’ but as added workers they increased the amount of labor available, promoted deskilling, and reduced pay further”(Humphries 411). The need for the children to fill positions hurt the family as well, because using the children to fill jobs, reduced pay to the male breadwinners of the family and necessitated the use of the child worker due to inadequate household income, it was a vicious circle.
For hundreds of years before the Industrial Revolution, it was the norm for children to work. Parents usually had worked agriculturally or domestically when they were young, so they did not see a problem with their children working as well. During the Industrial Revolution, parents wanted to take advantage of all the things available at the time and in many instances spend more on themselves, so they needed extra income. “First men top-sliced their wages, creaming off a share to finance their personal expenditure. Such guerdons were not always frittered away on tobacco, the ale-house, or gambling and their legitimacy was generally accepted by other family members as a just reward for the breadwinner’s efforts, but men’s pocket money nonetheless meant that wages did not go in their entirety to support wives and children”(Humphries, 412). In the chart, “Age at starting work, by cohort,” it shows that during the period prior to the start of the Industrial Revolution (1627-1790) about 35% of 10 year olds were in the work force. Once the Industrial Revolution started and the need for additional workers grew that number increased to about 55% (1791-1820) and at the peak of the Revolution (1821-1850) as many as 60% of all 10 year old were in the labor force (Humphries, 402). It further shows increases during these time periods for children far younger as well. “Without the early and important contribution made by child labour, it is difficult to see how the factory sector could have expanded at the pace and in the way it did” (Nardinelli, 404).
The use of child labor started to decrease when the laws started to change.

Although there was a strong moral condemnation of the use of children in factories, reformers called for regulation as opposed to abolishment of child labor because they recognized the need for the additional wages to sustain the families. The legislation was known as The Factory Acts. “First effective Factory Act passed in 1833 prohibited the employment of children under nine years of age in all textile mills (except silk) powered by steam or water….limited children aged 9 to 12 to nine hours per day or 48 hours per week, and required them to attend schools”(Nardinelli, 741). The Factory Act of 1844 acknowledged the need for education. It established that children would work a half-day and then go to school for half a day. Situations changed once these Factory Laws were introduced and inspectors forced the factory owners to obey these laws. A tax was levied upon the factory for employment of children and additionally the factory owners were required to ensure the children had a school to attend. “Between 1835 and 1838 the factory inspectors began to enforce the 1833 act and the number of children employed in textile factories fell from 56,000 to 33,000” (Nardinelli, 743). The decline in child labor although attributed to both the Factory Laws and the enforcement of the implicit tax, may not have been the only reason for the

decrease.
As advances in technology and new and heavier equipment required strength and size of adults, factories and parents started to get concerned with the social and physical well being of the children working in the factories. Standard of living increased with Industrial Revolution allowing families to keep their kids at home and families started to take a bigger interest in the education of their children. Soon after the advances in technology started to occur, there was a rising income and technological change. The ideology of the upper and middle class was the belief that the father was the breadwinner and mother was the housewife. This soon worked its way down to lower class. Additionally, a fall in the demand of younger workers, specifically in the textile industry was another contributing factor to the decrease in child labor. Initially, the demand for child labor was high in the textile industry due to proximity of the factories to water sources as the early mills were water-run. With the arrival of steam-power, mills could be built in more populated towns therefore reducing the problems of finding workers. Further, as machinery improved the jobs performed by the younger workers decreased and therefore, the amount of children in the workforce was reduced.
The Industrial Revolution brought major changes to the manufacturing industry, the economy and the family structure.

The incredible technological advances caused a major shift in the workforce. The single most affected group at this time was the children. Regardless of age, children as young as six years old found themselves forced to work in the factories. Although, reasons varied by family for allowing their children to endure the long, exhausting hours, the reason for their use by the factory owners was clear, overwhelming need for workers to fill the ever increasing demand for goods. With the introduction of such legislation as the Factory Acts, eventually the number of children working in the factories began to decrease. With further improvement in equipment and the subsequent arrival of steam-powered factories, adults eventually replaced the roles of the children, as the factories became both more streamlined and conveniently located in populous

areas.