Child Labour and The Industrial Revolution

Child Labour and The Industrial Revolution

During the 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain.

The use of steam-powered machines, led to a massive increase in the

number of factories (particularly in textile factories or mills).

From Country to Town

As the number of factories grew people from the countryside began to

move into the towns looking for better paid work. The wages of a farm

worker were very low and there were less jobs working on farms because

of new machines. Thousands of new workers were needed to work machines

in mills and foundries and the factory owners built houses for them.

At the start of the 19th Century about 1/5 of Britain’s population

lived there, but by 1851 half the population of the country had set up

home in London. People crowded into already crowded houses. Rooms were

rented to whole families or perhaps several families. If there were no

rooms to rent, people stayed in lodging houses.

Housing

The worker's houses were usually near to the factories so that people

could walk to work. They were built really quickly and cheaply. The

houses were cheap, most had between 2-4 rooms - one or two rooms

downstairs, and one or two rooms upstairs. Victorian families were big

with 4 or 5 children. There was no running water or toilet. A whole

street would have to share an outdoor pump and a couple of outside

toilets. Most houses in the North of England were "back to backs"

(built in double rows) with no windows at the front, no backyards and

a sewer down the middle of the street. The houses were built crammed

close together, with very narrow streets between them. Most of the

houses were cr...

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... or doorways.

Some street children did jobs to earn money. They could work as

crossing-sweepers, sweeping a way through the mud; others sold lace,

flowers, matches or muffins in the streets.

Country Children

Poor families who lived in the countryside were also forced to send

their children out to work. Seven and eight year olds could work as

bird scarers, out in the fields from four in the morning until seven

at night.

Changes for the better

It took time for the government to decide that working children ought

to be protected by laws as many people did not see anything wrong with

the idea of children earning their keep. They also believed that

people should be left alone to help themselves and not expect others

to protect or keep them. They felt children had a right to send their

children out to work.