Child Labour & The Industrial Revolution During the 1800s the Industrial Revolution spread throughout Britain.

The use of steam-powered machines, led to a great increase in the number of factories (especially in textile factories or mills). 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 the invention and use of new machines such as threshers. Not only worked lots of women but also children. Many factory workers were children. They worked long hours and were often treated badly by the supervisors or overseers. Sometimes the children started work as young as four or five years old. A young child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy food. Coal Mines Many children worked in coal mines which were dangerous places where roofs sometimes caved in, explosions happened and workers got all sorts of injuries. There were very few safety rules. The younger children often worked as "trappers" who worked trap doors. They sat in a hole hollowed out and held a string which was fastened to the door. When they heard the coal wagons coming they had to open the door by pulling the string. This job was one of the easiest down the mine but it was very lonely and the place were they sat was usually damp and draughty. Older children worked as "coal bearers" carrying loads of coal on their backs in big baskets. In 1842, the Government passed The Mines Act, forbidding the employment of women and girls and all boys under the age of teen down mines. Later it became illegal for a boy under 12 to work down a mine. Mills While thousands of children worked down the mine, thousands of others worked in the cotton mills. The mill owners often took in orphans to their workhouses, they lived at the mill and were worked as hard as possible. They spent most of their working hours at the machines with little time for fresh air or exercise. Even part of Sunday was spent cleaning machines. There were some serious accidents, some children were scalped when their hair was caught in the machine, hands were crushed and some children were killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machine. Factories Children often worked long hours in match factories, where children were employed to dip matches into a chemical called phosphorous. This phosphorous could cause their teeth to rot and some died from the effect of breathing it into their lungs. Many parents were unwilling to allow their children to work in these new textile factories. To overcome this problem factory owners had to find other ways of obtaining workers. One solution to the problem was to buy children from orphanages and workhouses. The children became known as pauper apprentices. This involved the children signing contracts that made them the property of the factory owner. Factory owners were responsible for providing their pauper apprentices with food. In most textile mills the children had to eat their meals while still working. This meant that the food tended to get covered with the dust from the cloth. Sarah Carpenter was a child worker: "Our common food was oatcake. It was thick and coarse. This oatcake was put into cans. Boiled milk and water was poured into it. This was our breakfast and supper. Our dinner was potato pie with boiled bacon it, a bit here and a bit there, so thick with fat we could scarce eat it, though we were hungry enough to eat anything. Tea we never saw, nor butter. We had cheese and brown bread once a year. We were only allowed three meals a day though we got up at five in the morning and worked till nine at night."

Chimney Sweeps Although in 1832 the use of boys for sweeping chimneys was forbidden by law, boys continued to be sold for little money to a master. He exploited these little boys because they were very small and could easily climb up the chimneys. When they first started at between five and ten years old, children suffered from many cuts and bruises on their knees, elbows and thighs however after months of suffering their skin became hardened. Street Children There were also some children who were homeless, with no regular money. They were often orphans with no-one who care for them. They stole or picked pockets to buy food and slept in outhouses or doorways. Charles Dickens wrote about these children in his book "Oliver Twist". Some street children did jobs to earn money. They could work as crossing-sweepers, sweeping a way through the mud and horse dung of the main paths to make way for ladies and gentlemen. Others sold lace, flowers, matches or muffins etc out in the streets. Country Children Poor families who lived in the countryside were also forced to send their children out to work. Children who were 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 while 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. For example, the journalist, Edward Baines, defended the employment of young children as piecers and scavengers: "It is not true to represent the work of piecers and scavengers as continually straining. None of the work in which children and young persons are engaged in mills require constant attention. It is scarcely possible for any employment to be lighter. The position of the body is not injurious: the children walk about, and have the opportunity of frequently sitting if they are so disposed." People such as Lord Shaftesbury and Sir Robert Peel worked hard to persuade the public that it was wrong for children to suffer health problems and to miss out on schooling due to work. In 1832, Sadler introduced a Bill in the House of Common that reduced working hours of all people under the age of 18 to ten hours a day. After much debate the Bill didnt pass. Sadler interviewed 50 people who had worked in factories as children and he discovered that it was common for very young children working for over twelve hours a day. Lord Ashley delivered a speech in which he claimed that ten hours is the utmost amount of working hours which can be endured by children without damaging their health. Children who were late for work were severely punished. If children arrived late for work they would also have money deducted from their wages. Time-keeping was a problem for those families who could not afford to buy a clock. In some factories workers were not allowed to carry a watch. The children suspected that this rule was an attempt to trick them out of some of their wages.