Child Labour: A Look Into the Past

Child labour and conditions during the Industrial Revolution were brutal and extremely unfair. Mostly orphans were subject to child labour. Children as little as six years of age worked up to 19 hours, but average was 12-14 hours, for little to no pay. The treatment of children was cruel and unusual and safety was generally neglected. Punishments for being late or breaking other rules were also cruel and unusual, for example you could be “weighted” if you were late, being weighted was when the overseer would tie a large weight to a child’s neck using a rope and the child would have to walk up and down the factory isles to “set an example” for the other children this could last up to an hour and lead to serious back/neck injuries.

Many children worked near large and dangerous machines when they were much too young to be using such machines, many accidents resulted in killing or injuring children occurred. If you were not old enough to use a machine then you would be sent as a textile assistant, often the textile assistants would neglect their safety, beat them and verbally abuse them. The wages of children were split into fractions of what a man would make. A man would make 15s (shillings), at eight they earned 3-4d (pence)/day, at eleven they earned 2/8’s of a man’s pay, at thirteen they earned 3/8’s of a man’s pay, at 15 they earned 4/8’s of a man’s pay and at twenty they would earn a man’s pay. Also 14% of the workers were under fourteen. Needless to say factory owners loved child and justified this by saying it was good for the economy and it built the child’s character, parents were forced to approve of it because they needed their income and would be fired if they disagreed with child labour openly.

Child labourers were split into two groups, “free labour” children lived at home but worked during the day often the parents not only needed the children’s income but expected their children to work. “Parish apprentice” children were under the authority and supervision not of their parents but of the government.

But in 1833 things started to clean up, parliament passed the Factory Act this limited the amount children could to eight hours/day for children between 9 and 13, children between 14 and18 couldn’t work for more than 12 hours/day, and any child under the age of 9 was not allowed to work. Also employers must have a medical or age certificate for child workers, children weren’t allowed to work at night, and the children were to attend school for at least two hours per day, and the most crucial part of this act is that they would send government officials to enforce these new regulations. It only improved from here.