1. Child Labor During the Time of Great Expectations
By Rachel Newman

2. Research Statement
Throughout the Victorian Era, young children were forced by their impoverished means to work long hours for little pay under inhumane and dangerous conditions.

3. The Victorian Era The Victorian Age was a long period
of prosperity for England during the
reign of Queen Victoria
Although there was the Industrial Revolution during this time and things were relatively peaceful, the population nearly doubled during Victoria’s rule, and the increasing poverty rates along with the increasing amount of factories made it necessary for the poorer children of England to suffer under harsh working conditions from very young ages.

4. Poverty Many families in Victorian England were stricken with poverty.
The families were large, and when there was little or no food, children from the age of 5, as well as their parents had to work for their living. Children had to work hours as long as their parents did; up to 90 hours a week sometimes.
Child labor soon became very important to the economy of England.
Charles Dickens had to work in a blacking factory from the age of 12 when his father was locked in Debtor’s prison.

5. Industrial Revolution
The period from 1760 to 1850
in England and the Americas is
commonly known as the Industrial
Revolution because of its important
changes in different types of
manufacturing. During this time,
the cotton mill was developed,
along with other types of mills
and factories and new machines
and it became necessary for
many workers to suffer under perilous
conditions to work such machines.
Young mill workers

6. Possible Employments
Many of the occupations of children during the Victorian Era were in factories and sweatshops. They could also work in textile and cotton mills, as well as coal fields and mines. “Trappers” in the coal mines had to sit for hours alone at a time deep in a mine and open and close the doors between the tunnels, while “hurriers” pulled the heavy coal tubs. Chimney sweeping was another popular job for boys at the time, despite it’s danger. Younger children could acquire jobs as sweepers sweeping the dirty streets of London, or “scavengers”, who sifted through trash to find things that could possibly be retrieved and sold. From the age of eight years or so, lucky children could live in the grander houses and work as servants. However, the majority of children were forced to work under the perilous and ugly conditions of factory and mill life.

7. Apprenticeship
Although apprentices sometimes worked as hard as children employed by factories, the conditions under which they worked were much cleaner and safer. Also, these children were provided with a chance to learn a skill from an expert. This skill could later serve them as a career in life, and it was useful to understand how the trade worked. Apprenticed trades included blacksmithing, tinsmithing, cooping, lace-making, iron- foundering, cobbling, leather working, etc.
Pip, in Charles Dickens’s
Great Expectations was apprenticed to his
brother-in-law, Joe Gargery. Pip was
learning how to become a blacksmith
before he left his home to become a
gentleman. Pip had to work hard, but the
trade he learned was meant to become his
employment later in life.

8. Opportunities Many times, orphans were sent from
their crowded orphanages to factories.
They received no pay and only worked for
their keep. The living quarters that such
workers were kept in were rotting, stuffy,
dirty and crowded. Unfortunately, many
living spaces for the poor of large cities
were the same.
Some children were indentured to businesses, or even sold by their parents to earn money until they reached a certain age when they could return home.
Apprenticed children led more placid lives while learning their trade.

9. Working Conditions
A report by Ivor Brown upon visiting a coal mine described the children as, “Chained, belted, harnessed like dogs…black, saturated with wet, and more than half-naked, crawling upon their hands and knees, and dragging their heavy loads behind them.”
Despite Parliamentary acts to limit the hours children worked in factories, many worked up to 16 hours a day.
The mills and factories in which children worked were crowded, polluted, dirty and highly unsanitary.
Those who worked in coal mines frequently developed serious breathing problems from the dank, cramped atmosphere of the mines. Sometimes, explosions in the mines seriously injured or killed innocent children.
The machinery in factories was very dangerous, and it was not uncommon for a child to be crushed or mangled because they didn’t know how to operate the machines.
Children were repeatedly abused by their employers, and they received little food or pay for their problematic and precarious exertions.
An essay on child labor found at states that “the life of a young worker was in essence a life of a slave”.

10. Why would a business owner hire a child?
Children required less pay than adults, and were therefore more favorable candidates for workers. They were ideal for working the small machines and fixing them, and in the coal business, they could fit into the tiny tunnels where adults could not. Also, young children were powerless against their superiors and less likely to revolt under their harsh circumstances.

11. Stands on Child Labor
Young Coal Miners
Some people, such as Charles Dickens, spoke out against child labor and fought against it to try and keep industries from taking advantage of children.
In 1819, the Factory Act was passed, declaring that children were not allowed to work above 12 hours a day in the mills.
In 1831, another set of acts was published for textile mill workers. Children younger than age 9 were not allowed to work there, children between the ages 9 and 11 could not work more than 8 hours a day, and children between the ages of 11 and 18 could not work more than 12 hours a day.
1847: Another act was passed saying that children under 18 could not work more than 10 hours a day.
Parliament supported it because working children were useful to their families.
Many employers stated that, by starting work at a young age, the children would grow up to be responsible, hardworking adults.

12. Consequences
Families that were employed by factories were frequently split up and only saw each other while eating and sleeping.
Children learned very little about life because they missed out on valuable time with their parents.
Not many working children had any schooling, and if so, it was only a privileged few that had more than two years worth. If given the choice, children frequently picked going to work instead of school because it at least fed their family.
Many child workers got involved in criminal activity because of their negative influences and limited supervision.
Children who had worked many years and long hours in the coal mines frequently died by age 25 from the strenuous work.
Children had a high chance of being killed or mutilated by the dangerous factory machines. Often, fingers and hair got in the way and children were easily disfigured and injured. Also, many children suffered from diseases they had acquired in the factories or mines, such as respiratory diseases and bronchitis.

13. Children's testaments “I'm a trapper in the Gawber pit. It does
not tire me, but I have to trap without
a light and I'm scared. I go at four and
sometimes half past three in the
morning, and come out at five and
half past. I never go to sleep.
Sometimes I sing when I've light, but
not in the dark; I dare not sing then.
I don't like being in the pit…”
-Sarah Gooder, an 8 year old “trapper” for a coal mine
“…I do not like the work, nor do the lassies, but they are made to like it. When the weather is warm there is difficulty in breathing, and frequently the lights go out.”
-Isabella Read, a 12 year old coal bearer
“Hurriers” in a coal mine
For more testimonies of child workers and their employers, go to:
Girl pulling a coal tub in a mine