A Review Of Childhood And Child Labour In The British Industrial Revolution Theresa Cherry
Professor James Richardson
World History
3 February 2015

A Review Of Childhood And Child Labour In The British Industrial Revolution

This article explores the British Industrial Revolution and male child laborers. The author explains that the need for male children to work increased due to the largely expanding factories. There often were not enough men available, and to produce in mass, move goods in progress and finished products around, unskilled child labor was cost efficient. Then during the war years, the mines needed the children to work to produce coal to help both the war efforts and for heat at home.

The article also delves deep into the mind of the child laborer to try and establish how the child perceived his role. Did the child see the work as only a means to survive or was it a type of escape into a new adventure, or possibly as a stepping stone to life’s career (Humphries, 263)? The author found that many of the children employed continued with the same work when they grew older. The autobiography excerpts included are both heart-wrenching and matter of fact. Reading the memoirs in the article, it seems that each boy had different ideas regarding the work. The one feeling that all convey is that they worked hard and were too young to take on such responsibilities. The author shows this when she cites a journal from a small boy who is made to leave home and work in the mines. In recalling his first night there, he states "I had no shoes, food or light and spent the night crying because
I missed my Mum" (Humphries, 397).

One factor setting the scene for the boom in child labor was the fact that families depended on the male head. Once peasant agriculture declined, wage labor dominated. The family became dependent on fathers and older brothers to make a living. Most of the child laborers came from the poor houses or broken homes. "The majority of them came from households abandoned by their male heads."
(Humphries, 413). Through research, Humphries found that "abandoned" is too strong a word regarding why the households were without a male figurehead.

For half of the era, most of the men and older boys were in the Navy or Army. Wages were low for Soldiers, and the money and the soldiers often did not make it home. Some fathers left home to find better wages. If something catastrophic happened while away, they could not send money and, for this is the reason, could not make it back either. Even when the father was at home, a disaster or sickness could plunge the family into poverty. Also, opium dens, dram shops, and other vices existed back then as they do today, to tempt men away from their families and responsibilities.

The author found that during the British Industrial Revolution, society expected that the families do everything within their power to better their situation. Before any poor relief from the community or the government could be obtained, they had to meet the requirement that they were doing everything they could to better their situations. Unfortunately, this included children going out and making wages to provide for their mothers and siblings.

The author learned some of the histories when she attended the Tawney Lecture given in March of 2010 at the Economic History Society Annual Conference at the University of Durham. She includes in her research over 40 books and articles about the era in question. She also read over 600 autobiographies from men who lived and labored during the time. One of them by Robert Collyer (born 1823) puts the author's article into perspective. "It is said that when needing more earners to make more money and carry on the war, the great statesman Pitt said, "We must yoke up the children to work in the factories." "I can not vouch for the story, but between seven and eight, I found myself with many children of my age standing at the spinning frames. We worked 13 hours a day, five days a week and 11 on Saturday" (Humphries, 396).

Scholarly readers will often question whether personal accounts are accurate or display any degree of truthfulness. The author researched them and found that the economic and demographics of the writers matched what was common knowledge during this time. The author treats the autobiographies only as a sample representing the lives of these men. In anticipation of skeptics, she writes that "However, in the end it is the sources that distinguish my work, and I know that skeptics will remain unconvinced" (Humphries, 416).

She then establishes sample statistics from the writings and shows several standards using charts and graphs. For instance, one graph shows that children began working at the age of 9 in the early days of the Revolution, younger in the middle and later at the end. She further broke the information up and established what type of work was being performed; mean wages earned, and if boys continued after reaching an older age.

This article went into further depth than the textbook regarding child labor during the British Industrial Revolution. It was well written, with supporting documentation and informative. The charts and graphs made from the qualitative and the quantitative research help the reader to gain an understanding of the era. The author managed to convey the life and times of children, the various family situations, and economic reasons for child labor in an article that was immensely impressive.

Work Cited Humphries, Jane. "Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution." Economic History Review 66.2 (2013): 395-418. Academic Search Complete. Web. 01 Feb. 2015.