Child Labour în the 19th Century Great Britain

I've chosen to write about "child labour" because I was sincerely impressed when I first heard of the harsh life these children were forced to live. Child labour is one of those examples of how defenseless some people can be and how cruel can others be. These children were made to work difficult jobs for very little money and many hours. Boys and girls aged sometimes less than 6 were forced to work even more than adults. Owners would buy them from orphanages, warehouses and also workhouses and exploit them as if they were machineries. Their life in the factories or coal mines was brutal. With all the pollution and the working conditions they were shortening their life. Their work also injured the physical growth on them which made them very short. Many worked in dirty low roofed, ill-ventilated and ill-drained factories with many factors that could endanger their health.

It is unacceptable to see that people remained unaffected at the suffering of these children and that many of them even encouraged child labour because it was a great source of earning money rapidly, as the children were more liable than an adult and worked hard and long hours without asking too much in return. It is dreadful that parents sent their children to work so young or even gave them away in exchange for a slender sum of money and let them go through such an ordeal.

There is so much injustice in this issue. The employers practically stole their childhood away. Some people regarded their children as nuisances to be disposed of as quickly as possible and sent them to work as soon as possible, trying to exist on wages that were below starvation level. Children were refused the right to education, the right to a normal childhood, destitute of worries and the most important of all, they couldn't live a long healthy life as they were exploited so much. How could any people allow others to treat their children in such an inhuman way? How could employers have the heart to force these poor children to work as much as an adult and put them to terrible risks and for an insignificant wage?

Unfortunately, even though the laws nowadays are more severe and do not allow child exploitation, there are still some poor countries where people allow it. There have to be more severe laws or child-protection organizations should be more efficient in order to give these children the chance to a decent life.

Historical background

Child labour is closely related to the Industrial Revolution, which was a period from the 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a profound effect on the socioeconomic and cultural conditions. The onset of the Industrial Revolution marked a major turning point in human history; almost every aspect of daily life was eventually influenced in some way.

Starting in the later part of the 18th century, there began a transition in parts of Great Britain's previously manual labour and draft-animal-based economy towards machine-based manufacturing. It started with the mechanisation of the textile industries, the development of iron-making techniques and the increased use of refined coal. Trade expansion was enabled by the introduction of canals, improved roads and railways. The introduction of steam power fuelled primarily by coal, wider utilisation of water wheels and powered machinery (mainly in textile manufacturing) underpinned the dramatic increases in production capacity. The development of all-metal machine tools in the first two decades of the 19th century facilitated the manufacture of more production machines for manufacturing in other industries.

In the 19th century, Britain was the world leading country. The Industrial Revolution was a conclusive turn in the development of society. It came to be much more modern and developed so fast that this period was called this way. It was a revolution indeed, because from being an agricultural society, British society became in just a few decades, an industrial one; Britain was the "workshop" of the world. Until the last quarter of the century, British factories were producing more than any other country in the world.