In today’s article we will be going through how life was like for Victorian Children and how their job’s were well under working conditions we think of today.
In the 21st Century children have unlimited amount of Entertainment and most of them have most of the things they wanted. This lifestyle is Vastly different to a 19th Century childhood, and it was only 200 years ago!
If you were a child, and even an adult during this time (which would be unlikely) life would be tough. Only the Rich people had decent living conditions. In our modern-day and age even if you are a middle-class citizen you could live in a good house and have good food, however in the times of Queen Victoria, you were either Rich or Poor and most were poor.
These poor families were so desperate for Money they sent their children at around 5 years to work in factories or to sweep Chimneys or to work at farms if they were in the countryside.
The average life expectancy was low.
The work hours were long and the Owners did not care for the wellbeing and most of the Owners we know of just wanted to earn money even though they were still quite rich. Most of these children did not go to school as it was a lot of Money (for them) to pay for an education. If you were lucky enough to enter your adult years then as a Woman you could become a maid for the rich.
What a maid Consisted of back then is the same as now. If you were lucky, you could be a Street seller. This meant you stood on the side of the cold street selling flowers and ribbons while Passers shouted or pushed you.
We have an account from a Girl aged 9 who works in the factory. She says they started their work at 5am and then finished at 9pm. The only day off they get is on Sundays when they have to go to church. Children would be told to sign a contract which they could not get out of. However, in this contract they would get food, mainly porridge, and 1 hour of schooling a week.
Children who worked in Cotton factories had to hear the deafening sound of the Cotton machines and had to deal with the endless amount of small cotton in the air. Children, or Apprentices, were told to go under the machine and clean it before it started again. This could be dangerous as the machine could hurt anything in its way. For these children they would not get paid unless they worked for even longer. Many poor Children would be locked up after being caught stealing.
John Smith, a child who was 14, was sent to Jail after being accused of forging letters from his employers to buy anything at local shops even though he could not wright! People like John Smith would be whipped and some were transported to Australia. They had to do manual Labour like separating the fibers on a rope while in complete silence the entire day as it was thought they could not give other inmates ideas. School, having terrible conditions and punishments, was what most children wanted. At least then they might not have a chance of death or an injury. Most children that could go to school went to an Industrial school. An Industrial School was meant for Children that wondered on the Road and it was to stop them from turning into crime. In ‘these schools’ you were forced to work for 12 hours and some children might’ve found life on the streets better. You would also get taught of course, but after that you went back to work and you rarely got something to play with. The tasks children got were mostly for money that would go to the school and this is how the school survived. You would get punished by Solitary Confinement but if you were a boy, you would have gotten whipped. If you were sent to a reformatory school (a school for offenders). It was made with good intensions trying to change these people’s lives and trying to take people of the streets. The children in these schools had no rights and had every bit of their lives coordinated.
Children's Chronicles 