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How Were Victorian Children Treated in Factories?

  • Date Submitted: 11/19/2012 04:40 AM
  • Flesch-Kincaid Score: 60.4 
  • Words: 457
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How were Victorian children treated in factories!
Why they used children?
Children who were from poor families from the age of 5 or 6 in Victorian times were expected to work in factories or chimneys or other dangerous situations. They couldn’t refuse because their families needed the money to provide food for themselves. The children who were a bit lucky got apprenticed in a trade however the less lucky ones had to work on farms or help with the spinning. When new types of work appeared with the development of large, new industries and factories, it seemed perfectly normal to use small innocent children to accomplish work that adults couldn't do; crawling underneath machinery or sitting in coal mines to open and close the ventilation doors.   Also so because children were smaller than adults they could fit into smaller places and their small fingers could be used for sorting small objects.
What was wrong with the working conditions in Victorian times?
Children worked extremely long and tiring hours even in the heat of the summer with little breaks and no fresh air during the day. They often worked in very dangerous conditions which resulted in major injuries such as being crushed by the large machinery or getting a few fingers chopped off or even death in a few cases. In addition there were plenty of orphanages where factory owners could go and replace the children whom were of no use any more. Children from a young age such as 5 were expected to work those intolerable hours instead of going to school. There was no education for the poor, only rich people could go to school so it was unlikely they could get better paid jobs when they were older. Children were paid considerably less than adults because they were   younger.

A Victorian child’s day:                                                                                                                  
4:00- wake up and get ready for work, have breakfast if there is any which would be a small slice...

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