Background on Child

Workers in the Industrial

Revolution
By Yashraj, Vansh, Veer, Aaryan
What is Child
Labour?
The term ‘child labour’ is usually used to refer
to children who work to produce some type of
product, which is later sold in the market, and
in most cases, they are underpaid for their hard
work.
Child labour is considered to be an unjust and
illegal act in most countries today, but it wasn’t
always so. During in 18th and 19th centuries, it
was considered common practice to hire
children in the factories, especially in Britain
and the US. This will be discussed in the
following slides.
The definition of ‘child labour’ in the
Cambridge English Dictionary is; the use
of children to do work that should be done by
adults.
 Child Labour was a malevolent practice prevalent in Britain’s
society. It is considered to be one of the negative impacts of the
Industrial Revolution. This slide will discuss why children were
forced to work in the highly dangerous and toxic environment of
the factories.

Why were • Firstly, children were forced to work in the factories because
they provided extremely cheap labour and were made to the

children
same work adults did. In fact, adults only received 10-20% of
the wages adults received for the same work.
• Secondly, children were smaller, more slender and much more
made to nimble than the adults, This allowed them to fit into small
machines and tight spaces which was work that adults could
not do.
work in • Lastly, since children were so young and did not know about
the countless dangers of working in the factories, it was easy
factories?? for them to be convinced to work in the factories.
• All in all, employers benefitted greatly by employing child
workers as they provided cheap labour, were small and nimble
and did not know about the dangers of working in the
factories.
 When did children first start working in the Industrial
Revolution, and did child labour exist before the
1760s…
• Even though many people had established structures that
are very similar to the modern factory, the industrialist
Richard Arkwright is credited with inventing the modern
prototype of the factory in 1769 in Cromford. In that very
factory itself, most of the employees were children, all of
whom were at least 7 years old. In fact, over two-third of
his employees were children. This encouraged many
others in the UK to employ children in their factories.
However, while Arkwright took very good care of the
children he employed, others did not care for the children
and did not consider to compensate either them or their
family for any physical damage to the child.
• However, child labour was not a product of the Industrial
Revolution. It had been common practice all over the
world ever since the beginning of the Medieval Era. Most
families made their children work from very young ages,
by making them operate machines that were quite
dangerous and could harm the child.
Increase of child labour in the 19th century
In the beginning of the 19th century, the
Industrial Revolution was at its peak and
new factories for different industries
were being constructed everywhere.
However, there was a significant
shortage of labour, which is why
businessmen at the time took
inspiration from Richard Arkwright’s
concept of hiring children in factories.
But the type of work the children did was
very different. In Arkwright’s factories,
children only operated the machines and
went into small spaces of the machine to
fix problems, and they were also taken
care of. Now, people just made the
children as young as 5-6 do complicated
jobs and didn’t compensate them for any
physical damage.
 Conditions of children before
and during the Industrial
Revolution
• Before the Industrial Revolution, even though child labour was
common practice, it was only for helping out in the farms or
by operating the machines that produced the cloth. However,
this was nothing compared to what children were made to do
in the Industrial Revolution.
• In the Industrial Revolution, many children as young as 4-5
were made to work in factories. Their job was quite simple: to
operate machines and enter small spaces in the machines to
fix any issues in the machine. But this is very risky for the lives
of the children, because if anything went wrong in fixing the
machine, the child would suffer extreme physical damage,
maybe even death. And the factory owners did not consider
themselves responsible for anything.
• However, the Factory Act of 1833 helped improve the lives of
children across the UK.
 In 1833, the British
no child workers can employers must have
government passed a
be under nine years of an age certificate for
law called the Factory
age their child workers
Act, which stated that:

The Factory children of 9-13 years

to work no more than
children of 13-18 years
to work no more than
children are not to

Act of 1833
work at night
nine hours a day 12 hours a day

This law helped control

four factory inspectors
two hours schooling the extensive
will be appointed to
each day for children exploitation of children
enforce the law
in the UK.
 Bibliography:

https://eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-during-the-british-industrial-revolution/

THANK
YOU!!! https://www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour

https://www.ducksters.com/history/us_1800s/child_labor_industrial_revolution.php