Child Labor In England During The Industrial Revolution

These excerpts tell us that the people of England during the Industrial Revolution valued honest labor. They worked long hours (10-12 hours a day) in order to feed their families. Idlers and vagabonds were executed by the state. Work at this period of time was by hand and an introduction of machinery received massive rejection as it meant that people were going to lose their jobs. Formal education of kids was for the privileged few whereas the majority learned as they worked. Child labor was acceptable so long is it contributed to the wellbeing of the family. The writer complains about being deprived of the opportunity to bring up their children into labor meaning that child labor was not an issue those days. The boy child was introduced to manual labor at an early age whereas girls were left at home to be taught domestic duties by their mothers. …show more content…
From the writer we can deduce that family ties were very strong. The writer complains about not being able to provide bread for their families if they lose their jobs. What should be understood here is that the family at that time included the extended family members. The male was the sole bread winner; in no instance does the writer mention women. This means that women did all the domestic duties and under very rare circumstances was allowed to work in the industries. During this period of times, labor unions started to emerge though they were not referred as such back then. This letter is signed on behalf of a thousand workers with similar grievances. Workers with similar complaints joined forces to petition their employees to address certain pressing issues. These forces later on became very effective in fighting for workers