The chilling face of child labor: loss of life, limbs and innocence

While the headlines about child labor continue to appear in the press today and the problem has something BUT it has disappeared, it is a difficult subject to tackle. There are strong arguments on both sides of the debate, and although the global consensus disapproves of the use of child labor, nearly 250 million children under the age of 14 continue to register, often full time.

And while the passing of each year will also see the deaths of some 22,000 children in work-related accidents, working conditions have improved dramatically over the past century. During the heyday of the Victorian and industrial era, the stakes were even higher.

As the children headed to work en masse trying to keep their families fed and with a roof over their heads, while kissing their mothers, hugging their fathers and saying goodbye to little brothers and sisters, the elementary school children they left for a day at work that might as well have been their last.

On each shift, they faced the possible loss of life, limbs, and innocence.

Just over 100 years ago, children were in record numbers, occupying occupations that even the toughest of today’s adult workforce would cringe. Forget babysitting, dog walking, lemonade stands or mowing the lawn, in Victorian times, kids faced the dirtiest jobs in the world …

Smithy

Imagine an eight-year-old wielding an anvil … running in sweltering temperatures, surrounded by hot metal, flying sparks, raging fires, and physical dangers everywhere. If they managed to get through their careers without dying on the job, there were still the risks of heavy metal poisoning, carbon monoxide poisoning, infrared radiation eye damage, hearing loss, and other hazards to deal with.

Tin blacksmiths

While they weren’t as likely to be victims of workplace accidents as blacksmiths were, blacksmiths were often exposed to considerable amounts of asbestos, creating a multitude of health risks associated with asbestos exposure, including cancer. mesothelioma.

Foundry works

As a general rule, in today’s polite society, molten metals and young children just don’t mix. Not so in the past … High temperatures, hazardous substances, airborne pollutants, molten metal, deafening noise, and dangerous equipment were just some of the “benefits” that children enjoyed in society. current they wouldn’t even be old enough to get their learner’s permits!

Glass Factories

Heat, glare, glass, heavy equipment, fumes, smoke, arsenic, cuts, lead poisoning … not a pretty lineup at all. Yet countless women and children worked as slaves in Victorian-era glass factories for a mere pocket change. Perhaps this is one of the reasons why in 1840 (in the middle of the Victorian era) merchants had an average useful life of 27 years and workers and servants could wait 22 years even shorter.

Cotton and textile mills

These occupations had risks inherent in heavy machinery and the risk of constant splintering on little bare feet all too often. What few people understood at the time was that, at the same time, the constant inhalation of fluff can lead to a fatal disease known as brown lung, a disease that is not actually caused by the fiber of the fluff, but by bacteria that they grow and feed on it. . Young girls were most often at risk in Victorian times, but today there were 88 such deaths between 1990 and 1998, mostly from the yarn, thread and fabric industries.

Mines and coal fields

Coal mines and fields pose threats to workers (both children and adults) from all directions. Methane gas, floods, landslides, equipment accidents, explosive gases, and of course the infamous Black Lung, where coal dust accumulates in the lungs over the long term and leads to a host of respiratory problems and even death.

And this, my friends, is just a small sample of the occupations of children in the Industrial Revolution. Other jobs included coopers, shoemakers, lace making, and leather work, none of which see high school kids flocking today.

However, the loss of life and limbs aside, there was another heavy price that child laborers had to pay: the loss of innocence. When you work 90 hours or more a week, and school is a luxury only for the richest kids, it was hard for kids to “act their age.” One look at kids heading to work in the pre-dawn hours could take a double take. Are those seven and eight year olds, are they old men and women with circles under their eyes, thin whispering arms and legs, and torn and tattered clothing?

Faced with these difficulties, children of the Victorian era had no choice but to grow up and grow quickly. They struggled to accumulate so much life in the few decades they had to wait. All the hours away from mom and dad’s watchful eyes made it too easy to fall from the straight, the narrow, and the deep into a life of crime and mischief, ranging from petty theft to more serious crimes. Young children found escape in dangerous hobbies such as gambling, stealing and, in more cases than anyone would like to admit, prostitution. After all, many of these dear little angels were already being taken advantage of by their bosses and co-workers, why not earn a shillings or two for what had already been forcibly taken from you?

The horrors these children faced are almost impossible to comprehend, but fortunately, the problem became so apparent, so inevitable that influential people found motivation to make a change and the children of the world found a host of champions who pioneered their cause. and they worked tirelessly. to improve not only working conditions, but legislation that enabled factories and industries to exploit the services of women and children and laid the foundation for the equality and occupational safety that have become the standards of today.

Yet despite the giant strides that have been made in the area of ​​child labor, exploitation remains rampant and too many children have to leave behind their dreams of getting an education to pursue an occupation so that their families can survive. For more information on what you can do to help stop child labor, visit www.worlded.org for details on how to donate your time and service to a worthy cause …