Working conditions for children in the victorian era

  Children in the victorian period were expected to work from the time they could walk. Child labor was more prevalent among the more lower class families in the victorian period, where the parents would sign away their child's life as a chimney sweep (which could have been considered a death sentence) or sending them to work in factories managing and repairing dangerous equipment. there was many advantages to the employers of children such as lower wages, and longer working hours. There were many dangers to the children as well. a child trying to repairing a machine while it was still running could get his/her hand caught in between moving parts, which usually resulted in serious injury or death. the factor floor was usually incredibly unsanitary as well, which imposed health problems on many children at a young age. this did not pose a problem for factory owners at first, since there were many orphanages during the victorian period, there were many children at hand and could be easily replaced in case of accidents. Child labor did not run rampant throughout the entirety or the victorian period, however. in 1833, the Factory Act was passed in parliament, which prohibited children under the age of 9 from working in textile factories.

this is a picture from a textile mill in the early 1800's.