British child labour and reforms in the 19th century

[British Industrial Revolution]. [Reports and broadsides relating to child labour and industrial regulations].

€ 2.500,00

The state of the working class during the age of the Industrial Revolution: seven reports, three of which were addressed to the House of Commons, on domestic regulations in a swiftly changing Britain. Addressed are the dangers of employing young boys as chimneysweeps, the state of the River Thames in 1857 - just one year before the Great Stink pushed forward a wholesale reform of the sewage system of London - as well as regulations on Scottish fisheries, a report on road-making in Yorkshire, two political broadsides from a northern election campaign, an almanack, a broadside poster on new laws regarding the education of children, regulations on elementary education, and a report on the inspection of factories (specifically mills) in the South. The mills and the chimney-sweeps were both areas in which very young children were often employed, and child labour is a major concern of the age. In mills, children between 11 and 12 years of age were no longer allowed to be employed after March 1835, but the inspector reports several different schemes by which illegally young children were employed, and older children and adults employed for illegally long hours. In one case, a negligent factory owner is reported to have been killed by his own loom.

A fascinating snapshot taken from primary sources of a country in crisis, both the North and South of Britain, and the regulatory steps taken in an attempt to improve and save lives.

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