History Of The Industrial Revolution: The Invisible Children Of Britain

The Invisible Children of Britain

The Industrial Revolution was one of the most significant events in history which shaped modern society. The Industrial Revolution changed the way the production of goods was manufactured. Which in turn created a huge demand for workers. Britain strayed away from traditional cottage houses and opened the door to factories. When thinking of those men and women who created Britain, we forget that a huge amount of the labor force came from children. During the 1800s, it was very common to use child labor. This was due to the fact that children were smaller and could fit into tight places, as well as having smaller hands that would easily fit into large machines. Sometimes you would find more children than adults

“The Parish apprentice children were some of the first children to be brought into the factory setting. These were children who had been taken in by the government and placed in orphanages” (Reed 2001) . In the mindset of these factory owners they were taking children off the streets and providing them with housing and food. Transforming the most venerable individual in society, which were orphans, into state sponsored slaves. These children were not paid for their work, meaning that factory work became a substitute for social work. Sadly, these children would have been taken as early as seven or eight years old. Orphans could also have been easily replaced if any accidents occurred. Sarah Carpenter was a nine year who was sent to work in a mill in Derby during 1849. She said this in an interview, “We were always locked up after mill hours, for fear that any of us would run away. One day the door was left open. Charlotte Smith said, ‘she would be ring leader if the rest of us would follow’. She went out but no one followed her. The master found out. There was a carving knife which he took and grasped her hair close to her head. This head shave was a dreadful punishment, we were more afraid of it than any other, for girls are proud of their hair” (Carey 2011). This event shows how young these children were and how terrified they were of their master. Clearly, these children were not free if they were locked up because the master could not lose his means of production. In the factories children had no rights. Children were usually mistreated and abused by their employers and