Today, children are expected to go to school, play and
develop their skills. This modern reality is a far cry from what children
experienced in the work houses and factories in the 17th to the late 19th
century.
Industrialization brought many changes to the way Europeans
lived. Thousands of people moved from the farmlands that had sustained their
families for generations, to the city to work in factories. This movement
created a class of working poor. English poor laws forced people living in
poverty to live and work in work houses. Families could not support themselves on the
income of one parent. Children were expected to work to help feed and house
their families. Child labour was important during industrialization to aid in
mass production. After famines and widespread disease killed off much of the adult workforce making children a valuable asset to families so they could make money and for factory owners who needed cheap labour. Children were particularly useful the manufacturing of
textiles as well as mining. Two thirds of
workers in textile manufacturing sectors were children and a quarter of the
mining labour force was also children. (Humphries, 176-177).
Many of the children who made up the labour force were
orphaned or abandoned. Children were overworked, undereducated, and
undertrained. Their health was of very little concern to many parents and business
owners (178-184). Many parents did not
want their children working in textile factories so owners had to find new ways
of finding children to work for little wages. They bought children from
orphanages and workhouses. Working children were often called pauper
apprentices (Workhouse Children). Children lived in miserable conditions and
often worked more than 12 hours a day. They were often beaten for being late,
which was a common occurrence because many poor people could not afford clocks
or watches. Wages were also deducted for lateness, a harsh penalty for workers
making a penny an hour (Working Hours).
Sexual and physical abuse was rampant in workhouses and
factories. Children were beaten for working too slowly, and if they were too
tired to work efficiently, they were dunked head first into water tanks and
forced to work soaking wet and cold. If children worked too slowly for the
machines, their hands and fingers often got caught and skinned, bruised or even
amputated. If children ran away they
were sent to jail. Children who were considered to be at risk of running away
were shackled while they worked and slept. Young women and girls were shackled
around their ankles and waist and kept nearly naked even in the coldest
months. Many children, especially girls,
were beaten until they died. Often, children acquired mental and psychological
issues from abuse (Punishment in Factories).
The children who worked in these early workhouses lived
miserable difficult lives that left them scared emotionally and physically.
They were not relieved from a life of poverty as the government intended, but
usually ended up on the street and in workhouses as adults. This system of
forcing the “undeserving poor” to work was discriminatory and degrading. Modern
workfare also discriminates and strips people of their dignity. We can trace
this back people’s disinterest in paying taxes to support people who were “too
lazy” to work, which is a common opinion of people on social assistance today.
As social workers, we need to find a way to break down the stigma of using a social assistance program because many of
us have benefitted from one or another at some point in our lives. People need
to be educated on the many factors that can cause poverty and the oppressive
policies of many government programs that keep people in poverty. Looking at
the workhouses of Europe during the early stages of industrialization, starting
at the “bottom” or with children could be the key to social change.
Morgan
References:
Humphries, Jane. (2003). Child Labor: Lessons from the
Historical Experience of Today's Industrial Economies. The World Bank Economic Review,
vol. 17, No 2 175-176. doi: 10.1093/wber/lhg016
Punishment in Factories. (n.d.). Spartacus Educational.
Retrieved October 3, 2012, from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRpunishments.htm
Workhouse Children. (n.d.). Spartacus Educational. Retrieved
October 3, 2012, from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRworkhouse.children.htm
Working Hours. (n.d.). Spartacus Educational. Retrieved
October 3, 2012, from http://www.spartacus.schoolnet.co.uk/IRtime.htm
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