Child labour has been happening since the beginning of the industrial revolution when factories were first introduced. The working conditions unfitting for children with large and dangerous machinery, long work days and very little break time. It is said that child labour was crucial during the Industrial Revolution for it to succeed. By the early 1800s, England had employed over a million child workers. "Factory owners were looking for cheap, malleable and fast-learning work forces – and found them ready-made among the children of the urban workhouses," states Professor Jane Humphries from Oxford.
Due to not having the right facilities or not enough money to buy these facilities themselves, their clothes were often dirty, soiled and they reeked of sewerage and unwashed bodies. Their clothes were often made with cheap coarse fabric. The Gap between them The between the Upper and Middle class was very small as they lived much the same lives. However, the gap between the Upper/Middle classes and the Working class was immense. The difference in living standards and jobs were the main contributors to this gap, nevertheless, the industrial revolution made this gap even wider due to the urbanisation of towns and cities and unemployment.
Citizens who married for love, and came from poverty were mostly those who suffered. They had filthy clothes, dirty faces and so called “lower class” accents. The industrial revolution caused, as mentioned earlier, great changes between the classes there were and made extreme differences between people`s behaviour, clothing and jobs just to mention a few. The scene in the film where David will be abandoned from his stepfather after his mum and baby brother died and being sent to work in a factory, shows the best example of how the industrial revolution influenced people`s behaviour. The way the leader in the factory talks to David shows the lack of trust and belief in poor people which developed during the industrialization.
All ages got the enjoyment of life stolen from them in this rigid era. Lack of help would only ruin these people as well as the time period as a whole. Poverty wasn’t always an issue, but came about with the increase of industrialism (Swisher 42). It was during the middle of Queen Victoria’s reign and was labeled England’s “biggest trouble” (Evans). The accumulation in population added onto the problem by leaving more people to be replaced by machines and eventually become poor.
They even did extreme jobs like prostitution to earn a small amount of money for their families. The working conditions were dreadful as safety wasn’t a priority. The chimney sweeps would come out of chimneys covered in soot, their arms and legs would be bleeding due to crawling under small spaces but no one bothered about it. Occupational deaths were not uncommon for Victorian children. Nonetheless, Great Britain was the first country to impose laws against child labour in the nineteenth century which were then followed by the US.
These young actors, actresses, and technicians all attend local upstate, South Carolina school systems and convey a professional attitude that is second to none. This simple yet complex play provokes the childlike joy that exists in all of us through the main characters and overall plot. “Charlie and the Chocolate Factory” is a tale of an eccentric chocolatier, Willy Wonka, and Charlie, a good-hearted boy from a poor family who lives in the shadow of Wonka 's extraordinary factory.
The industrial factories polluted the environment and intoxicated citizens. This drastically decreased life expectancy in urbanized cities. The factories also had social consequences in terms of their labour. While factories incorporated both workers and machinery, workers were treated poorly and machines were treated with utmost care. Robert Owen, a manager of a cotton mill in Manchester, recognized this difference of treatment and was unhappy "with the deplorable material and moral standards of factory workers" (Owen, 320).
Karin tells of the clothing she has made with her mother and how her mother taught her to knit as well: “...when Mutti taught me how to knit. ...make little hats and booties. Next came a simple sweater for Vati. Then a pair of socks for my baby brother.” (Ingersoll pg 26-27). Karin is remembering the time before she was taken to the concentration camp.
The tremendous increase of child labor in the U.S occurred in the late 1700s and early 1800s. While child labor in the U.S has always existed it was usually in family business or agriculture, but during the Industrial Revolution, child labor reached its extreme due to new innovations and ideas. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution brought, urbanization, factories, jobs, more immigrants, and it replaced hand labor for making manufacture items. Children from poor families had to go and work to support their families because that was the only way they can survive. Also, children provided cheap labor that benefited factory owners during that time.Children went to work in harsh and dangerous conditions, leaving their education behind so they and their families can be able to survive.
Everyone knows the frequent descriptions of Victorian England, the depressing streets, cluttered with poverty stricken families and thick clouds of smog. Even Peter Bailey, author of Leisure and Class in Victorian England, agrees that,“The early historians of England as an urban industrial society have left us with an overall picture of popular recreation which is cramped and joyless…”. While this may not have been true in all parts of Victorian England, the schools were no exception. Middle and lower class schools were places of strict rules and harsh punishments for students. Two stories that create an accurate picture of Victorian schools are Hard Times, by Charles Dickens, and Jane Eyre, by Charlotte Brontё.