Children at Work

Early Victorian factory workers were treated like slaves and forced to behave  as if they were machines. Men, women and even children worked as long as 12 hours a day for six days a week! Overseers watched them to make sure they did not break the rules or fall asleep. Wages were low, especially for women and children. This was because factory owners wanted to make as much money as possible.

 

Children who had no parents were often taken in to factories to live and work. Some factory owners were cruel and gave them dirty rooms and scraps of food in return for long hours of labour. Children from poor families also worked in factories. They had to earn money to thelp their parents. Small children were given the job of crawling under dangerous machines to oil them or pick up threads. Many children fell asleep while working. Not surprisingly, many young workers died before the reached the age of sixteen.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/schools/primaryhistory/victorian_britain/victorian_children_at_work/