Blake Child Labor

“The Chimney Sweeper” (128): This version of the Chimney Sweeper is very upfront and saddening. The version that is presented in the songs of innocence is much more of a calm town and is not as straightforward, while this version is very short and to the point. In this version its very deep as the narrator basically just calls out the parents/church for doing these horrible things to the children. I really love all three stanzas of this poem because they all have a really deep meaning and Blake transitions through them very well. Reading this poem over and over I don’t know what to make of it other than it is an absolute horrible situation. I think it can be tied in to

In the documentary “The Children Who Built Victorian Britain” by BBC, talks about the children of the industrial revolution, it shows the jobs they had, where these children came from, their motivation and the progression of laws against child labor. Before the industrial revolution people used to manufactures their goods in their homes using simple machines, but in the late 1700’s this shifted drastically in Britain. They started to implement new ideas of modernization using industries to manufacture goods at a larger scale. The steam engine, iron and textile industries were one of the many industries that played a key role to improve economy, transportation and living conditions in the late 1700’s. Without the industrial revolution we wouldn’t have the technology that we have nowadays, but the industrial revolution also brought a dark chapter for history, the exploitation of children.

Through research the primary interpretation of the industrialisation has been positive, with some light now being put upon some of the negative aspects of the industrial revolution, through sources which were obtained in those times. The “British Child Labour Inquiry” (as cited in Stearns, Gosch, Grieshaber and Belzer, 2012, pp. 121-122) acts as one of these primary sources. It was an inquiry conducted on Abraham Whitehead on the conditions for British children who were forced to work in wool mills. This interview with Whitehead, a clothier

Document 1: I think that the poor working conditions for the poor and poor children is due to population growth. When the population of laborers grows faster than the production of food, wages drop, so the workers have to work more and in worse conditions just in order to make even less money. I think morally, it is our job to try and help the poor and establish equality, so if we were to make checks on population, such as contraception and celibacy, the population would remain low enough for the amount of food production to sustain humans, so wages would remain steady and the poor would have better working conditions. Document 2:

While some people believed the benefits of the economic and technological advances gained during the Industrial Revolution did justify the ill treatment of workers during the time period as without this sacrifice and hardship these people went through our world wouldn't be the same and we would not be as advanced as we would be if they had not been pushed to the edge. One of the two attitudes towards this claim was that this horrific treatment children and workers went through was not justified by the advances made during this time. In Document 2, an account of a child laborer, Matthew Crabtree, is shared, where he testifies to what it was like to be a child worker in an English factory. He describes how terrible and difficult it was to be a child laborer. In the first couple lines he states that he was beaten very severely for very small things like being late.

Writing Assigment II Child labor was nothing new, for children has long worked in the fields and workshops of pre- industrial Europe. What was different about the conditions under which children worked in early industrial factories? Children played a major role in factory work during the Industrial Revolution. Children size and lack of understand left them vulnerable for factory owners.

Did you know about 2 million school aged children were working 50-70 hours a week by 1810? This was common among poor families because parents simply could not support their children. If I were a Progressive activist trying reform society, I would be most interested in reforming the child labor laws.

Child labor was also a concern due to young children as young as give years old were working in factories for little pay and long working hours to assist in taking care of their families. They worked in what was known to me factory mills, coal mines, and sweat shops. Industrialization didn’t create labor, however, it aided in creating child labor reform policies.

Working at the factory was not very enjoyable for the laborers for it involved a repetitive amount of work in an extremely hot environment. Factories were dirty and rarely cleaned, which caused the workers to get extremely sick. Sickness spread easily especially with everyone working in the same closed space.  Machines were unsafe and could potentially provoke life-threatening injuries. Children got involved for they were naive, cheap, and easier to control. Child labor continued to grow and many died or got sick because of this. The laborers were exploited, taken advantage of, and oppressed. Even if it harms other people, entrepreneurs and business owners would do whatever it takes to get their hands on the pot of gold. After all, money means

The beginning of the Industrial Revolution paved way for millions to access to competitive industries and allowed many men and women, and now including children an opportunity to survive within the society. During this revolution, many children turned to cheap, long, and often dangerous employment to help support their own working class families and maintain their own needs. Chronic Unemployment, a short satirical text based on the issue of child labor in the Industrial Revolution, used denotative diction to show drawbacks of employment, hypothetical examples to show the drawbacks of working at an early age, and draws to the appeal of credibility to encapture the audience through using other members who can able to formulate a respected opinion in the text. Using these methods of expressing their purpose, to show the drawbacks

Both “The Chimney Sweepers” poems were written during the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution families were living in poverty, and times were challenging. Often times for families to survive they would sell their children to master sweeps, or master sweeps would welcome orphans and homeless children into the industry of menial labour. They used children between the ages of five to ten depending on their size. Parents would often sell their children younger, because their small frames were more desirable. Even though “The Chimney Sweeper” (1789) and “The Chimney Sweeper” (1794) were written five years apart they show many similarities and differences.

William Blake's The Chimney Sweeper, written in 1789, tells the story of what happened to many young boys during this time period. Often, boys as young as four and five were sold for the soul purpose of cleaning chimneys because of their small size. These children were exploited and lived a meager existence that was socially acceptable at the time. Blake voices the evils of this acceptance through point of view, symbolism, and his startling irony.

Elizabeth Barrett Browning wrote “The Cry of the Children” during the Victorian Age; her piece reflects on the relentless child labor during that time and describes the poor treatment of the children. During the Victorian Age, England was undergoing many significant changes. England was making economic advances and similarly, socially and ethically improving the lives of its inhabitants. England was finally introducing the railroad system, which resulted in manufacturing growth. Despite a considerable rise in industry, the farmers of the 1830’s had a difficult time

Ground-breaking, momentous, and a time of great struggle, the Industrial Revolution was famous for its innovations and infamous for the sobering reality it inflicted upon the standard family. Mid-18th century Britain brought poverty to everyday urban workers. With it, came an increase in child labor like never seen before. In order for a normal family to survive in the urban lifestyle, all members of a family had to work. This included children as young as four years to work as chimney sweepers, miners, and most popularized in 18th century Britain, factory workers. By the year 1800, children under the age of 14 in Britain’s factories accounted for 50% of the labor force (“Industrial Revolution, Child Labor”). Though the number continued to grow, all did not go unaccounted for. Romanticism, an effort opposite the movement, gave recognition to the emotional conflicts overlooked. Romanticism shed light on the daily struggles of the everyday man, woman, and the most neglected up until that period of time, the child. Throughout history, others have written about childhood, but Romantic poets began to question what it meant to be a child. The question, though not answered directly, later became revealed in their works where it exposed their belief systems. The role of the child in British Romantic Poetry represents the early life of Romantic poets, and the qualities they possessed in childhood.

After having read a government report exposing the heinous working conditions of child laborers in mines and factories, Browing began an impassioned campaign of awareness using her best medium of expression: the written word (Norton 421). Utilizing an uncomfortable and confrontational rhythm never before used by either her Romantic predecessors or Victorian contemporaries, Browning creates a vehement emotional plea in “The Cry of The Children” so powerful that it is credited with pushing the British parliament to pass new laws regulating child labor.