Poor Living In The 19th Century

In 19th Century England, living conditions were horrible for the poor. If you didn’t have enough money to stay out of poverty you were heading into a harsh and unforgiving life as a person in the slums. People took poison to escape the horrors that a poor person could easily slip into. Both adults and little children drank gin and beer because of all of the sewage and garbage dumped into the rivers. For the many, many poor people there was often no clean water and people went to the bathroom in ‘bathroom’ privies that everyone in the slums used outside. At least half of the poor children died before their fifth birthday. In contrast, the wealthy could have mansions with servants, grand food, and clean drinking water. On top of all of this,

In the 19th century I think children missed out on most of their childhood as most of them took on jobs such as chimney sweepers, street sellers and farms for example. These were mainly children from poor families who were seen as extra farm hands and were exploited by receiving low pay for long hours and working in poor conditions. Families did not look at how the children were treated and the possible impact

In this article, Emma Griffin goes into detail of the new problem in Victorian society, child labor. Also using literary responses corresponding to the subject at hand. Even though the parents of the children in the workplace were aware poverty was taken into effect which no action had taken place. Needing the money food and providing a roof the family’s head living as a commoner in 1800s.

Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

Conditions of factories were not safe for anyone, let alone a small child. Due to these conditions many children died before their prime. Many children “began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25” (www.victorianweb.org), America was beginning to lose an entire generation due to these working conditions that so many had to endure. Children were hired at an alarming rate. “In 1870, the first time census reported child workers, there were 750,000 workers in the United States age 15 and under, not including those who worked on family farms or in other family businesses” (“Child Labor in America”), these numbers were not something that was looked over, it astonished many. “A cotton manufactory of 5 or 6000 spindles will employ those 200 children” (Bremner 232). The workforce would continuously grow, hiring more and more children each day. Factories were good for using children as a means of their productivity. “Textile factories, for the most part […] were in the forefront of this industrial revolution, and children formed an essential component of the new industrial workforce” (Bremner 232). Many times without these children working some of these factories would not have survived through the revolution.

During the late 1700s, production and manufacturing were centralized around people’s homes and farms. The majority of the work produced was done to provide for individual or community use; often hard labor, basic machines, and hand tools were used to carry out tasks. An era of powered machines and factories created the Industrial mark across the nation. Textile and iron industries developed the steam engine to help improve transportation and exchange to increase manufactured goods. While the impact improved the standard of living for a small majority, others a large majority remained poor and living in poverty. Urban cities that housed large manufacturing plants that provided jobs in often overcrowded cities and poor living conditions.

During the 1845 till as late as the 1920s pioneer living conditions for women was harsh and rough. Their biggest task was helping to feed the family. In addition to preparing meals and cleaning up after them, they planted large gardens. Vegetables like potatoes, carrots and turnips were stored in root cellars. Cabbage was made into sauerkraut and stored in large crocks. Some vegetables like cucumbers were pickled in vinegar. Apples and sometimes pumpkins and squash were cut into small slices and dried. In the winter they could be soaked in water and cooked. When canning jars became available, they preserved corn, green beans and tomatoes. Farm women also raised large flocks of chickens. The hens supplied eggs which were an important part of

Often while waiting for stable work men would do seasonal work to support their families but once the season was over they would be left struggling to afford basic necessities like food and shelter. Children often were expected to work during times like this and work they did, doing some of the most dangerous and labor intensive jobs in Victorian

Living in a poorhouse in the 1800’s was considered normal because poor families couldn’t support themselves. “They are believed to have slept six people to one bed,” (Document 6) which is very disturbing because there aren’t any showers back then or even hospitals. It is a huge negative because of how horrible pollution and illnesses were commonly spread easily and killed off more people. Furthermore children were affected during this time because they had to stay at home in dangerous living situations with no protection. Luckily, this is a positive affect because child labor laws were passed. A huge defect is while they sat home, they weren’t being educated. Another main key point in this writing is children not being able to have an education. Instead of going to school and learning children were forced to work laboriously for a long amount of time. “From six in the morning till seven at night,” (Document 7). I acknowledge the suffering the children had to go through because they didn’t have a regular childhood. They were brought up in the world believing that working just to get by is normal

Dear, Caroline, My trip has been amazing. I have traveled far and wide on my expedition of the late 1800s and although there have been wonderful times, I will never forget the hardships that the people of the late 1800s had to endure. The people in the late 1800s had to struggle through bad working conditions, racism, and little to no proper schooling. With the knowledge I have gathered I hope to enlighten you to the truth behind the 1800s.

At the end of the previous century, as American city populations continued to grow and families struggled make ends meet, children often took on odd jobs to help their parents. Elizabeth Rose describes children’s lives in Philadelphia in her book A Mother’s Job, writing “A visitor to any of Philadelphia's working-class neighborhoods in 1890 might encounter children in the streets peddling fruit, selling newspapers, carrying large bundles of clothes for their mothers to work on at home, rocking small babies, and playing games like kick-the-can in between delivery wagons, horsecars, pushcarts, and ice trucks.” By the end of the 19th century, children were already caring for their siblings with little adult supervision and wandering dangerous city streets alone.   In addition to the dangers of poverty and a hostile urban environment, children were also often forced into factory jobs, forced to work an average of 12 to 18 hours a day for 6 days a week.

After the Gilded Age people soon realized that the poor were not only in the western farm land. The poor were closer to home then they had previously thought. They had focused so much on the poor farmers that they did not realize that the lower middle class in the inner cities were struggling as well. Thousands of families were living in filthy condensed “homes” in the inner cities. Children were not being educated, looked after or being fed properly. They were running about the cities and sometimes they never came back to their “home.”

“The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many children were drawn into the labor force. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families. However, child laborers rarely experienced their youth” (National Archives). Child labor was a “normal” thing to many people

During the 19th century children from ages of 3 onwards were forced into employment, mainly to work in factories. Child labour was extremely popular and played a big part of Britain’s economic success. Adults seemed to

During the 18 and beginning of the 19th century in certain regions of the U.S child labor made up more than 40 percent of the population (Wolensky). That’s almost half of the working population. Since the beginning of time children have always been known to help their families with domestic tasks. Most of these kids worked in factories because they were easy to control and paid less than adults. Kids earned less than half of what adults made in the work force. In these factories they usually cleaned under and inside machines while functioning because of their small size.. That’s how these kids felt as it was described in a article in our history book. They were always in danger of getting hurt or even dying, which many did. Kids as young