Victorian Britain

Britiain was the start of the Industrial Revolution. On that time Britain was called the Victorian Britain, because their queen was named Victoria. Victoria made Britian successful. Britain was the country who had most factories. In those factories they had machines who did everything. They did jobs like spinning. Because Britain had so many machines children had to work. Children worked at coal mines to get coal for the machines, at farmers to help them with the machines, textile factories and so on. On that time it was normal and legal to have children who worked. Children where cheaper to hire than adult men. Factory owners also employed children because they where small enough to fit in the coal mines and had small fingers who could crawl. Some families even sold their children to work, only to get money. Some children wanted to work for their poor family. Sadly children died at very young age, they couldn't handle the struggle to work for about 18 hours. The coal mines owners sold their coal to the factories. They often got a lot of money but didn't give the workers the money they deserved, it was very unfair. At first when the children work started it was no law about how you have to treat children and how they're going to work. Owners of coal mines were very shoddy when it came to children work, they didn't care at all so children risked getting caught in machines and losing their arms and hair. Years later people protested about children work because it had to stop. And it did. After years they provided a new child law.

FUN FACT: Many parents took their children with them to the factory... to work.

Here you can see young boys crawling for coal in very small coal mines.

In the Victorian time it was very normal to sell their children to work so they could get money for the family.

Many children worked in sweat-shops. On this picture you can see children and adults stitching clothes for a tailor.