Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE RURAL BACKGROUND
- PART TWO THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
- PART THREE THE STATE INTERVENES
- 8 1841: AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIAL LEGISLATION
- 9 THE EXPERIMENT IN PRACTICE, 1841–70
- 10 1874: CHILD LABOUR LEGISLATION COMES OF AGE
- 11 THE CURBING OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDUSTRY, 1874–92
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
8 - 1841: AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIAL LEGISLATION
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 14 October 2009
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE RURAL BACKGROUND
- PART TWO THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
- PART THREE THE STATE INTERVENES
- 8 1841: AN EXPERIMENT IN SOCIAL LEGISLATION
- 9 THE EXPERIMENT IN PRACTICE, 1841–70
- 10 1874: CHILD LABOUR LEGISLATION COMES OF AGE
- 11 THE CURBING OF CHILD LABOUR IN INDUSTRY, 1874–92
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
Child labour first became an issue in the political arena during the 1820s and 1830s. As we have seen, evidence that the youngest and most vulnerable members of the labour force were suffering from abuses on the shop floor began to accumulate in the writings of social investigators. Mechanization and heightened competition in industry were held responsible for the imposition of excessively long hours and a gruelling pace of work on large numbers of women and children. The effects of the new régime were widely canvassed. Reformers wrote passionately of child ‘martyrs’ in the mills, disastrous military recruitment figures in the industrial cantons, a new breed of ‘barbarians’ emerging in the slums, and so forth. The case did not by any means go unchallenged. Time and again, we have noted employers indignantly asserting that the allegations of a physical and intellectual decline were exaggerated. We have also come across their emphasis on the positive achievements of the factory system, with the argument that it was bringing improved working conditions and more disciplined attitudes amongst the labour force. Nonetheless, there was something of a consensus on the misery of many working-class children in the manufacturing areas. The first task of the reformers was to convince those in power that State intervention was the appropriate response.
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- Information
- Childhood in Nineteenth-Century FranceWork, Health and Education among the 'Classes Populaires', pp. 217 - 236Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988