Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Contents
- List of maps
- List of tables
- Acknowledgements
- Introduction
- PART ONE THE RURAL BACKGROUND
- PART TWO THE IMPACT OF INDUSTRIALIZATION
- 4 CHILD LABOUR IN THE INDUSTRIAL SETTING
- 5 WORKING CONDITIONS FOR CHILDREN IN INDUSTRY
- 6 A PHYSICAL DECLINE IN THE RACE?
- 7 A MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL DECLINE?
- PART THREE THE STATE INTERVENES
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
6 - A PHYSICAL DECLINE IN THE RACE?
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
- 4 CHILD LABOUR IN THE INDUSTRIAL SETTING
- 5 WORKING CONDITIONS FOR CHILDREN IN INDUSTRY
- 6 A PHYSICAL DECLINE IN THE RACE?
- 7 A MORAL AND INTELLECTUAL DECLINE?
- PART THREE THE STATE INTERVENES
- Conclusion
- Bibliography
- Index
Summary
From discussing changes in the working conditions of children, it was but a short step to looking at the impact of industrial employment on their physical and intellectual welfare. The issue was raised in 1828 by Jean-Jacques Bourcart, during the course of a famous speech to the Société Industrielle de Mulhouse. He proposed that juvenile labour in the spinning mills be given legal protection, on the grounds that:
The industry of our country has developed in an extraordinary manner, but if on the one side it has eased the misery of the working class by providing work, it has not contributed, or at least has barely contributed, to their moral and physical improvement … It is noticeable that children employed for too long in the workshops have feeble bodies and feeble health, and that, not having time to look after their education, they cannot develop morally.
Such forthright criticism of the new industrial system was not to the taste of the majority of employers, threatening as it did one of their most cherished liberties: that of running their enterprises unhindered by the intervention of the State. There followed a long and emotive propaganda war between reformers and apologists for the unfettered expansion of the industrial sector. This chapter confines itself to the first part of the debate, concerning the physical state of children employed in industry.
- Type
- Chapter
- Information
- Childhood in Nineteenth-Century FranceWork, Health and Education among the 'Classes Populaires', pp. 146 - 182Publisher: Cambridge University PressPrint publication year: 1988