CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION

Child labour was an essential raw material for the success of the Industrial Revolution, a key component of the growing prosperity of the age’s entrepreneurs. The workforce was cheap – or free, in the case of orphans and children from poor families offered so-called ‘parish apprenticeships’ – and emotionally malleable. And it was in shockingly high supply. By 1821, almost half of Britain’s labour force was below the age of 20.

Before industrialisation, any children who were employed were mostly engaged in agriculture, usually in roles that didn’t require particular strength or serious physical effort; bird-scaring was a common vocation. However, come the Industrial Revolution, the demands on this junior workforce became much higher. As historian Emma Griffin notes in her book , it was open season: “Early industrial Britain was a booming economy with an insatiable appetite for strong backs and nimble fingers.”