The Victorian era in the UK saw rapid industrialization and expansion of the British Empire under Queen Victoria's long reign from 1837 to 1901. However, this period was also marked by harsh living and working conditions, especially for children. Many children as young as 4 years old worked in dangerous jobs in mines, factories and other industries where they faced high risks of accidents, illnesses and death. Child labor was widespread and exploitation of disadvantaged children was common, with orphanages often selling children directly to factories. Life was especially difficult for the working classes and child workers.

1. Child exploitation in the
Victorian era

2. The Victorian era of the United Kingdom marked the height of its industrial revolution and the
apex of the British Empire. Although this term is commonly used to refer to the extensive reign
of Victoria I (20 June 1837-22 January 1901), some scholars anticipate the start of the period,
characterized by profound changes in the cultural sensitivities and concerns policies, to the
enactment of the 1832 Reform Act. Historically, this stage was preceded by the Regency and
continued by the Edwardian period. Queen Victoria, with 64 years on the throne, had the longest
reign in the history of British monarchs, and the cultural, political, economic, industrial and
scientific that occurred during his reign were extraordinary. When Victoria ascended the throne,
England was essentially agrarian and rural; to her death, the country was highly industrialized
and most of its territory, connected by a rail network, continued to expand..
The Young Victoria

3. Children exploited in the
Victorian era

4. Charles Dickens's novel, Oliver Twist is the best reflection of child labor in
Victorian times, which bursts onto the scene in 1838 and falls as "cold water" to
the British. With a scathing critique of social hypocrisy, justice institutions, hunger,
working conditions and child mortality.
The average life time was about 40 years. Adult death was from tuberculosis, while
children died of measles, smallpox and starvation. Child workers in the textile
industry could also have TB with dust and moisture, as well as asthma or allergies,
scoliosis or rickets.
Poor working conditions
caused children's death

5. The industrial Revolution
monopolized child labor for jobs
such as mining or textile
industry,often causing accidents
and deaths to children working
on the machines in operation.
Disadvantaged children in
England were in charge of the
churches, who sold them to
industries through newspaper
advertisements when they no
longer wanted to keep them or
when they had too. Often trade
was done without parental
consent.
From the age of four were wanted
to be "trained" on the machines,
working in the mines, clean parts
of machinery or broken threads.
Child mining exploitation

6. Children at work

7. The working class
Obviously, the life of the working class was harder, and their main occupation in life
was survival. In a low-class family usually worked all members. The children
developed multiple jobs, some very dangerous and extreme hardness. The women,
whose wages were lower than those of men, working as maids, seamstresses or in
the textile industry, even there were women who worked in the mines, although
considered rigid Victorian morality was not a women's own work, not the risks
involved, but because they believed that the proximity of men and women in a
confined space was not morally acceptable. Women who had been fortunate to have
had access to cultural preparation, could work as teachers or as nannies instructing
the children of wealthy families.

8. Agriculture
Farmers in the Victorian Era were very common, especially within family
members. Children started working in the field at around age five. Being a
farmer during this era was risky because of the unpredictable weather
conditions. They had to be very careful with soil and watering. Even though
people work for many hours on the field, the effort would be easily lost if the
crops weren’t fresh and healthy. Farming was not as easy at it seemed because
being outside in the beaming sunlight all day isn’t very comfortable.

9. Prostitution
Prostitution in the Victorian Era was considered "a fate that's worse
than death" to women. Men with money were willing to pay a standard
pricing of about twenty pounds for a healthy working-class girl between
the ages of fourteen and eighteen. Men were willing to pay a hundred
pounds for a middle-class girl of the same age; and as much as four
hundred pounds for a child from the upper class under the age of
twelve. It was very common for a young girl to experience their first
sexual experience this way. Not only that, but it was also common to
get a sexually transmitted disease because of no safe treatment.

10. Child Maids
At around the age of twelve,
children were hired to work as
maids or nursery maids. Maids
were normally girls that helped
take care of children or clean
around the house. When older
maids were hired, they were
expected to cook food for their
master. Life as a maid wasn't
very good, but it was
considered alright because your
master would provide food for
you to eat.

11. Child thieves
Being a thief in the Victorian Era was a risky job. It took a lot of time to become
a skilled thief. They were usually taught techniques to use to take someone's
belongings. For example: in the book Oliver Twist, Charles Dickens uses the
character Fagin to show us how he taught his “students” to steal. When you
were a thief, your boss expected you to come back with money or something of
good value. Therefore, if you came back empty handed, you would have most
likely been punished.

12. Scavengers
A scavenger's job was to get under the factory’s machines, and get all
the bits of fluff that got caught there. Being a scavenger was a
hazardous job for children because they could easily get caught under
the machinery and die, or get seriously injured.

13. Children's rights are defined in numerous ways, including a wide
spectrum of civil, cultural, economic, social and political rights.
Rights tend to be of two general types: those advocating for
children as autonomous persons under the law and those placing
a claim on society for protection from harms perpetrated on
children because of their dependency. These have been labeled
as the right of empowerment and as the right to protection. One
Canadian organization categorizes children's rights into three
categories:
Provision: Children have the right to an adequate standard of
living, health care, education and services, and to play and
recreation. These include a balanced diet, a warm bed to sleep in,
and access to schooling.
Protection: Children have the right to protection from abuse,
neglect, exploitation and discrimination. This includes the right to
safe places for children to play; constructive child rearing
behavior, and acknowledgment of the evolving capacities of
children.
Participation: Children have the right to participate in
communities and have programs and services for themselves.
This includes children's involvement in libraries and community
programs, youth voice activities, and involving children as
decision-makers.
Current Rights of the child

14. The victims of the Victorian
era
The victims were women who earned a salary as occasional
prostitutes. The killings were perpetrated Jack typical in a public
or semi-public. The victim's throat was cut from left to right (for
what, at first it was suggested that it would be right-handed, but
then saw the possibility of a cut made grabbing the victim in
front), to which was followed by a abdominal mutilation,
although in some cases these mutilations spread to other parts
of the body. Many today believe that the victims were strangled
previously to silence. Due to the nature of the wounds in several
of the alleged victims of the Ripper, some extracted internal
organs such as the uterus, has proposed the idea that the
murderer had a certain degree of knowledge of anatomy. For
this reason, it may be that they were a physician, surgeon, or
even a butcher, but this, like most beliefs about the murderer
and facts about the case, is much discussed.

15. The children of that time

16. The culture of opium and
its derivatives
Despite the strict Victorian morality, were
extended unholy practices such as opium
inculturation, whose story most significant was
the contribution of Thomas de Quincey in
"Confessions of an English Opium Eater" which
was widely disseminated and translated into
several languages , and he portrays the use
and addiction to opium. Quincey took opium
around 1804 in the form of laudanum to treat a
dental neuralgia, which later became his
addiction.
This is not surprising if you know that the real
pharmacy freely distributing opium to the
courtiers, the same Queen Victoria was
consumed in the form of chewing gum with
cocaine, with the young Winston Churchill and,
in terms of fiction, Sherlock Holmes (who sold
millions of copies) was injected cocaine as it
was often considered for people "cerebral and
very nervous." Opium was freely consumed as
"social drug", eventually changing their concept
to places like the clubs where you could also
find prostitution.

17. The Victorian house
To the Victorians the family was the center of their lives, and the home, idyllic place to
take care of. The family model of the middle and upper class itself was Queen Victoria
and her beloved husband Albert. The royal marriage and their 9 children were the
mirror that looked British families: a peaceful home, loving and respectable. In the
family the father role was responsible for keeping the family, and their decisions were
unquestionable. The role of women was to be a good wife and mother - in fact until
1882 a married woman was the property of her husband, the woman was as the poet
said "the angel of the home".

18. We thank the following for
providing information pages
http://lacasavictoriana.wordpress.com/2009/12/31/la-vida-en-la-epoca-victoriana/
www.wikipedia.com
www.google.com
http://rodriguez9-7.pbworks.com/w/page/10300534/Labor%20and%20Child%20labor
http://42382647.nhd.weebly.com/index.html