A Study On Living Condition Of Child Labor In British Factories During The Industrial Revolution

The industrial revolution started in the Britain in the 18 th century. The revolution led the Britain to rapid development in many aspects including politics and economy,which played a significant role in the history of Britain. The development and prosperity of the industrial revolution, however, is at the expense of the childhood of millions of children. The common existence of child labor was a major characteristic of the social structure at that time.Hiring child laborers on a large-scale is the product of the industrial revolution, and from the point of view of economic development, the industrial revolution has made significant achievements in the Britain. But child laborers’ living environment in factory is quite unsatisfactory at that time, and has been unprecedentedly deteriorated.Family life condition of laborers who work in factory is terrible, and working environment is even worse, also without access to basic school education. Because of the bad living condition of child laborers in factory, the children’s physical and mental health has been seriously threatened in all aspects.With the development of British society in all respects, living environment of child laborers in factory has got obvious improvement since the mid-19 th century. This paper will make an analysis from factors in three aspects: firstly, government has further improved the environment for the child laborers in factory by enacting factory legislation. Secondly, the stable economic development in the late period of the industrial revolution has obviously elevated the living standards of the working class,and has improved the family living environment for child laborers in factory. Thirdly,the development of the national elementary education in Britain has made the child laborers in factory gradually withdraw from the labor market, with focus of life diverting from labor to education. Since the middle of the 19 th century, under the influence of multiple factors such as politics, economy and education, the issue of child laborers has been basically solved little by little, which reflects the change in theBritish children of lower floor from being neglected to be concerned by all levels of society in the course of social transformation. At the same time, it is also the manifestation of social progress.