Chimney Sweep Child Labour

Chimney sweepers act of 1875.

Chimney sweep child labour.

The small boys used as chimney sweeps were typically between 5 and 10 years of age and some were as young as 4 years old. The chimney sweepers and chimneys regulation act of 1840. Children were widely used as human chimney sweeps in england for about 200 years and the lives of these little ones who were forced to climb chimneys were the stuff of nightmares. Instead they were nothing less than indentured servants harshly treated and forced to work from dawn until dusk every day of the year but one.

These children were oppressed and had a diminutive existence that was socially accepted at the time. This was done by the master sweep. In great britain the master sweeps took apprentices typically workhouse or orphan boys and trained them to climb chimneys. A child chimney sweep recalls his experience.

Child labor portrayed through a variety of trades in the united states summary photographs show primarily newspaper sellers including boys girls and a few adult newsies bootblacks messenger and delivery boys and food vendors but other service workers such as bowling alley pinsetters movie theater ushers delivery wagon drivers and one youthful automobile. The poem the chimney sweeper is set against the dark background of child labour that was prominent in england in the late 18th and 19th centuries. Chimney sweeping child laborers specifically were subjected to low wages deadly working conditions and harsh punishments for not meeting standards. In the german states master sweeps belonged to trade guilds and did not use climbing boys.

The following is from a written manuscript by child chimney sweep gottardo cavalli. The victorian chimney sweep in britain the first industrial nation was once an even bigger symbol of inhumanity than the bonded child labourer of pakistan and india today. Powerless children were made apprentice chimney sweeps from 1773 master chimney sweeps regularly kept anywhere from 2 to 20 children depending on how many they could use for their business. The prominence of using small children as chimney sweeps began after the great fire of london which occurred september 2nd through 5th 1666.

For each child the master sweep was paid 3 4 pounds by the government when the apprenticeship agreement was signed. At the age of four and five boys were sold to clean chimneys due to their small size. Under this act it was not legal to make someone or even allow person under the age of 21 to climb up or into a chimney for the purpose of cleaning it. Confronting child labour then and now.

A lot of young people don t believe me but others do and a friend advised me to describe the life in detail. Child labor laws of 1789 were inefficient to say the least. In his poem the chimney sweeper blake discusses his detest for the current regulations on child labor. There are lessons we can learn from the past about how to combat child labour but there are also myths to discard.

The chimney must be swept to remove the soot. Before this act children as young as 4 years old were being used as victorian child labor.