Children in the Mines: The Dark Heart of the Industrial Revolution

The children who worked in the coal mines of early nineteenth-century Britain endured some of the worst conditions of any workers in the Industrial Revolution. The “trappers” who sat alone for hours in the dark opening and closing the ventilation doors, the “hurriers” who pulled coal wagons through narrow tunnels, and the “bearers” who carried coal on their backs up ladders to the surface, all suffered from exhaustion, disease, and frequent accidents.

The Work of Children in the Mines

The work varied depending on the age and size of the child, and on the type of mine, but several kinds of work were common. The youngest children, often as young as five or six, worked as “trappers.” The trapper sat alone in a small chamber in the mine, and his or her job was to open and close a wooden door, or “trap,” that allowed the coal wagons to pass while keeping the ventilation going.

Slightly older children, often between the ages of eight and twelve, worked as “hurriers” or “thrusters.” The hurriers pulled coal wagons through the narrow tunnels of the mine, using a harness around their waists and chains that attached to the wagon. The work was physically demanding, and the constant bending and pulling in the cramped tunnels led to spinal deformities and chronic pain.

The Conditions in the Mines

The conditions in the coal mines were terrible. The mines were dark, damp, and dangerous, and the air was often thick with coal dust and methane gas. The temperature in the mines varied, but it was often uncomfortably hot, and the workers were often soaked with sweat. The lack of ventilation in many mines made the air dangerous to breathe, and many children developed respiratory diseases.

The mines were also physically dangerous. The tunnels were often narrow and poorly supported, and cave-ins were common. The children worked with candles or oil lamps for light, and the open flames were a constant fire hazard.

The Children’s Employment Commission of 1842

The conditions in the mines were exposed by the Children’s Employment Commission of 1842, a parliamentary inquiry into the conditions of children in the mines and factories. The commission was appointed in response to growing public concern about the conditions of child labor, and it conducted extensive investigations, interviewing workers, mine owners, and other witnesses.

The report of the commission, published in 1842, was one of the most powerful documents of the Industrial Revolution. The report included detailed descriptions of the conditions in the mines, with testimony from children, parents, mine owners, and doctors.

The Effects on the Children

The effects of working in the mines on the children themselves were devastating. The physical toll was severe, with many children suffering from permanent disabilities and chronic health problems. The psychological toll was also severe, with many children suffering from depression, anxiety, and other mental health problems as a result of their work.

The Aftermath of the Children’s Employment Commission

The 1842 Children’s Employment Commission and the resulting Mines and Collieries Act were major victories for the campaign against child labor, but they did not end the exploitation of children in the mines. The Act banned women and girls of any age, and boys under ten, from working underground, but older boys continued to work in the mines, and children continued to work in other industries.

The Continuing Question

The unresolved question about children in the mines is the same one raised in the child-labor article: whether the moral indictment of the practice, made famous by the 1842 commission and by the 1937 documentary film Children of the Mines, fits the actual historical evidence. The traditional answer, going back to Lord Ashley’s 1842 speech in Parliament and given its modern form in the work of E. Royston Pike, is that the moral indictment is right: the children were worked to the bone, the conditions were brutal, and the 1842 reforms were a long-overdue response. The revisionist answer, developed in Clark Nardinelli’s Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution (1990) and given a more pointed form in Jane Humphries’ Childhood and Child Labour in Industrial England (2010), is more complicated: pauper-letter evidence and household-budget data suggest that the children in the mines were not passive victims but active participants in family survival strategies, that the wages of the 8-13-year-old “trappers” and “hurriers” were an essential part of the household income, and that the 1842 Mines Act, by removing children from the mines, cut the household income of the poorest families by 10-20 percent. The interesting current question, raised in the work of economic historian Jane Humphries and developed in the recent literature on the ILO’s 1999 Convention 182 on the Worst Forms of Child Labour, is whether the 19th-century fight against child labour was a humanitarian reform that improved the lives of children, or whether it was a class-biased reform that pushed the poorest children from paid work into the unofficial economy. The honest answer, given the comparative data, is probably: both, in different proportions in different regions.

Selected Sources

Jane Humphries, Childhood and Child Labour in Industrial England: Diversity and Agency, 1750–1914 (2010).
E. Royston Pike, Hard Times: Human Documents of the Industrial Revolution (1966).
Clark Nardinelli, Child Labor and the Industrial Revolution (1990).
Robert H. Bremner (ed.), Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History (1970–74).