COVE

As a mother, I was very saddened when I saw this in the paper. The images and headlines speak for themselves. How are so many people okay with children dying in factories and leaving children with strangers? I could not imagine my child being put into such dangerous situations. I keep hearing about the terrible conditions adults work in, and I can’t imagine it would be any better for these children. The articles definitely don’t make it seem like they are. Clearly, the people in charge of businesses and factories have no regard for their employees’ safety, since they’re responsible for many children’s deaths and are still allowing children to work. I feel for the mothers of the children in the headlines. When my sister passed away, I was heartbroken but I couldn’t imagine the pain of a mother losing her children. Someone has to do something about child labor and these baby farmers. How are people allowed to profit off the deaths of children and not get punished? As much as I hate seeing these headlines, I think it’ll be the only way people start noticing that something has to change. Many babies that are farmed are being killed or starved and the government lets this happen. There should be something done to make sure the children who are put up for adoption or are being looked after are actually taken care of. Too many people are taking advantage of these poor children. I don’t know how people could be so heartless. 

The headlines for this newspaper were pretty common during the Victorian era. Britain had gone through its industrial revolution there was an increase in demand for labor. Lots of factories had machines or jobs that could be done by children. Oftentimes, children would be used to crawl into small spaces and fix or clean the machinery (Griffin, Emma). There were no safety regulations that these factories had to follow, leaving the working conditions to be unsafe for children. Many children lost their limbs and many children died in coal mines. The British Parliament would later pass child labor laws that set a minimum working age and limited how many hours a child could work (Tuttle, Carolyn). As for baby farming, many people who couldn’t look after their children or wanted to put them up for adoption went to baby farmers so they could take care of the children. Unfortunately, many of these baby farmers would neglect the children, leaving many of them to starve.

“Front Page of the Illustrated Police News, 25 June 1870.” The British Library, The British Library, 6 Feb. 2014, www.bl.uk/collection-items/front-page-of-the-illustrated-police-news-25-...

Griffin, Emma. “Child Labour.” The British Library, The British Library, 7 May 2014, www.bl.uk/romantics-and-victorians/articles/child-labour. 

Lee, Sarah. “Amelia Dyer: The Victorian Nurse Who Strangled Babies.” BBC News, BBC, 2 June 2017, www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-berkshire-39330793#:~:text=%22Baby%20farming...

Tuttle, Carolyn. “Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution.” EHnet, eh.net/encyclopedia/child-labor-during-the-british-industrial-revolution/.