Wolverhampton: Factories Investigated

On 7 August 1843, EBB wrote a letter to her friend R.H. Horne, who had been involved in a Parliamentary commission to investigate factory conditions in Wolverhampton. In this letter, EBB said that "The Cry of the Children" "owes its utterance to your exciting causations," referring to Horne's work as one of the investigators of the factories. Click here to see two student-created videos about what it was like to be a child working in nineteenth-century British mines and factories.

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Latitude: 52.586973000000
Longitude: -2.128820000000

Date

Event

Manage

1842 to 1843

Parliament established the Children's Employment Commission to investigate child labor in mines and factories. In 1842 and 1843 they issued massive reports about the abusive conditions under which children were laboring in these industries. This in part inspired EBB to write her famous poem, "The Cry of the Children," as a sort of call to action to stop the injustices. Click here to see two student-created videos about what it was like to be a child working in nineteenth-century British mines and factories.

The Royal Commission on Children's Employment