【简译】英国工业革命中的童工
Children were widely used as labour in factories, mines, and agriculture during the British Industrial Revolution (1760-1840). Very often working the same 12-hour shifts that adults did, children as young as five years old were paid a pittance to climb under dangerous weaving machines, move coal through narrow mine shafts, and work in agricultural gangs.
英国工业革命（1760-1840）期间，儿童广泛从事于工厂、矿山和农场。通常情况下，儿童与成年人一样轮班12小时，并在危险的织布机下爬行、通过狭窄的矿井搬运煤炭以及在农场工作而获得微薄的报酬。
It was very often the case that children's jobs were well-defined and specific to them, in other words, child labour was not merely an extra help for the adult workforce. The education of many children was replaced by a working day, a choice often made by parents to supplement a meagre family income. It was not until the 1820s that governments began to pass laws that restricted working hours and business owners were compelled to provide safer working conditions for everyone, men, women, and children. Even then a lack of inspectors meant many abuses still went on, a situation noted and publicised by charities, philanthropists, and authors with a social conscience like Charles Dickens (1812-1870).
通常情况下，儿童的工作是被明确界定的，而且是专门针对他们的，换句话说，童工不仅仅是对成年劳动力的额外补充。许多儿童的教育被工作所取代，这往往是父母为了贴补微薄的家庭收入而做出的选择。直到19世纪20年代，政府才开始通过法律，限制工作时间，雇主被迫为每个人（包括男人、女人和儿童）提供更安全的工作条件。即使在那时，由于缺乏检查员，许多虐待行为仍在发生，这种情况被慈善机构、慈善家和查尔斯·狄更斯（1812-1870）等具有社会良知的作家注意到并公开了这种情况。
Désiré François Laugée 创作的 19 世纪油画，名为《缝纫》。（里约热内卢国家贝拉斯艺术博物馆）
缺乏教育
As sending a child to school involved paying a fee – even the cheapest asked for a penny a day – most parents did not bother. Villages often had a small school, where each pupil's parents paid the teacher, but attendance was sometimes erratic and more often than not the education rudimentary in hopelessly overcrowded classes. There were some free schools run by charities, and churches often offered Sunday school. Not until 1844 were there more free schools available, such as the Ragged schools established by Anthony Ashley-Cooper, 7th Earl of Shaftesbury (1801-1885). These schools concentrated on the basics, what became known as the 3 Rs of Reading, Writing, and Arithmetic. Compulsory education for 5 to 12-year-olds, and the institutions necessary to provide it, would not come along until the 1870s. Consequently, "at least half of nominally school-age children worked full-time during the industrial revolution" (Horn, 57).
由于送孩子上学需要支付费用（即使是最便宜的学校也要求每天支付一便士），大多数家长都不屑一顾。乡村通常设有一所小学校，每个学生的父母都要支付老师的费用，但出勤率有时不规律，班级拥挤不堪，教育水平也很初级。在当时有一些由慈善机构开办的免费学校，教会也经常提供主日学校。直到1844年，才有了更多的免费学校，如沙夫茨伯里第七代伯爵安东尼·阿什利-库珀 （1801-1885）建立的初级学校。这些学校专注于基础知识，即后来被称为3 Rs的阅读、写作和算术。5至12岁儿童的义务教育，以及提供义务教育所需的机构，直到19世纪70年代才出现。因此，“在工业革命期间，至少有一半名义上的学龄儿童从事全日制工作”（Horn，57）。
Some factory owners were more generous than others to the children in their employ. An example is the Quarry Bank Mill in Styal in the county of Cheshire. Here the owner provided schooling after the long working day was over for 100 of its child workers in a dedicated building, the Apprentice House.
一些工厂主对其雇佣的儿童相较于其他工厂更慷慨。柴郡Styal
（英格兰柴郡威姆斯洛附近波林河畔的一个村庄和民政教区）
的 Quarry Bank 工厂就是一个例子。在这里，工厂主在漫长的工作日后为 100 名打工的孩子在专门为他们建造的学徒楼内提供学校教育。
An indicator of better education, despite all the difficulties, is literacy rates, rather imperfectly measured by historians by recording the ability of a person to sign one's name on official documents such as marriage certificates. There was a great improvement in literacy, but by 1800, still only half of the adult population could sign their name to such documents.
尽管困难重重，在当时教育改善的一个指标是识字率，历史学家通过记录一个人在结婚证书等官方文件上签名的能力来衡量，这一点相当不完善。识字率在当时有了很大的提高，但到了1800年，仍然只有一半的成年人口能在此类文件上签上自己的名字。
For those children who could find work in the Industrial Revolution, and there were employers queueing up to offer it, there were no trade unions to protect them. For the vast majority of children, working life started at an early age – on average at 8 years old – but as nobody really cared about age, this could vary wildly. Working involved at best tedium and at worst an endless round of threats, fines, corporal punishment, and instant dismissal at any protest to such treatment. In one survey taken in 1833, it was found that the tactics used with child labourers were 95% negative. Instant dismissal accounted for 58%. In only 4% of cases was a reward given for good work, and a mere 1% of the strategies used involved a promotion or pay rise.
对于那些在工业革命中能够找到工作的儿童，且有雇主排队为他们提供工作，但没有工会来保护他们。对绝大多数儿童来说，工作生活在他们很小的时候就开始了（平均为8岁），但由于没有人真正关心其年龄，所以可能会有很大差异。工作最好的情况是乏味，最坏的情况是无休止的威胁、罚款、体罚，以及对这种待遇的任何抗议都会被立即解雇。在1833年进行的一项调查显示，对童工采取的策略有95%是负面的，立即开除占58%，只有4%的情况下对工作出色的人给予奖励，所使用的策略中只有1%涉及晋升或加薪。
插图显示一名儿童将一桶煤炭从矿井工作面拉至地面。童工在英国的矿山中很常见，直到 1842 年《矿山法》才受到限制。
传统的儿童工作
In the traditional cottage industry of handweaving, children had always washed and carded raw wool so that their mother could spin it on a spinning wheel, which then was woven into fabric by the father using a handloom. Craftworkers often took on an apprentice or two. Apprentices were given their board and lodgings and taught a particular trade by their master. In return, the child not only worked for free but was expected to pay a large fee upfront before starting a contract that could last a year or several years or even up to seven years, depending on the trade. Then there were children who worked in their parents' or relations' small businesses, such as small-scale manufacturers like basket-weavers, blacksmiths, and potters.
在传统的手工编织业中，孩子们一般将原毛洗净并梳理好，以便母亲可以在纺车上纺纱然后由父亲使用手织机将其织成布。手工业者通常会招收一两个学徒。学徒得到食宿，并由他们的师傅教授一门特殊的手艺。作为回报，孩子不仅要免费工作，而且要在开始签订合同前预付一大笔费用，合同可能持续一年或几年，甚至长达七年，这取决于行业性质。然后是在父母或亲戚的小企业中工作的孩子，如篮子编织者、铁匠和陶工等小规模制造商。
Children worked in agriculture, still a significant area during the Industrial Revolution and one which involved 35% of Britain's total workforce in 1800. Children, as they always had done, continued to tend herds of animals and flocks of fowl, and they essentially performed any task required that they were physically capable of. Many children joined agricultural gangs which moved around to where there was temporary or seasonal employment.
儿童在农业领域工作，这在工业革命期间仍然是一个重要的领域，在1800年涉及英国总劳动力的35%。儿童一如既往地继续照看畜群和鸡群，他们基本上从事任何其身体力行的任务。许多儿童加入了农业小组，在有临时或季节性工作的地方四处劳作。
弗兰克·梅多·萨克利夫 (Frank Meadow Sutcliffe) 于 20 世纪初拍摄的一张照片，照片中一名儿童与成年人一起在工厂工作。工业革命期间及之后，童工被广泛使用。（阿姆斯特丹国家博物馆）
矿井里的儿童
Men, women, and children worked in Britain's mines, particularly in the coal mines, which boomed as they produced the fuel to feed the steam engines of the Industrial Revolution. All three groups had been involved in mining before the arrival of machines, but the industry's expansion meant that many more were now involved than previously. Children as young as five years old were found useful by mine owners since they were small enough to climb into narrow ventilation shafts where they could ensure that trapdoors were regularly opened and shut. Testimony like James Pearce's in 1842 was common: I am 12 years of age. I went down to the pits about 7 years and a half to open doors. I had a candle and a fire beside me to show me light…I was 12 hours a-day, and got 6d a day. I attended and got the money. When I was paid I took it home to my mother. I was a year and a half at this work. I once fell asleep and was well threshed by a driver.(Shelley, 42)
男人、女人和儿童都在英国的矿场工作，尤其是煤矿，由于煤矿生产的燃料用于工业革命的蒸汽机，因此煤矿蓬勃发展。在机器到来之前，这三个群体都曾参与过采矿，但该行业的扩张意味着现在参与其中的人比以前更多。矿主发现年仅5岁的儿童很有用，因为他们足够廋小，可以爬到狭窄的通风井中，确保活板门定期开闭。像詹姆斯·皮尔斯 (James Pearce) 在1842年的证词很常见：
我今年12岁了，大约7年半前，我开始下井开门。我有一根蜡烛，旁边有一个火堆给我照明......我每天工作12个小时，赚 6 便士，我答应了并拿到了钱。当我得到报酬时，我把它带回家给我母亲。我在这份工作上花了一年半的时间。有一次我睡着了，被一名矿车司机狠狠地打了一顿。
Most children, as they got older, were then employed to either shift the coal from the working level to the surface or to sort it out from other debris before it was shipped away. Those who pulled the coal in carts using a harness were known as 'hurriers', and those who pushed were 'thrusters'. This was back-breaking work detrimental to the child's physical development. Many parents were not opposed to their children working, despite the health hazards, since they brought in much-needed earnings for the family. In addition, over half of the children working in mines kept their employment when they reached adulthood, so it was a good route to secure a job for life. From 1800 to 1850, children composed between 20-50% of the mining workforce.
随着年龄的增长，大多数儿童被雇用将煤炭从工作层转移到地面，或者在运走之前将其从其他废物中分拣出来。那些用马具拉煤的人被称为“hurriers”
（搬运工，有时也称为抽煤机或推煤机，是受雇于煤矿工人运输他们开采的煤炭的儿童或妇女）
，而那些推煤的人被称为“thrusters”。这是很辛苦的工作，不利于孩子的身体发育。尽管有健康危害，许多父母并不反对他们的孩子工作，因为他们为家庭带来了急需的收入。此外，在矿山工作的儿童中，有一半以上在成年后继续工作，因此，这是确保终身工作的一个好途径。从1800年到1850年，儿童占采矿业劳动力的20-50%。
The consequence of working at such an early age was that most children employed in mines never had more than three years of schooling. Children very often suffered health problems from the physical hard work and long, 12-hour shifts. Breathing in coal dust year after year caused many to develop lung diseases later in life. As the historian S. Yorke emphatically notes, "The coal mining industry must represent one of the worst exploitations of men, women and children ever to have taken place in Britain" (98).
从小工作的后果是，大多数受雇于矿场的儿童从未接受过三年以上的教育。孩子们经常因为体力劳动和长时间的12小时轮班而出现健康问题。年复一年地吸入煤尘使许多人在以后的生活中患上了肺部疾病。正如历史学家S.Yorke所强调的那样，“煤矿业必须代表英国有史以来对男人、女人和儿童最恶劣的剥削之一”（98）。
工业革命时期，一名童工（尼尔·加拉格尔饰）在宾夕法尼亚州的一座矿山事故中受伤。他当时只有13岁。
工厂里的儿童
Factories with new steam-powered machines like power looms were the great development of the Industrial Revolution, but they came at a cost. These places, especially the textile mills, were dark and noisy, and they were deliberately kept damp so that the cotton threads were more supple and less likely to break. The new mechanization of manufacturing meant that few skills were needed anymore for the basic workforce. Children were required to go under the machines to clear up cotton waste for reuse or to repair broken threads or remove blockages from the machinery. This was often dangerous work as the machines could be unpredictable. A massive weaving machine might come to a crashing halt with heavy parts falling down and movable pieces like spindles flying around like bullets.
拥有动力织机等新的蒸汽动力机器的工厂是工业革命的伟大发展，但它们也是有代价的。这些地方，特别是纺织厂，黑暗而嘈杂，而且刻意保持潮湿，以便棉线更加柔软，不易断裂。制造业的新机械化意味着基本劳动力几乎不用具备什么技能。孩子们被要求到机器下面清理棉花废料以便再利用，或者修理断线或清除机器上的堵塞物。这往往是危险的工作，因为机器可能无法预测。一台巨大的织布机可能会突然崩溃，沉重的部件掉下来，像主轴这样的可移动部件会像子弹一样飞来飞去。
In the factories, children worked, just like the adults around them, long 12-hour shifts six days a week. 12 hours nicely split the day in two for employers. As the machines were operated 24 hours a day, one child would return to a warm bed after work as the occupant rolled out to start their own shift, a practice known as 'hot bedding'. Children were the cheapest labour to be found, and employers were not slow to use them. A child worker was about 80% cheaper than a man and 50% cheaper than a woman. Children had the advantage of having nimble fingers and smaller bodies that could get into places and under machinery that adults could not. They could also be bullied and threatened by supervisors much more easily than an adult, and they could not fight back.
在工厂里，孩子们像周围的成年人一样，每周工作六天，轮班 12 小时。对雇主来说，12个小时很好地将一天分成两部分。由于机器一天24小时都在运转，一个孩子在下班后会回到温暖的床上，因为床上的人要开始自己的工作，这种做法被称为“暖床”。儿童是当时可以找到的最廉价的劳动力，而雇主们很早就注意到这一点。一个童工比一个男人便宜80%，比一个女人便宜50%。儿童的优点是手指灵活，身体较小，可以进入成年人无法进入的地方和机器下面。他们也比成年人更容易受到监管人员的欺负和威胁，而且他们无法反击。
Children were also apprenticed to factory owners in a system similar to indenture. Parents were given money by their parish to allow their children to work in factories. The practice was common, and it was not until 1816 that a limit was put on how far away the children were required to work – 64 km (40 mi).
在一个类似于契约的制度中，儿童也被作为学徒交给工厂主。教区给父母钱，让他们的孩子在工厂工作。这种做法很普遍，直到1816年，才对儿童工作的距离进行了限制：64公里（40英里）。
Children made up around one-third of the workforce in Britain's factories. In 1832, as the Industrial Revolution reached its final decade, these children were still subject to appalling working conditions in factories, as here described by the MP Michael Sadler, who pressed for reform: Even, at this moment, while I am thus speaking on behalf of these oppressed children, what numbers of them are still at their toil, confined to heated rooms, bathed in perspiration, stunned with the roar of revolving wheels, poisoned with the noxious effluvia of grease and gas, til at last, weary and exhausted, they turn out almost naked, plunge into the inclement air, and creep shivering to beds from which a relay of their young work-fellows have just risen; and such is the fate of many of them at the best while in numbers of instances, they are diseased, stunted, crippled, depraved, destroyed.(Shelley, 18)
在英国的工厂里，儿童占了大约三分之一的劳动力。1832年，随着工业革命进入最后十年，这些儿童仍然在工厂里遭受着骇人听闻的工作条件，正如国会议员迈克尔·萨德勒 (Michael Sadler)所描述的那样：
此时此刻，当我为这些受压迫的孩子说话时，他们中的许多人仍在辛勤工作，被关在充斥着暖气的房间里，沐浴在汗水中，被旋转的车轮的轰鸣声惊呆，被油脂和气体的有毒液体所毒害，直到最后，他们疲惫不堪，几乎赤身裸体，沉浸在恶劣的空气中，颤抖着爬到床上，他们年轻的工作伙伴刚从床上爬起来；这就是他们中许多人最好的命运，而在许多情况下，他们生病了，发育不良了，残废了，堕落了，被毁灭了。 (雪莱, 18)
美国佐治亚州一家棉纺厂的童工。照片拍摄于 1909 年。（美国国会图书馆）
穷人和孤儿
Children without homes and a paid position elsewhere were, if boys, often trained to become a Shoe Black, that is someone who shined shoes in the street. These paupers were given this opportunity by charitable organisations so that they would not have to go to the infamous workhouse. The workhouse was brought into existence in 1834 and was deliberately intended to be such an awful place that it did little more than keep its inhabitants alive in the belief that any more charity than that would simply encourage the poor not to bother looking for paid work. The workhouse involved what its name suggests – work, but it was tedious work indeed, typically unpleasant and repetitive tasks like crushing bones to make glue or cleaning the workhouse itself. No wonder, then, given the squalid life in the workhouse, that many children worked in factories and mines.
没有家庭和其他有偿职位的儿童，如果是男孩，往往会被训练成擦鞋匠，也就是在街上擦鞋的人。这些贫民由慈善组织提供这个机会，这样他们就不必去臭名昭著的济贫院。济贫院于1834年成立，它被刻意设计成一个可怕的地方，除了让这里的居民活命之外，几乎没有其他作用，因为人们相信，再多的施舍也只会鼓励穷人懒得去找有偿工作。济贫院（workhouse）的工作正如其名称所示：工作（work），但确实是乏味的工作，通常是令人不快的重复性工作，如粉碎骨头
（骨头制备骨胶：将骨废料（通常是动物骨头）粉碎、清洁并用蒸汽处理，从而释放出胶水物质）
来制作胶水或清洁济贫院本身。因此，鉴于济贫院的肮脏生活，许多儿童在工厂和矿场工作也就不足为奇了。
政府劳动改革
Eventually, governments did what the fledgling trade unions had struggled to achieve, and from the 1830s, the situation for workers in factories and mines, including for children, began to slowly improve. Previously, governments had always been reluctant to restrict trade in principle, preferring a laissez-faire approach to economics. It did not help that many members of Parliament were themselves large-scale employers. Nevertheless, several acts of Parliament were passed to try, although not always successfully, to limit employers' exploitation of their workforce and lay down minimum standards.
最终，政府完成了刚刚成立的工会所努力实现的目标，从19世纪30年代开始，工厂和矿场的工人，包括儿童的状况开始慢慢改善。此前，政府一直不愿意在原则上限制贸易，而是倾向于采取自由放任的经济方式。许多国会议员本身就是大规模的雇主，这一点也没有帮助。尽管如此，议会还是通过了几项法案，试图限制雇主对劳动力的剥削，并规定了最低标准，尽管并不总是成功。
The first industry to receive restrictions on worker exploitation was the cotton industry, but soon the new laws applied to workers of any kind. The 1802 Health and Morals of Apprentices Act stipulated that child apprentices should not work more than 12 hours a day, they must be given a basic education, and they must attend church services no fewer than two times each month. More acts followed, and this time they applied to all working children. The 1819 Cotton Mills and Factories Act limited work to children 9 years or over, and they could not work for more than 12 hours per day if under 16 years of age. Possible working hours for children were established as between 6 a.m. and 9 p.m. The 1833 Factory Act stipulated that children in any industry could not be legally employed under 9 years of age and could not be asked to work for more than 8 hours each day if aged 9 to 13, or no more than 12 hours each day if aged between 14 and 18. The same act prohibited all children from working at night and made it obligatory for children to attend a minimum of two hours of education each day.
第一个受到工人剥削限制的行业是棉花业，但很快，新的法律就适用于任何种类的工人。1802年的《学徒健康和道德法》规定，儿童学徒每天的工作时间不得超过12小时，他们必须接受基本教育，并且每月必须参加不少于两次的宗教仪式。更多的法案随后出台，这一次它们适用于所有工作的儿童。1819年的《棉纺厂和工厂法》将工作限制在9岁或以上的儿童，如果未满16岁，他们每天的工作时间不能超过12小时。1833年《工厂法》规定，任何行业不得合法雇用9岁以下的儿童；如果儿童是9至13岁，每天不得要求他们工作超过8小时；如果儿童是14至18岁，每天不得超过12小时。同一法案禁止所有儿童在夜间工作，并规定儿童每天必须接受至少两小时的教育。
Although there were many abuses of the new regulations, there were government inspectors tasked with ensuring they were followed. These officials could demand, for example, age certificates for any child employee or a certificate from a schoolmaster that the required number of hours of education had been given to a specific child.
虽然有许多人滥用新法规，但有政府检查员负责确保这些法规得到遵守。例如，这些官员可以要求提供任何儿童雇员的年龄证明，或由学校校长出具证明，证明某位儿童已经接受了规定小时数的教育。
Progressive changes followed the earlier acts. The 1842 Mines Act stipulated that no child under 10 years of age could be employed in underground work. The 1844 Factory Act limited anyone's working day to 12 hours, dangerous machines had to be placed in a separate workspace, and sanitary regulations were imposed on employers. The 1847 Factory Act further limited the working day to a maximum of 10 hours, a reduction that campaigners had long been lobbying the government to make. There were still many abusers of the new laws, and many parents still desperately needed the extra income their working children brought, but attitudes were finally changing in wider society in regard to using children for labour.
以前的法律被逐步修改。1842年的《采矿法》规定，不得雇用10岁以下的儿童从事地下工作。1844年的《工厂法》将任何人的工作时间限制在12小时以内，危险的机器必须放在单独的工作区，并对雇主实施卫生规定。1847年的《工厂法》进一步将工作日限制在10小时以内，这是运动者长期以来游说政府做出的一项削减。仍然有许多滥用新法律的人，许多父母仍然迫切需要他们工作的孩子带来的额外收入，但更广泛的社会对使用儿童劳动的态度终于发生了变化。
Authors like Charles Dickens wrote such damning works as Oliver Twist (1837) that pointed out the plight of poorer children. In the moralism of the Victorian period, many people now wanted children to preserve their innocence longer and not be so early exposed to the temptations and moral pitfalls of adult life. The idea that childhood was worth keeping but could be lost if not protected saw the foundation of the National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children in 1889. The arts continued to prick people's consciences. J. M. Barries' character of Peter Pan, which first appeared in 1901, confirmed this shifting of attitudes and the realisation and recognition that childhood was a thing of value in and of itself, a precious thing that should not be obliterated in the daily grind of mines and factories.
像查尔斯·狄更斯（Charles Dickens）这样的作家写下了《雾都孤儿》（Oliver Twist，1837年）这样具有破坏性的作品，指出了贫穷儿童的困境。在维多利亚时期的道德主义中，许多人现在希望儿童能够更长久地保持他们的纯真，而不是那么早暴露在成人生活的诱惑和道德陷阱中。童年是值得保留的，但如果不加以保护就会失去，这种想法促使1889年成立了全国防止虐待儿童协会。艺术继续刺激着人们的良知。JM 巴里斯 (JM Barries) 于 1901 年首次出演的彼得·潘 (Peter Pan)角色证实了这种态度的转变，以及人们意识并认识到童年本身就是一件有价值的东西，是一件珍贵的东西，不应该在矿山和工厂的日常工作中被抹杀。
参考书目：
Allen, Robert C.
The British Industrial Revolution in Global Perspective.
Cambridge University Press, 2009. Corey, Melinda & Ochoa, George.
The Encyclopedia of the Victorian World.
Henry Holt & Co, 1996. Dugan, Sally & Dugan, David.
The Day the World Took Off.
Channel 4 Book, 2023. Hepplewhite, Peter.
Industrial Revolution
. Wayland, 2016. Horn, Jeff.
The Industrial Revolution
. Greenwood, 2007. Humphries, Jane.
Childhood and Child Labour in the British Industrial Revolution
. Cambridge University Press, 2011. Shelley, C et al.
Industrialisation and Social Change in Britain
. PEARSON SCHOOLS, 2016.
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原文作者：
Mark Cartwright
驻意大利的历史作家。他的主要兴趣包括陶瓷、建筑、世界神话和发现所有文明的共同思想。他拥有政治哲学硕士学位，是《世界历史百科全书》的出版总监。
原文网址：https://www.worldhistory.org/trans/es/2-2216/trabajo-infantil-en-la-revolucion-industrial-brita/
