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What jobs did children have during the Victorian era?
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Victorian era
Queen Victoria, watercolour by Julia Abercromby, 1883, after a watercolour by Heinrich von Angeli; in the National Portrait Gallery, London.
During the Victorian era, children often worked in factories, mines, and fields. The rapid development of large-scale manufacturing led to the exploitation of young children in industrial work. In textile mills, children as young as nine worked long hours, with the Factory Act of 1833 eventually restricting their workday to eight hours and mandating some schooling. In some cases, children were employed as part of a family work team in textile production. The conditions in these early factories were often miserable, with long hours spent performing repetitive tasks in unhealthy environments.1234