The coal mines were worse, with young children having to travel through the mines without any light, often carrying loads while walking in water that was up to their calves. The main reason for employing women and children in the mines was that they would work for less than a man would accept.
If a child was not “lucky” enough to be employed in these manners, they had the unpleasant option of life on the streets, with its raw sewage, rotting animal and vegetable wastes in the streets, rats, disease, and bad water. They also had to find food and a place to stay out of the rain and cold. Turning to crime for survival was not an act of greed so much as one of pure need. Small wonder, then, that Magwitch turned to crime at a young age.
As the century progressed, laws were passed that outlawed infant abandonment and failure to provide shelter, clothing, food, and medical care. In 1884, national laws in Britain protected children in their own homes. In addition, Parliament regulated working conditions, minimum age for working, and the length of the workday for children. Laws for mandatory schooling, however, did not come until the twentieth century.
