Lord%20Shaftesbury

1
Lord Shaftesbury

• WALT to identify the improvements made for
  working children

2
What was wrong with the working conditions for
children?

• Worked long hours
• Dangerous conditions
• No education
• Paid very little because they were younger
• Worked from a very young age
• Short breaks often with no fresh air

3
Lord Shaftesbury

• Anthony Ashley Cooper was born in 1801
• He became the Earl of Shaftesbury in 1851
• At the age of 25, he became a member of
  Parliament. He began to take an interest in the
  plight of poor children after reading newspaper
  reports about labour in industry

4
What could be done to improve working conditions?

• Laws were set up

5
1833

• Lord Ashley proposed that children should work
  for a maximum of 10 hours a day
• This bill failed but the government realised that
  children needed to be protected
• A year later the Factory Act was passed

6
Factory Act

• It was now illegal for children under 9 to be
  employed in textile factories
• Children between 9 and 13 were still allowed to
  work for up to 12 hours a day
• Only 4 inspectors were employed to make sure this
  law was carried out.
• This worried some people. Why?

7
Coals Mine Act - 1842

• This meant women and children were not allowed to
  work underground
• Lord Shaftesbury continued his work for improved
  working hours for children in factories

8
Other interests

• Lord Shaftesbury was also interested in education
  for working class children
• He was chairman of the Ragged Schools Union - an
  organisation that had set up over a hundred
  schools for poor children
• He died in 1885