Random Children In Victorian England Were Sold Into Chimney Sweeping Slavery (5 items)

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  (#2) Working Conditions Were Beyond Harrowing

  A child chimney sweep's working conditions were far beyond merely awful. Kids were customarily given a blanket designed for collecting debris; this usually doubled as filthy bedding. As stated, the job almost always stunted their growth as well; they had to remain crouched in unnatural positions inside the chimneys, which damaged their growing bones and joints.

  And then there was the actual experience of cleaning, which was often terrifying. Chimney flues were "pitch black, claustrophobic... and confusing to navigate in the dark," as Owlcation put it. Even if the sweep successfully wriggled into the narrow portal, there was no guarantee he would make it out:

  "If the apprentice climbed the whole chimney, cleaning it from hearth to rooftop, and exited a row of chimneys, he could forget which chimney he came out of. When that happened, he could go back down the wrong one, or go down the right chimney, but make a wrong turn at some merging of the flues. Children could suffocate or burn to death by getting lost on the way down, and accidentally entering the wrong chimney flue."
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  (#1) Child-Workers Were Purchased From Their Parents

  The dangers of chimney sweeping were well known, and as a result, there were few candidates willing to accept the risks the position entailed. So unscrupulous taskmasters got around the problem by "purchasing" children from their poverty-stricken parents, who were generally saddled with too many mouths to feed. Said transaction was a one-time thing: children received no pay for their work, and although they were technically sold-out as "apprentices," they were essentially slaves.
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  (#3) Children Often Died On The Job

  Most chimneys were no more than 18 inches wide, and twisted, to boot – and many young sweeps got fatally lost in their dark and winding structures. These children – who were sometimes as young as four years old – were frequently at the mercy of "cold-hearted masters [who] would light fires to spur [them] on to climb more quickly."

  When a child did get stuck, a second child would sometimes be sent in to rescue him, and both would often perish. The walls of the house would then have to be torn down in order to remove said corpses.
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  (#5) The Practice Wasn't Abolished In Britain Until 1875

  Even in its heyday, the practice of using child chimney sweeps was met with criticism. In 1788, a bill calling for regulation was passed, but rarely enforced. Various other attempts to curtail child labor followed, but all were largely unsuccessful until the Chimney Sweepers Act of 1834. Said law prohibited "masters" from taking on any boys under the age of 14 ... but it did little to lessen the suffering of older boys, or of sweeps in general.

  Finally, the Chimney Sweepers and Chimneys Regulation Act of 1840 made it outright illegal for anyone under 21 to work as a sweep, but even this law was still widely disregarded. Business continued more or less as usual until 1875, when a 12-year-old sweep, George Brewster, got stuck in a chimney and died. His boss was found guilty of manslaughter, and widespread publicity incited a fervent campaign for strict regulations. Sweeps were finally protected under a bill that was aggressively enforced – though it was too late for the countless young laborers who had come before.
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  (#4) Testicular Cancer Was Rampant

  The high rate of scrotal carcinoma in men who worked as chimney sweeps was first observed in 1775 by doctor Percivall Plott, who described the progression of what he called "Chimney Sweep's Cancer" in detail:

  "It is a disease which makes its first appearance on the inferior part of the scrotum, where it produces a painful, ragged, ill-looking sore. The trade call it the soot wart. I never saw it under the age of puberty which is, I suppose, one reason why it is generally taken by both patient and surgeon for venereal, and being treated with mercurials. In no great length of time it penetrates the skin... and seizes the testicle, and when arrived at the abdomen it affects some of the viscera, and becomes painfully destructive.

  The fate of these people is singularly hard: in their early infancy they are most frequently treated with great brutality and they are almost starved with hunger and cold. They are then thrust up narrow, and sometimes hot, chimneys where they are bruised, burned and almost suffocated; and when they get to puberty, become peculiarly liable to a most noisome, painful and fatal disease."

  Because of the invasive nature of the condition, few people who contracted it lived past middle age. And those who didn't often developed lung cancer later on. (Sweeps inhaled countless toxic substances, so some form of cancer was often inevitable/simply a waiting game).

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