Figure 1.--This photograph shows the breaker boys in a photograph taken about the turn of the century. Notice how they all are wearing hats. Also notice the supervisor with a cane.

Perhaps the most horific working conditions faced by children were those that te children working in coal mines endured. Women and children were often preferred because they would work for less money and were more compliant. They could also work in smaller areas and reach into the smallest crevices. The condition of the breaker boys was especially heart rending. There were many other jobs given to the children. Photographs suggest that the children employed in mines were boys, but in the early 19th century before the development of photography, girls were also employed, bur in smaller numbers.

Jobs Performed by Children

There were a variety of mine jobs assigned to children. This changed somewhat over time.

Trappers

Contemporary sources descibe "trappers". A 1825 source decribe "trappers" as, "boys of the youngest class, employed to open and shut the doors, which keep the ventilation in the workings regular." Sources in 1849 and 88 describe them as, "A little boy whose employment consists in opening and shutting a trap-door when required : his wages are 9d. or 10d. per day of 12 hours" (1849). "At present 1s. to 1s. 2d. per day of 8 hours." (1888). A 1892 source reports "They are the youngest boys employed in the mine. They are stationed at traps or doors in various parts of the pit, which they have to open when trams of coal pass through and immediately to close again, as a means of directing the current of air for ventilation to follow certain prescribed channels. It was formerly the practice to send boys of not more than six years to work in the mine as trappers. They remained in the pit for eighteen hours every day, and received fivepence a day each as wages. He was in solitude and total darkness the whole time he was in the mine, except when a tram was passing. He went to his labour at two o'clock in the morning, so that during the greater part of the year it was literally true that he did not see daylight from one Sunday till the Saturday following."

Coupler

A 1849 reports that a couler was, "A boy who couples or connects, by means of the coupling chains, the tubs of coal in order to form a set or train."

Breaker Boys

Women and children were employed in mines during the early 19th century. By the late 19th century in America, the younger children no longer went down into the mines, but were employed as breaker boys. Their job was to pull out slate and rocks that was mixed in with the coal. The smal hands of children was considered more effective for this than the large hands of adults. It was gruling work and easy to injure hands with the rovks and coal moving by. A supervisor with a cane would strike boys deemed not to be working hard enough.

American Child Miners

We note numerous photographs and articles documenting children working in mines during the early 20th century. Most of the material we hsave seen relsates to coal mining.

Article (1904)

Here is a 1904 account describing the lives of the breaker boys. I believe it was written by Peter Roberts who represented the Anthracite Coal Communities, presumably representing the miners and their families. "One of our superintendents said that the boys in the anthracite coal fields graduate from the breakers and the mines. It is appropriate then to add the breaker as a school where our boys are trained. Letourneau said that the Targui women knew how to read and write in greater numbers than the men. That is the case with those raised in our territory. The girls are better educated than the boys. ...."

Book: The Bitter Cry of Children (1906)

One author describes children in the coal mines, "Work in the coal breakers is exceedingly hard and dangerous. Crouched over the chutes, the boys sit hour after hour, picking out the pieces of slate and other refuse from the coal as it rushes past to the washers. From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men. When a boy has been working for some time and begins to get round-shouldered, his fellows say that ?He?s got his boy to carry round wherever he goes.? "

English Child Miners

History generally teaches that up until the middle of the 19th century children, mainly boys were employed in mines. Al tasks to do. They opened and closed tunnel doors or pulled trucks laden with coal. Books often contain illustrated line drawings depicting these jobs. I believe that an illustrator for the 1842 Government report into working conditions of mines originally did these drawings. The first image is from the Mary Evens Picture library. It shows a boy hauling a coal truck through a tunnel. Two other images of boys working in the mines are taken from the book Wicked Wigan and would also seem to be 1841 illustrations. The mine inspector spoke with Henry Gibson who told his story. He was a drawer at Lord Balcarres’s pit at Haigh, Wigan, Lancashire, U.k. The date of the deposition was May 13, 1842.

Mine Owners

A HBC reader tells us, "I purchased an album of 32 cabinet cards - all portraits of children and their parents from 1 family - a couple of the photos were identified and I was able to track down the family in the 1881 and 1901 census. The family name is Straker - prosperous Coal mine owners from the North East of England in the Durham area.

Accidents

The Durham Mining Museum website has a great deal of information about these miunes, including some information about the children who worked there. There is information in the 'In Memoriam' pages of the website which gives names and details of those killed working in the coal mining industry. Some of those killed were only 9 and 10 years old. Some example are listed here. Atkinson, Joseph, 14 Feb 1871, aged 10, Trapper, improperly hewing coal and caused the roof to fall upon him Wilkinson, Edward, 08 Jan 1859, aged 9, Coupler, fall of stone

Photography

A HBC reader who collects old photographs reports, "I don't suppose I'll find many photos of young boys like these dressed for working down the pit, it affirms what I have said before about photos tending to illustrate the more affluent people of Victorian Society. This began to change at the turn of the 20th century. Several noted photographer began to record the apauling conditions in which women and children worked. These heat-rending images were lead to progressive legislation in both Europe and America regulating the employment of both children and women. The provisions and chronology of these laws varies substantially from country to country.

Created: March 4, 2000
Last updated: 5:42 AM 1/26/2011