Slowly but surely as more and more laws were passed throughout the century, what had initially been a life of economic exploitation and toil for “the adult in miniature”, became a part of the cycle of life apart. From its early beginnings in 1833, the various improvements made to children’s working conditions and the gradual introduction of educational provision transformed their daily lives. Particularly for the least fortunate of society, the ‘children without childhood’ 5 childhood had certainly been transformed when compared to earlier times, from a life dominated by employment from the age of six or seven to a life spent in the protective environment of the school until around the age of twelve or more. 3 In comparison to what had existed before, contemporaries had a right to feel that their achievements amounted to a “golden age” of the child.
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