What was it like for children in the 1850s?

Answer 1

Well, infant mortality was much higher back then, especially because vaccines weren't in wide use yet (though they had invented the smallpox vaccine). It was quite common for a child, especially under the age of 5, to die from some kind of illness.

Primary education was common, but not secondary education (unless you were clergy or whatever). There was mandatory public education, but you only had to attend at least 3 months a year, and could drop out at a young age.

Many kids also worked on farms or at various jobs, often very hard and dangerous work. People were starting to recognize that working conditions needed to be regulated, but the regulations were laughable compared to modern day. In some industries (eg textiles) there were rules requiring that they not employ very young children (eg under nine) but this was not very well regulated.

There was some concern about children's rights. Organizations were in place to protect abused children and to care for orphans, though again this was much less than modern day. In 1869 there was the first ever conviction of parents for child abuse.

Young offenders were starting to be housed in different institutions from adults, and to get different trials. However, they did not have an age limit below which a child could not be legally held responsible for a crime.

Answer 2

* Alfred Nobel creates dynamite in Germany * James Clerk Maxwell publishes his equations that quantify the relationship between electricity and magnetism, and shows that light is a form of electromagnetic radiation * Gregor Mendel formulates Mendel's laws of inheritance, the basis for genetics * Dimitri Mendeleev develops the modern periodic table * Helium was first detected during the total solar eclipse of August 18, 1868 in parts of India. It was the first eclipse expedition in which a spectroscope was used. * J. Norman Lockyer and Pierre Janssen are honored for their discovery of the nature of the Sun's prominences. They were the first to notice bright spectral emission lines when viewing the limb of the Sun without the aid of a total solar eclipse. * Italian Unification under King Victor Emmanuel II. Wars for expansion and national unity continue until the incorporation of the Papal States (March 17, 1861 - September 20, 1870). * American Civil War fought between the remaining United States of America under President Abraham Lincoln and the self-declared Confederate States of America under President Jefferson Davis (April 12, 1861 - April 9, 1865). Beginning of the Reconstruction era under President Andrew Johnson (1865 - 1869). * French occupation of Mexico (1863 - 1867). Replacement of President of Mexico Benito Juárez (1861 - 1863) at first with Juan Nepomuceno Almonte (1863 - 1864) and then by Emperor Maximilian of Mexico (1864 - 1867). Benito Juárez eventually manages to recover his position (1867 - 1872). * Meiji Restoration in Japan (1866 - 1869). Tokugawa Yoshinobu, 15th and last of the Tokugawa shoguns loses control to the Meiji Emperor. A series of reforms follows. The samurai class fails to survive while the Daimyo turn to politics. * The Dominion of Canada is created by the British North America Act - July 1, 1867 * President of the United States Abraham Lincoln is assassinated by John Wilkes Booth, April 15, 1865. * Florence Nightingale founds school for nurses in 1860. * On 18 October 1860 the first Convention of Peking formally ended the Second Opium War. * On 19 July 1864 the Nanjing fallen down formally ended 14 years the Taiping Rebellion‎. * In Catholicism, reaction against higher criticism and the liberal movement in Europe * The Football Association is formed in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland, paving the way for Association football to become the world's predominant spectator sport * The Seventh-day Adventist Church becomes officially established in 1863 in Battle Creek, Michigan. * Bahá'u'lláh declares his station as "One who was made Manifest", in the Garden of Ridván, as foretold by the Báb. Bahá'ís see this as the beginning date of the Bahá'í Faith. * The Christian Mission, later renamed The Salvation Army, is co-founded by William and Catherine Booth in London, England in 1865. * The London Fire Brigade was established in 1865. * Leo Tolstoy publishes War and Peace. * Fyodor Dostoevsky publishes Crime and Punishment. * Lewis Carroll publishes Alice's Adventures in Wonderland. * Impressionism went public. * Emperor Franz Josef (Austria-Hungary) * Prime Minister Sir John A. Macdonald (Canada) * Emperor Napoleon III (Second French Empire) * King William I, German Emperor (Germany) * King Victor Emmanuel II (Italy) * Pope Pius IX * Emperor Alexander II (Russia) * Queen Isabella II (Spain) * Queen Victoria (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) * Prime Minister Henry John Temple, 3rd Viscount Palmerston (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) * Prime Minister Edward Smith-Stanley, 14th Earl of Derby (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) * Prime Minister William Ewart Gladstone (United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland) * President James Buchanan (United States) * President Abraham Lincoln (United States) * President Andrew Johnson (United States) * President Jefferson Davis (Confederate States of America) * President Ulysses S. Grant (United States) * Nasser-al-Din Shah of Qajar dynasty (Persia) * Emperor Kōmei (Japan) * Emperor Meiji (Japan) * Emperor Xianfeng (China) * Emperor Tongzhi (China)

Answer 3

the kids were always jumping on two feet while skipping over a rainbow

In the 1850s children worked more than they played. Most of them could not read and there were no electronic devices such as phone; television; games; computers and so forth, so they played what we call the old fashioned games. Stick and hoop rolling was interesting. Climbing trees; swimming in the pond or creek; lucky children might have a few wooden toys. If the child was living on a farm, and most were, they worked right along side the adults. The type of chore they did was the easiest and as they grew the responsibilities grew larger. For instance, as a three year old you would accompany a parent or older sibling to the hen house and help gather eggs and when you were 6 years old you would go by yourself and gather the eggs. There were games like Red Rover Red Rover; Tag; Hide and Seek and I Spy that were usually played on Sundays.

Answer 4

it was pore for them

Answer 5

it was horrible :(