The Women who made Victorian Matchboxes (Brutal Work and Starvation Pay)
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- Опубликовано: 8 фев 2025
- Victorian women were exploited as match-box makers in London's East End, working long hours day and night to make enough boxes to earn money to eat and stave off the rent collector - so many in fact that they lived surrounded by them in mean and dirty rooms. Match-box making was such a horrible piece-work existence that, were the boxes you spent countless hours making failed to dry, then not only would you earn nothing from the factory, but you'd find starvation knocking at the door. Find out about this unforgiving work in an eye-witness contemporary account by charitable ladies that visited homeworkers to discover their hard lives.
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▶️ Hard Life of Victorian Match Sellers: • Hard Life of Victorian...
▶️ Victorian London's Brutal East End Slum - Filthy Old Nichol Street, Bethnal Green: • Victorian London's Bru...
▶️ Victorian London's Spitalfields Slum - A History of East End Poverty: • Victorian London's Spi...
▶️ Worst Jobs in Victorian History (Playlist): • Worst Jobs in Victoria...
▶️ Victorian documentaries (Playlist):
• Victorians
▶️ Edwardian Documentaries (Playlist): • Edwardians
▶️ Criminal Past (Playlist): • Criminal Past
▶️ Victorian workhouses (Playlist):
• Victorian Workhouses
▶️ American Slums and Tenements (Playlist):
• American Slums and Ten...
Credits: Narration - markmanningmedia.com
CC-BY - Match box making, Members of the Matchmakers' Union, ‘Pearl’ safety matches, London, England, 1890-1 by Wellcome Collection; Matchbox by Auckland Museum
CC BY-SA - Bow match factory by Tim Fahey; Queen's Building Mile End Road by Ewan Munro
#MatchSeller #LittleMatchGirl #VictorianEraJobs #VictorianJobs #MatchboxMaking #VictorianLondon #VictorianDocumentary #VictorianLondonDocumentary #VictorianEraDocumentary #VictorianLife #Victorian #FactFeast
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▶ Hard Life of Victorian Match Sellers: ruclips.net/video/dR4WJY7DA0U/видео.html
▶ Victorian London's Brutal East End Slum - Filthy Old Nichol Street, Bethnal Green: ruclips.net/video/e7b6fAdT_j4/видео.html
▶ Victorian London's Spitalfields Slum - A History of East End Poverty: ruclips.net/video/bz1r47wGxWE/видео.html
▶ Worst Jobs in Victorian History (Playlist): ruclips.net/p/PLLSSHJuYZhj4UEBwfRdQFuMBSqHIwzwZJ
▶ Victorian documentaries (Playlist):
ruclips.net/p/PLLSSHJuYZhj5Nupw8SGZGGfVGg1hWjN6z
The splendid thing about this channel is that it reveals how the vast majority of people in "the good old days" lived miserably and largely anonymously.
This channel is needed now more than ever!
Once again I say bravo and well done!
Thank Brian! Lots more history to come.
To worry about paying rent one day and worry about food the next ....
Working so hard and having so much worry, just for necessities. Anything extra seemed like an overwhelming gift. ❤
These poor Women & Girls got Fossey Jaw from the Phosphorus. The Phosphorus ate there jaw and face away. It was Dreadful.😢
……my thoughts’ exactly. Like the women who put the ‘luminescence’ into watches’, & clocks’…………
One of my favorite books when i was little was the little match girl by hans christian andersen. So sad but so beautifully done.
Mine also
That was my favorite story when I was a child. One night there was a little movie on TV and I knew watching it was a baf idea to watch it but I did anyway and cried the entire way through it. I was 8 yrs old so that was 50 yrs ago and I still remember it like I watched it yesterday. That story and Charlotte's Web was my totally favorite books and movie's. And to be totally honest they still are in that genre.
How many of these children lived a fruitful life & what was their life expectancy. Child exploitation in Victorian England which as history has told us was when Britain was most prosperous under the rule of Queen Victoria. Props to FactFeast for bringing us the weekly blast from the past
Thanks for watching Bob!
@@FactFeast Always a pleasure, thanks for being there for us that are intrigued by the history that you present to us weekly.
Children didn't stand an icecubes chance in hell when they were scene as people who could be exploited until they were of no use any more. No childhood is the condition they gre up in and it was all for nothing if that's the sacrifice they made and no doubt that was definitely the way it was.
What a tedious job! 😢 The stress they must have suffered bent over a table working! Love this channel though!!! ❤
They worked so much for so little return. Thank you for your comment and support for the channel.
I worked in the old Bryant and May factory in Bow east London last year. The place has a dark feel about it and has a terrible history. The phossy girls comes to mind. The place has been converted into flats that only the uber rich can afford. The hipsters can live there as far as i am concerned, I certainly wouldn't
My Mum Started Work There When She Was 15 In 1961 Was Much Improved By Then Dentist And Nurse On site.
Thank You *Fact Feast* I luv this one ... highly interesting w/ great illustrations. I will share it. Of course a hard sad life. Horrific time for the working poor & bad housing
Thank you for sharing Miji. I really appreciate your support!
Thank you Fact Feast for another great video! Child labour isn't right, but the thought of 4 and 6 year olds being patient enough to make matchboxes does make me wonder. Most of today's children would not be still enough to help, much less listen to instructions. Being paid a starvation wage was adding insult to an empty stomach, for sure. I look forward to the next video!!
They worked so many hours for so little. I can’t imagine what it would have been like to toil so long to find the glue didn’t dry or seal, meaning all your work and expenses were wasted. All they had in such events was the charity of neighbours.
I love this channel so much. Hearing the actual words of these people is incredible. And your voices are great too! I feel completely transported every time. Thank you for all your work 😊 If you're taking requests... did anyone report on life on the canals?
I'm happy you like how we present history. Thank you! I'm interested in ideas. A lot does depend on whether people documented their experiences. I haven't seen anything about canals.
No worries! Thanks for your reply 😊
Thanks!
Thank you very much. I really appreciate your support! 😊
Thanks ff i love your videos
You’re welcome. Thanks for your support!
It's why a lot of people hopped on a ship to America.
America by that time was worse than in England especially for the Irish people
If you must eat, money is necessary. Money is got by work or theft. Without work, it will be theft, or selling what you have at hand.
The book called The History of Labor in America would seem like a dry boring college text but it turned out to be fascinating with photos of kids in the mines and canning factories. Runs parallel to the history of labor in England.
Thank you sir for your wonderful cultural documentary channel. As always iam gathering main information about topics you mentioned briefly here it’s first of all match sticks they were invited by English chemist named John walker im 1827 . In many cultures parents would request assistance of matchmaker in finding suitable spouse for their child .Enola Holmes and her relative matchgirls strike is real historical event . Workers or matchgirls young aged six years old. Many of girls at factory at thirteen years old. Their work stand for all day , only 2 scheduled breaks , any unscheduled toilet break , would dedicated from their meagre wages . They worked 14 hours a day in east end of London vapors on daily basis. Matching company won on strike to expose company poor conditions. They were able to secure some labor rights for themselves, they were inspired unskilled workers in other industries to unionize and demand changes . On July they gave demands of ( match girls) ended fines system and re - employed those who had been sack ending strike . It’s was not until 1901 that Bryant , May finally stopped using dangerous yellow phosphorus in their matches . Thank you for giving us chance to read learn new information and improve our English as well. Best wishes for you your dearest ones .
Thank you for writing Khatoon.
Needed this today. Was in car accident. Rolled my jeep 3x and broke a rib . this lil diddy was a necessary source of entertainment
I’m sorry to hear that! What a frightening experience. I wish you well for the recovery process.
My mother was a matchbox girl. She had to sell 14 million matchboxes every week and was only given two matches to eat every evening.
Pahhh, LUXURY
I was only given ONE!
Well, we had it tough.
You were lucky! We had to get up at 2 in morning ,work 16 hours down the mill,then when we got home our father chopped us into peices with a sword....
1:05 My parents were British immigrants, I remember my mother talking about an older lady she knew growing up and she suffer from “Fossy Mouth “, from working and eating in a match factory. The damage it causes is painful and fatal! This was as late as the 1930’s!
8:05 The woman that worked with “White Lead”, used for paint suffered from heavy metal poisoning from the lead. That likely effected the central nervous system and would make assembling matchboxes very difficult it they suffered loss of touch and diminished dexterity. Regardless, many died horrible deaths at far too young an age.
similar to the 'radium girls' that painted watch dials with glow-in-the-dark radium (for soldiers to be able to see their watches at night) ; symptoms started with tooth loss, but the pockets would never heal, and remained painful abscesses filled with foul-smelling pus...then the jaw bone would disintegrate and while at the dentist office , the dentist would be pulling out pieces of jawbone . i can't imagine a more agonizing, slow death then radium poisoning
Horrific.
Devoted to H. C. Andersen
⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Much appreciated. Thank you.
🙏✨👌🦉🐲❣️
Much appreciated!
@@FactFeast I appreciate what you do so damn well, thank you all🥰...🙏✨👌🦉🐲❣️
😅
I would like to see stories of European countries and British colonies
It’s something I’m interested in. I have a video about slums in Paris you can find on the channel page.