Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?

Subject: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: GUEST,limulus
Date: 09 Jan 25 - 03:12 AM

Seeking songs dealing with or making mention of child labour- such as "The Testimony of Patience Kershaw" or "Babies in the Mill"

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Beer
Date: 09 Jan 25 - 03:01 PM

Wow!! Just found these two on youtube. Very moving indeed. Interesting thread. I hope you are successful with it.

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Robert B. Waltz
Date: 09 Jan 25 - 03:44 PM

Mills were, of course, one of the leading employers of children.

The traditional mill song I know best is "Hard Times in the Mill," which has many, many variants.

They didn't make much of a dent in tradition, but the songs of Ella May Wiggins are by a mill worker about the lives of her family and children. Wiggins herself was murdered by the company stooges and her eldest daughter raped, when she was about eleven years old.

The most significant of Wiggins's songs is surely "The Mill Mother's Lament."

"The Mill Mother's Lament" was sung to the tune of "Mary Phagan" [Laws F20], which has a depressing irony. Mary Phagan was also a teenage laborer in a factory (pencil mill), who was murdered by a janitor. The song is right about the murder (although it ignores the likelihood that she was raped), but it is completely wrong in blaming Leo Frank. He was undeniably innocent.

It might also be worth looking at the songs of Mary Brooksbank.

Consider also:
The Little Chimney Sweep
Jimmy Brown the Newsboy
The Newsboy on the Train
Poor Jim the Newsboy
Poor Little Joe (the dying newsboy)

For children who would work but are too young even for that, there is
Row Us Over the Tide

If I were doing a program on this, I really would start with "The Mill Mother's Lament." Or "Mary Phagan," which is almost as bitter, but I don't think it can be made accurate enough to sing.

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: GUEST,.gargoyle
Date: 09 Jan 25 - 03:45 PM

William Blake's "Weep, Weep, Weep"

Score: here ... and you can do a deep dive from that source:

(https://scalar.usc.edu/works/sounding-childhood/media/chimney-sweeper--original-score-pt-1)

(https://scalar.usc.edu/works/sounding-childhood/index)

Country Western You Tube version:

(https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=vJrCO153LdM)

Sincerely,
Gargoyle

Interesting - this thread has potential to golden

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: GUEST
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 08:05 AM

A version recorded by the blue sky boys was made in the 1930s - I had this recording on a cd called the best of american roots a 4cd set but never discovered the song on amazon music. I would also like the words - from Joe.

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 10:24 AM

The Workhouse boy

And we all of us say it and we say it with sneers
Jamie’s been murdered by the overseers

Ray

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Paul Burke
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 11:28 AM

In a lighter vein perhaps, Edwin Waugh's Merry Little Doffer Lad. You'll find versions on YouTube like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yu_dkxSuR0s

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: cujimmy
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 11:58 AM

John Condon is a lovely song about the youngest soldier known to have died in the 1st world war. He was only 14 yrs old and signed up as a volunteer even though he was underage. Maybe he looked older than he actually was, there is a lot of debate about what happened. Anyway there are a lot of very good performances of the song on youtube and there is another thread from 2005 where people are dicussing the song. Here is a lovely version by some school children

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9dd-ITx0KKY

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: r.padgett
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 12:02 PM

Huskar pit disaster ~Kate Rusby~ song Silkstone child labour and working in a mine flash flood led to Enquiry and stopped children working in pits

Ray

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Nigel Parsons
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 12:03 PM

From Noël Coward
"Don't put your daughter on the stage Mrs Worthington"

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Bill D
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 01:45 PM

A wonderfully poignant song from Bernard Wrigley about a young girl going off to work in a mill...

First Day at t' Mill

#11...scroll down

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: Mick Pearce (MCP)
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 02:25 PM

Four Pence A Day, about lead mining in upper Teesdale.

Subject: RE: Songs/Ballads about Child Labour?
From: GUEST,RA
Date: 10 Feb 26 - 02:48 PM

"The Drummer Boy of Waterloo" as sung by Packie Manus Byrne.