chid labor | Jane Takes On History

As you know, I’ve paid a lot of attention to child labor in British factories during the Industrial Revolution. Child labor was a big issue back then; public agitation probably started in 1796, when the Manchester Board of Health issued a devastating paper about the health of families in that increasingly industrial city.

But it wasn’t until 1833 that Parliament passed a law that was effective in limiting the hours young children worked. Earlier acts had no method of enforcement. The Factory Act of 1833 (also called “Althorp’s Act) did have teeth: it required inspectors.

Why did a genuinely strong bill pass in 1833? The answer may surprise you. Continue reading “Bootleggers, Baptists, and Child Labor”

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How did we get standardized time zones? Railroads needed to know what time it was to avoid crashes. The federal government (and Detroit) opposed such zones. Lawrence Reed writes about them for the Frontier Institute.

In 2023, Fort Bragg’s name was changed to Fort Liberty because Braxton Bragg was a Confederate general. Now it is Fort Bragg again, but honoring a heroic World War II private named Roland Bragg .Charles Creitz tells the story for Fox News. But also see Sam Staley’s take on the original renaming.

Writing for Chronicles, Jack Trotter

A 1967 edition of Jonathan Swift’s Gulliver Travels is available for sale from Rarebookcellar.com.

tells us a lot we (I, at least) did not know about Jonathan Swift. Trotter considers Swift and Aristophanes the giants of Western satire.

Anders Chydenius (1729–1803), a Lutheran priest from Finland, was the Adam Smith of the Nordic countries, says Lawrence W. Reed of the Foundation of Economic Education (FEE). And he explains why.

Before there was a Boston Tea Party there were the Boston Sugar Riots. Ronald Beaty of RealClearHistory explains the “molasses mess” of 1743 as a “visceral cry against imperial meddling in a fledgling economy.”

Nat Turner was a prophetic visionary, not just a rebel, writes Carl Rollyson in the New York Sun. He is reviewing a new book about Turner, whose 1831 rebellion was the one successful slave revolt in U.S. history.

This isn’t the first time the U.S. has tried to buy Greenland. Dave Roos tells all on History.com.

An Inauguration Day like no other:

March 4, 1841. Lithograph by Charles Fenderich. From the Library of Congress, in the public domain.

William Henry Harrison died in April 1841, a month after his inauguration. His death was the likely result of his 2-hour speech (longest inaugural speech ever) on a cold, wet Washington day, without “hat, coat or gloves.” Julian Atienza discusses the event in RealClearHistory.

What was the most recent letter added to the English alphabet? Hint: Shakespeare wrote Romeo and Iuliet. Bennett Kleinman explains on Wordsmarts.

American Joe Dodge was a little-known inflation fighter. After controlling federal spending during World War II, Dodge was sent to Germany and Japan to cut postwar hyperinflation, and balance their budgets. He did, setting the stage for the spectacular rebirth of those economies. Lawrence Reed explains on FEE.

What is commonplace in our homes today was once rare.

A salt cellar by Johannes Lutma (1639). In the public domain, courtesy of the Rijksmuseum.

Tony Dunnell of History Facts discusses seven once-hard-to-get items. They include salt, tea, aluminum, pineapple and ice.

Ronald G. Shafer tells the complicated story of Julia Chinn, an enslaved woman who became the bride of Richard Mentor Johnson in a church ceremony around 1811. In 1837, four years after her death, Johnson became the ninth U.S. vice president. In Washington Post’s “Retropolis.”

Eleven TV shows that changed the world? Mark Juddery explains why on Mental Floss. The first example is Dallas, with its impact on Romania. The second is General Electric Theater, which showcased Ronald Reagan.