Labouring Children: British Immigrant Apprentices to Canada

Between 1868-1924, 80,000 British children, most of them under fourteen, came to Canada to be apprenticed as labourers and domestic servents. Joy Parr’s study of these children, first published in 1980, became a significant resource for courses in women’s history, family history, immigration history, and labour history. Out of print for several years, Labouring Children now has a substantial new introduction in which the author examines the historiography of the history of childhood, particularly in the light of recent literature on sexuality and the post-structuralist critique. She also considers recent popular historical views of children and their relationship to professional history.

Reviews

Labouring Children represents social history of the highest quality. (…)

The author’s very extensive evidence and analysis — including much statistical work (described briefly in an appendix) — are not flaunted but, if anything, understated. The book is well-grounded also in the international and intellectual contexts that shaped the movement it describes.

Douglas McCalla, The Canadian Historical Review

Labouring Children is required reading for both British and Canadian social historians. (…)

The story of British child immigration to Canada naturally lends itself to sentimentality. In Labouring Children, Joy Parr details a series of less known but crucially important aspects of the movement which undermine congratulatory enthusiasm.

Chad Gaffield, Social History

Purchase

Amazon: https://www.amazon.ca/Labouring-Children-Immigrant-Apprentices-1869-1924/dp/080207443X

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