This article has been reviewed according to Science X's editorial process and policies. Editors have highlighted the following attributes while ensuring the content's credibility: Children in the postmedieval Dutch workforce worked so hard that their spines became worn and deformed, with some children affected before they even had a chance to lose their baby teeth, a new study published in the International Journal of Paleopathology finds. Researchers examined the backs of Dutch children ages 4–25 who lived between the 1600s and 1800s.
They found worn-down spinal joints, bony lips growing on the edges of vertebrae and dents in the discs cushioning the spine—signs modern doctors typically associate with old age and years of grueling physical work, not elementary school-age children. "It was honestly heartbreaking," lead study author Alex Tutwiler, a Ph.D. candidate at Leiden University, said. "As scientists we develop hypotheses and test them, but it's hard to factor in the emotional impact that work like this can have until you're in the process of actually analyzing the skeletal remains of these children." Child labor has a long history in the postmedieval Netherlands.
From the early 1600s, children increasingly became part of the workforce. By the 1800s, census data suggested children made up around 5% of the workforce, or around 27,200 children. According to the study, children began working as young as 4, with workdays lasting 12, 15 and sometimes even 17 hours.
Historic accounts describe the hours of work, wages paid and duties given to these children but remain eerily silent on the effects these conditions had on children's bodies. One poem written in 1853 by a Dutch textile worker describes these children as little people with pale faces and "very weak little hands." Tutwiler and her co-author, Rachel Schats of Leiden University, wanted to know what stories the bones had to tell. So they turned to the remains of 143 children documented as having worked on rural dairy farms in Middenbeemster and urban industrial factories in Arnhem.
They then compared their findings with those from children who had lived affluent, nonworking lives in Delft. Soon, the grim reality became clear. Children from Middenbeemster were hit hardest.
According to the study, records show that children as young as 9 were expected to work, hauling milk basins and lugging cheese molds. This heavy lifting and repetitive movement wore down the joints in their upper backs. Tutwiler compared the worn joints to wearing too-small shoes: Your feet get cuts and blisters and eventually start changing shape, and, with time, your shoes change shape as well.
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