They were children. Not criminals. Not rebels. Not lazy. Children. In 1834, after the Poor Law Amendment Act was passed in Britain, poverty was treated like a character flaw. If you couldn’t support yourself, you were sent to a workhouse. Families were separated. Food was rationed. Work was grueling. Boys broke stones. Girls untangled rope fibers until their fingers bled. Mothers scrubbed floors for hours. And children as young as 7 lived under strict discipline meant to “correct” them. By the l