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5 - Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  19 October 2023

Bernard Moitt
Affiliation:
Virginia Commonwealth University
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Summary

Chapter 5 deals extensively with tutelle in the late nineteenth century by concentrating on the working lives of minors, mostly as apprentices and domestics. Minors performed a wide variety of tasks, some of them gender-specific. Young girls did mostly household and domestic tasks; boys became apprentices and learned artisanal crafts. Of the artisanal crafts, carpentry was the most popular, but masons, blacksmiths, tailors, seamstresses, and grain pounders took wards as apprentices. In the 1880s and 1890s, the state confided minors to institutions including Catholic missions, though not always to serve as apprentices. Case studies detail the ways in which their labor was exploited and how they responded to coercion and abuse. They reveal considerable delinquency and misery, which sometimes led to incarceration. The relationship between minors and their guardians in work settings was often characterized by discord, even violence. The chapter explores abuses in tutelle including the hiring out of minors without informing French authorities and the refusal of guardians to compensate minors for their labor when warranted. The chapter analyzes complaints lodged by guardians about minors and the ways in which minors exercised agency. It ends with an exploration of sexual exploitation and prostitution.

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Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2023

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  • Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
  • Bernard Moitt, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Book: Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009296441.008
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  • Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
  • Bernard Moitt, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Book: Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009296441.008
Available formats
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Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

  • Juvenile Labor, 1849–1905
  • Bernard Moitt, Virginia Commonwealth University
  • Book: Child Slavery and Guardianship in Colonial Senegal
  • Online publication: 19 October 2023
  • Chapter DOI: https://doi.org/10.1017/9781009296441.008
Available formats
×