Canada’s Forgotten Child Labourers
“Home Children” came to Canada as indentured servants
No study of Canada’s labor history is complete without a thorough examination of the phenomenon known as “Home Children”. From the end of the Industrial Revolution to 1948, Canada received over 100,000 child laborers and domestics from the UK. These children were sent from charitable organizations, or homes, and signed into indentured servitude contracts to perform farm work and other domestic labor. Most of Canada’s Home Children were received in the Province of Ontario.
The lack of social support systems in Industrial Revolution era UK meant that many abandoned children were left on the streets or sent to workhouses. Charitable homes like Barnardo’s, Quarrier’s and Fegan’s stepped in to provide support. The placing of children in these homes was a temporary solution for bereft families.
The emigration to Canada scheme was viewed by British society as a solution to the growing masses of uncared-for children. Home Children were also sent to Australia, New Zealand, South Africa and Rhodesia (modern-day Zimbabwe). The UK continued sending abandoned children away in similar schemes up until the early seventies.
The Custody of Children Act of 1891 mandated that once a parent had turned over their children to a home, they…
