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Dictionary of Victorian Era Occupations

Professions

the Law
-- Judges
-- Solicitors and Barristers

Clergy
-- all levels of clergy and denominations

Construction
-- Civil Engineers
-- Mechanical Engineers

School teachers

Physicians

Military Officers

Skilled Labor — Craftsman
-- Artisans
-- Blacksmiths
-- Semi-Skilled Labor
-- Miners
-- Textile Mill Workers
-- Agricultural Labor
-- Soldiers and sailors

Unskilled Labor
-- London street peddlars and their cries
-- Costermongers
-- Railway porters and pundits
-- Cesspool-sewermen
-- Rat Catchers
-- Chimney Sweepers
-- Dressmakers, Milliners, and Slop-workers
-- Governnesses
-- Domestic Servants:
- Butlers, Maids, Cooks, Coachman, Gamekeepers, Gardeners

Child Labor
The Victorian era in particular became notorious for the conditions under which children were employed. Children as young as four were employed in production factories and mines working long hours in dangerous, often fatal, working conditions. In coal mines, children would crawl through tunnels too narrow and low for adults.
Children also worked as:
-- Errand boys,
-- Crossing sweepers,
-- Shoe blacks,
-- Selling matches, flowers and other cheap goods
-- Apprentices to respectable trades
-- Builder servants (working 64 hours a week in the summer and 52 hours in winter
-- Domestic servants (over 120,000 domestic servants in London working 80-hour weeks)
-- Water-powered cotton mill workers
-- Prostitutes

Criminals
-- Burglars
-- Mudlarks
-- Smash and grab
-- Pickpockets
-- Extortionists
-- Pirates
-- Murderers
-- Prostitutes
-- and much more...

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