William Wilberforce was not the only person who developed a passion that he felt called to pursue. Every individual whose story is featured in this series had something they felt strongly about. And each of them was different from the others. For Wilberforce it was slavery. And for the next person we will look at—Charles Dickens—it was the evils brought about by England’s Industrial Revolution.
Dickens was particularly concerned with child labor and—through his writings—drew attention to the deplorable conditions that existed.
Think back to when you were a child. How would you feel if you were not in the protection of someone you trusted, a parent who cared about you? And what if you had to work in a factory or mine, for ten or more hours a day? Perhaps without adequate clothing to protect you against the cold. Or suffering in the sweltering heat of a factory.
If you can imagine what this must have been like, you will understand what motivated Charles Dickens to devote so much of his writing to helping readers see how this injustice needed to stop. Where Wilberforce used the power of speech to abolish the slave trade, Dickens used the power of the pen to bring awareness to the injustice of child labor.
This has been Part 13 of the series A LIFE WORTH LIVING. Read Part 14 – Child Labor
Leave a Reply