Children On Board

Transoceanic Crossings in Victorian Literature
  • Tamara S. Wagner
Chapter
Part of the Palgrave Studies in Nineteenth-Century Writing and Culture book series (PNWC)

Abstract

In Victorian literature children on emigrant ships metonymically express contested arguments about overseas transport. They feature in picturesque scenes of everyday life at sea, but are also at the centre of debates on emigration schemes, transport technologies, and conditions onboard. While few Victorian advice manuals tackle family emigration, fiction frequently reflects a specific agenda. Propaganda pieces circulated by child emigration societies in particular had a tendency to gloss over the difficulties of the voyage or even to elide it altogether. Instead they depict destitute children as objects of rescue operations that ended with their departure. Anti-emigration writing, in turn, describes migrating children as victims of adult short-sightedness, whether or not they were being shipped out by themselves or were travelling with their families. Cautionary tales generated powerful images of infants and young children on deck or in crowded steerage quarters. Not all such tales were straightforward warnings against emigration; they cautioned against specific snares and, in highlighting difficulties, could include useful instructions on how to transport young children safely overseas.

Keywords

Migrate Child Cautionary Tale Transport Technology Alcoholic Mother Time Onboard 
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Notes

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Copyright information

© Tamara S. Wagner 2015

Authors and Affiliations

  • Tamara S. Wagner

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