CHILDREN AT WORK IN THE FRENCH COUNTRYSIDE (1760-1830)

Studies on child labor mainly focus on urban areas. The world of the countryside (even though 80% of the population at that time) remained more or less in the shadows. The children worked there though. The main forms of this work are known: herding livestock, working the earth in the fields. Their very stability (we observed them until the end of the 20th century at least) did not help to constitute them as a real object of study for the historian, as they seemed to respond to the patterns of "immobile history" and evidence itself. And then, some wondered, was it really work or simply the help expected of everyone on a farm? We wanted to resume the investigation, with the aim of understanding a little better what effects this work could have on the lives of children, both in terms of social relationships and ways of experiencing the world.