The Victorian era was a time of dawning awareness of the rights of the poor and disenfranchised, as evidenced by Robert Browning"s poems, as well as by the passage of several laws intended to improve the lives of the working poor, particularly children. The cotton mills of the period were well known to be horrible places: hot, dangerous and prone to employing small children, who often died or were maimed. No precautions were taken to protect these small and vulnerable workers, let alone the adults who also risked their lives each day. There was no health or life insurance. Of course, a progressive family like the Bennetts would not allow such things. This wasn"t unheard of at the time, but it was rare.
Robert Browning, who is one of my all-time favorite poets, is famous for his marriage t
