What were the living conditions of children at the time of "The Chimney Sweeper" like?

The speakers in the two poems that Blake wrote with this
name were prime examples of the way in which children were forced to work, often in
treacherous conditions. The Industrial Revolution, which was characterised by new
technologies and a certain social dislocation, meant that more children were working
harder and with less care and safety than every before. For example, tending factory
machines required a dexterity and alertness instead of experience which resulted in
children manning these machines for very low wages. Laws at the time required parishes
to provide for orphans and children by apprenticing them. However, many children were
just given to factories and became little better than slaves. Children did not just work
as chimney sweeps and in factories manning machines, but also in coal mines, where
children as young as five would work for long hours underground, breathing in noxious
fumes and carrying heavy buckets. Perhaps the most poignant symbol of child labour at
this time is found in the chimney sweep, however. Children as young as four or five were
used to climb the narrowest of chimneys where they could get stuck and face suffocation.
Blake picked the chimney sweep as the focus of his poem that argues against a completely
unjust situation of child exploitation.