Infanzia rubata. La tratta dei minori nella narrativa tra Otto e Novecento

This work proposes a brief overview of the literature focused on the issue of child trafficking that spread in Italy between the late 19th century and the first half of the 20th century. Starting from the second half of the 1800s, child labor became very common in Italy among the less affluent classes, whose economic resources were insufficient to support larger families. Children, often employed in factories, especially textile ones and in mines, were usually rented out by their families to business owners who profited significantly from their labor, forcing them to work hard for twelve to fifteen hours a day in exchange for just a crust of bread. Although until the early decades of the 20th century this phenomenon was not perceived as a social problem, literature instead addressed this social plague.