Jemmy Stubbins, or the Nailer Boy: Illustrations of the Law of Kindness

In Short

This book compiles accounts of international charity, child labor, and social reform centered on Josiah Banner, a young English boy working eighteen-hour days in a blacksmith shop. Discovered by American reformer Elihu Burritt, the lad's plight inspires American schoolchildren to raise money for his education and clothing. The volume gathers narrative reports of these visits alongside Josiah's own letters and an additional story about a frail city boy named Johnny. It has endured as a vivid, heart-wrenching document of nineteenth-century child labor, showing how practical empathy can bridge oceans to transform a life.

The Story

The narrative begins with an American traveller visiting England in 1846 to observe the lives of working-class people firsthand. Walking through the countryside toward his destination, a sudden rainstorm forces him to seek shelter in a tiny blacksmith's shop. Inside, he encounters a nine-year-old boy named Jemmy, or Josiah, standing on a stone block to reach his father's anvil. The boy works exhausting hours forging nails, already hardened into a premature, stunted manhood without ever learning his letters. His father, a impoverished nailer earning mere shillings for grueling work, laments that he cannot send his children to school or afford books beyond a single Testament he spells out by forge-light.

Moved by the family's deep poverty and quiet dignity, the visitor returns home and appeals to American school children. He proposes a campaign where children donate half-dimes saved from Christmas gifts to pay for Josiah’s schooling and clothes. The response is enthusiastic, raising enough funds to grant the boy two years of education. Two days before Christmas, the traveller walks twelve miles back to the cottage to deliver the gift. Though the father worries about losing the boy's daily earnings, the mother offers to take her son's place at the anvil so he can attend school.

The traveller secures a teacher in nearby Bromsgrove, fits Josiah with a suit of decent clothes, and leaves him to enter a classroom for the very first time. Time passes, and the book presents a collection of letters written by Josiah himself around 1849 and 1850. Now literate, the twelve-year-old boy reads the Bible, teaches his father and sisters, and exchanges letters with supporters across England and America. Though he continues working long hours with two hammers at his forge, his mind spans the globe as he reads newspapers and advocates for peace. A final narrative shifts to Scotland and a crowded city, detailing the short life of little Johnny, a sickly, gentle boy whose cheerful spirit amidst suffering serves as a companion illustration of humanity and kindness.

How It Unfolds

A shelter from the rain An American visitor steps into a tiny English forge to escape a sudden downpour and finds a nine-year-old boy hammering nails atop a stone block. He learns the family survives on minimal wages earned through grueling, eighteen-hour workdays.

An ocean of sympathy The traveller appeals to American school children, who gather hundreds of half-dimes to rescue the young nailer from the anvil and pay for his schooling. He returns to the cottage at Christmastime to present the gift to the astonished parents.

The journey to the classroom After the boy's mother offers to work the forge in his place, the visitor takes the boy to Bromsgrove, buys him a warm suit, and places him with a kind teacher.

Words from the anvil Years later, letters arrive from the boy showing he can now read, write, and study the Bible. Though still hammering nails, his mind is opened to world affairs and international brotherhood.

A flower in the city The book concludes with the story of Johnny, a fragile city child who retains his gentle, resigned sweetness even as failing health takes his life away.

The People

• The American Traveller (Elihu Burritt): A former blacksmith turned writer and reformer who seeks to understand the working poor of England. He wants to alleviate child labor through international sympathy and organizes the campaign to send Josiah to school.
• Josiah "Jemmy" Banner: A young English boy stunted by early labor at his father's anvil. He wants to learn to read and help his family, ultimately growing into a literate, thoughtful child who teaches his relatives and advocates for peace.
• Josiah's Father: A hardworking English nailer who labors eighteen hours a day to feed his large family. He deeply regrets his inability to educate his children and uses his small knowledge of the Testament to guide them.
• Josiah's Mother: A devoted, tidy woman who makes sacrifices for her family, ultimately offering to take up the heavy hammer at the anvil herself so her son can attend school.
• Johnny: A fair, frail city boy who loses his health and his mother, facing death with quiet resignation and serving as an emblem of patient suffering.

In Its Own Voice

"Fixed manhood had set in upon him in the greenness of his youth; and there he was, by his father's side, a stinted, premature man with his childhood cut off..."

The American traveller observes the tragic physical and mental toll of endless labor on a boy not yet ten years old.

"While I am hammering away with my two hammers my mind is flying all over America and Africa and South Carolina and California..."

Writing from his forge after learning to read, Josiah describes how education has liberated his inner world despite his hard physical life.

"Kind words and gentle looks are everlasting sunshine to city flowers."

The narrator reflects on the imperative to show warmth and sympathy to suffering children in grim urban environments.

What It's Really About

Underneath its simple narrative, the book presents a passionate argument against child labor and systemic poverty. It exposes how industrial necessity destroys childhood, denying uneducated working-class children basic human growth. Beyond critique, the text advances a theology of practical reform, arguing that small, direct acts of kindness can cross geographic and national borders to create global brotherhood. By contrasting the cold reality of the forge with the transformative power of literacy, it asserts that giving a child access to education and books restores their humanity and spiritual dignity.

Why Read It Today

This brief volume offers a vivid, unfiltered glimpse into Victorian child labor through the eyes of an eyewitness reformer and the child himself. Modern readers interested in social history will appreciate the immediate, documentary quality of the text, particularly Josiah's authentic letters, which reveal how a child's mind responds to sudden literacy.

The prose reflects nineteenth-century evangelical sentimentality, featuring moralizing commentary and emotional depictions of suffering children that may feel overly earnest to modern sensibilities. However, its historical specificity—detailing wage figures, working hours, and the daily mechanics of nail-making—keeps the account grounded in real physical hardship. The book remains a moving testament to early humanitarian campaigning and the enduring power of empathy across borders.