Children were put in situation where they had to choose between school and work. Most times the choice was work because they had to support their family. Child laborer took advantage of this. They hired children from about ages four to fourteen to work in factories or on the farm. The children worked long hours with minimal breaks. They worked in hazardous conditions that often injured them or made them ill. There were no laws put in place to protect the children. European Industrialization benefited greatly from accessible and affordable child laborers throughout the 1800’s. Children sacrificed their health and education to earn a family living. Factories were not the most sanitary places to work especially for an innocent and fragile child. Children were exposed to many different illnesses while working in factories. They worked for such long hours without any proper ventilation. There were minimal breaks but very long shifts. In factories, many fatal accidents took place involving children. Children were paid less than adult because of their desperation for money. School was not a primary priority because it could not help their families financial issues. School was not a priority also because there wasn't …show more content…
The minimum age to work was nine. They were able to work nine hours instead of twelve but they still had to attend school. Then the Factory Act of 1844 was passed. The children worked half of the day and went to school half of the day. The next act that was passed was the Factory Act of 1847. It changed the ages for children to work in the factory from 9 to 12 to 10 to 13. Schooling was different for working children. Some attended schools in the same building as their job so they could some work will getting their education. Some also attended school outside of their workplace. Education wasn't important though, the acts were passed so the children wouldn't work more than 48 hours a
The industry owners got children to work for them because the owners didn’t have to pay them as much money like how they have to pay adult workers a lot more money compared to the children. Weren’t able to go to school like we can today because they had to go to work everyday instead of learning. The child labor problem decreased from the 18.1 in the 1890s to 11.3 in the 1920s. In 1938 congress passed a law called Fair Labor Standards to get rid of child labor in our country. During the Progressive movement our state legislatures were corrupt and only had the rich being able to be chosen to be our state senators not the People.
Many parents needed their wages to make ends meet. In Document C from The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets by Jane Adams 1909, Jane states how children enter factory life when the law allows them to, and children end up not having childhoods. She writes that people are so caught up with the marvelous achievements of their industry and end up forgetting the children who have to work to help out as well. In Document G, a court case Hammer v. Dagenhart 1918, the father of two sons one under fourteen years old and another one between fourteen and sixteen explains his concern about the exploitation of his children in a cotton mill. He says its concerning that children are allowed to work more than eight hours a day and six days a week.
Working conditions for children were frequently hazardous and unsanitary. As seen in document 2, the working conditions for these children in the factories were deplorable. They were filthy, dusty, and cramped, making them an unsuitable environment for children to spend so much time in every day. When forced to work in these factories, children faced numerous health issues, and some even died. Child labor began to decline as the labor and reform movements grew and labor standards in general improved, giving working people and other social reformers more political clout to demand legislation regulating child labor.
What did children face before there were child labor laws? Many jobs that children attended to were too hard for them and were given unfair pay or just no pay at all. They had to work in unsafe working conditions. Children had
The jobs these kids would work would be in the factories , sweeping in the streets, servants and prostitution. These kids would work fourteen to eighteen hours a day. Kids that were poor had a different case when it came to school, these kids didn't go to school instead they went to
A large number of people became unemployment and desperate for a job, this made them unable to demand higher payment and agree to their working conditions. The factory owners set the terms of work and gave low wages and long working hours with dangerous working conditions. Child labor was the cheapest kind of labor during the industrial revolution. They could get into small spaces that the adults could not, and operate the simpler working machines. In the
The industrial revolution was a time of immense progress. It marked an era of technological advancements and a changing society, yet also a period smeared with unfair and unsafe working conditions. The history is filled with stories of people suffering, being injured, and even dying, all in the process of creating goods for the changing consumer culture. Thousands looked past the suffering, condoled themselves with the goods they purchased at economical prices all at the expense of the working class, a class that had no other choice than to work in the dark, dangerous factories to feed their family. While the consumer culture in this time could look past the anguish of those in the working class, progressives could not.
In addition, an 1836 National Trades’ Union convention was the first body to call upon minimum age for factory workers and the minimum age was an encounter to create a better environment in child labor controversies. Later, starting from Massachusetts in 1842 limited the workday hours for children under age 12 to 10 hours, and other state acted applied the similar law with the criteria of underage. By the end of the 1840s, Every New England state had a child labor law. Although the problems and bill occurred in the 19th century, there had been more inside conflicts happened related to the Child Labor. As a result, the 1906 year was the historical year in the fight against Child Labor and same year federal child labor bill was introduced in
As the rate of industrialization in America grew during the end of the nineteenth and beginning of the twentieth centuries, child labor became more and more common. The rapid growth of the economy and the vast amounts of poor immigrants during the Industrial Age in America justified the work of children as young as the age of three. By 1900, over two million children were employed. However, the risks of involving child labor greatly outweighed the positives; child labor was inhumane, cruel, and caused physical deformities among children. Children typically worked in coal mines, mills, and factories which contained many life-threatening hazards.
Working conditions in industries were not safe for the working people. Many industries required work for long hours of physical labor. In the workplaces it was often hot, steam engines contributing, and machinery was not always fenced off (Working Conditions in the Industrial Revolution). Workers had the potential to get caught in the machines because they were exposed. Children were employed to move between these dangerous machines as they were small enough to fit between tightly packed machinery (Working Conditions in the Industrial Revolution).
Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground,
They did not know how to read or write or even wash themselves. Some because they did not know how but others because they did not have the resources. From the time they were able to do anything they were working for the family. As McNeil said, “Their working prevents the children from recovering and instruction.” Therefore, the children never even learned the basics in life and then they went straight into working in favorites which people now have to have certification in.
There was no concern or accountability for the welfare of children. The realities are that they were treated severe with little to no regard to their well-being. Some specific examples: Children were used for labor and the conditions were deplorable, often
Child labor was a great concern in the Industrial revolution but very few people did something to stop it. Women and Children were forced to work more than 10 hours a day with only forty minutes to have lunch. Elizabeth Bentley once said that they didn’t have any time to have breakfast or drink anything during the day. They worked standing up and if they didn’t do their work on time they were strapped (whipped). Children were treating like they were not important, like they didn’t deserve a better life.
Pros #1 Child labor is very important towards poor families who need extra help bringing food and money in the house. Most children under the age of ten start working in order to help bring in a decent amount of money in order to help their parents and siblings survive. Children are not incompetent; most realize when their parents are struggling to make ends meat, they try to help out as much as they can and most decided that, even though they are young, they have to start doing more therefore most decide to start working. The jobs they receive often don’t pay much so in order to have higher pay most children work for hours on end in order to bring in more money especially if they come from extremely poor families. “Victor chapani started working when he was 10- a few hours a day- rounding up passengers minibuses in his impoverished city of El Alto, Bolivia... earning less than a dollar an hour… “United,” he says, sounding like a seasoned adult laborite, “we as child workers can achieve anything.”