Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution Essay

In 1900, children as young as nine years old were once expected to work sixteen hours a day in harsh conditions. They were useful because of their small size and the owners being able to pay low wages. Child labor laws exist because brave men, women, and children fought for these rights. The conditions of the children’s working environment caused Lewis Hine and the newsies to act upon it.

Today we have child labor laws, which prohibit the use of children as workers. During the industrial revolution, there was no such thing. You can see in Lewis W. Hine’s photo that a child is dangerously balancing on a milk crate so he can reach the machine. (Lewis W. Hine) Children worked extremely dangerous jobs for very little pay. This boy in the photo could easily fall from where he is balancing and could cut himself open on the machine.

To begin with, power driven machines replaced hand labor and factories were being built left and right in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. While the new, shiny machines were bringing in money for the companies they were still looking for ways to make more and they turned to hiring children rather than adults. Children were a source of cheap labor. For example, a child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, to earn

In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines began to replace hand labor for the production of nearly all manufactured items. Factories began to pop up everywhere, first in England and then the United States was soon to follow in their footsteps. There were numerous factories and to meet the needs of the owners of these factories they had to get creative and find people of all walks of life to put to work. Sadly, their solution to the in demand workers was putting children, sometimes as young as three years old, to work. Operating the machines did not require adult strength, and children would work for much less than adults would. By the mid-1800's, child labor was a major problem.

During the 18 and beginning of the 19th century in certain regions of the U.S child labor made up more than 40 percent of the population (Wolensky). That’s almost half of the working population. Since the beginning of time children have always been known to help their families with domestic tasks. Most of these kids worked in factories because they were easy to control and paid less than adults. Kids earned less than half of what adults made in the work force. In these factories they usually cleaned under and inside machines while functioning because of their small size.. That’s how these kids felt as it was described in a article in our history book. They were always in danger of getting hurt or even dying, which many did. Kids as young

Their idea of a solution was to hire children to be able to take care of parts that could not be accomplished by larger men. Factories everywhere started taking in children ages 5 and up for work. Many children were forced to work 12 hours a day or close to 48 hours a week. Many children either wanted to or were forced to go into work to help support their families. Many of these children did not receive schooling; therefore ensuring them living out their lives in factories. Because they were children, people sought to take advantage of them money wise, causing them to work for close to nothing.

Throughout history children have been used as slaves and workers, but during the industrial revolution the number of child laborers drastically went up. With a hope of a better life families all over the states moved into the cities to find work. Most were disappointed when they arrived and discovered that the truth was not as perfect as they had been led to believe.

During the Industrial Revolution in America, industrialization and urban development took place at an unprecedented pace. Due to the increasing demand for production and the desire for cheap labor, the number of factories increased. As a consequence, the number of child laborers drastically increased. Child labor became more widespread and it eventually became a staple of the American economy. As the use of child labor increased, it began to be scrutinized by organizations, like the National Child Labor Committee, who criticized the method and claimed that it damaged the individual child and the society as a whole. Those who opposed child labor saw the correlation between the long hours/dangerous conditions and the vast lack of education (and

During 1842, the Collieries Act was introduced so that girls, women and boys under 10 years old from prohibited from working underground in the coal mines. The sort of jobs that were introduced during the industrial Revolution for children were the hewer, Hurrier, trapper, scavenger, Piercer, match girls and the climbing boys. During these jobs they would normally work for 10-14 hours a day and would get minimal breaks during the shift. Some of the most common injuries that happen while children are doing these jobs are broken limbs, swollen muscles, death and also the loss of limbs etc. (Refer to figure

Children had long working hours, about twelve hours a day and six days a week. Some argue that children working on farms also put in long hours. However, farmers have shorter hours in the winter because of the lack of plants being grown. According to The American Nation, “In the early 1800’s, conditions in American mills were generally much better than in most factories in Europe. As industries grew, however, competition increased and employers took less interest in the welfare of their workers.” So, as each factory grew and the competition became larger, the safety for each worker went down. Also, you were born in the early 1800’s; you may have been working as early as the age of seven years old. Today, child labor is illegal in the United States. Child Labor is cruel, and unnecessary; especially in factories. Also, child labor is very dangerous. Children can get their hands or fingers cut off by the unsafe factories. “Small children were especially useful in textile mills because they could squeeze around the large machines to change spindles.” (The American Nation). In other words, there was a better chance of you losing a hand than getting a raise. No one should be working long hours in such hazardous

A child working in mines was a wide-spread practice throughout the Industrial Revolution because of the economic growth as well as the industry growth that the owners of the mines wanted to capitalize

Throughout the Industrial Revolution children were hired for a vast variety of jobs. A lot of kids in the Industrial Revolution were hired to work in factories. In the factories children had to do some very hard and dangerous jobs including A match dipper whose job it was to dip matches in a liquid called phosphorus, this element is deadly if a person inhales too much of it into his lungs. According to Angus Koolbreeze “this chemical caused the children's teeth to rot out and some even died from inhaling the phosphorous fumes”. A huge percentage of child factory workers, work at a cotton mill. Usually Mill owners hired orphans and worked them extremely hard. For

Although children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution.There was a big impact on the daily life of a child labourer as poor children often worked full time jobs with minimal pay in order to help support their families. Young children worked long hours in factories under dangerous conditions. children were easier to manage and control than adults because their size was perfect as it allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines.The practice of child labor continued throughout much of the Industrial Revolution until laws were eventually passed that made child labor illegal.

The rights of child laborers during the american industrial revolution were very limited, and there responsibilities were overwhelming. The factories that children worked in were very dangerous; the fumes produced could be toxic, and the equipment often ran so fast that little hands, fingers, and arms could easily be caught in the machinery. Also, since the children had such small arms, hands, and fingers, a lot of times they were made responsible for fixing the machines, most especially young girls who worked in sewing factories where they were constantly replacing spools of thread and sweeping the floors. Different sources all state that these work spaces were poorly ventilated, dimly lit, noisy, dirty, and damp, and on average workers put in 12 to 14 hours a day in the factories. Workers were viewed very poorly by their employers to the point were they were just viewed as "hands", and put into highly impersonal work areas far away from home. Owen Lovejoy stated the following:

Child labor in the premature 1800s consisted of many children working in factories and farms with little concern for their well-being and health. In 1890 the U.S. Census Bureau revealed that 1.5 million children between the ages of 10 and 14 were employed. In the United States of America, you are considered a child if you are under 18 years of age. Most parents did not think that their child working at such an early age was harmful to the overall well-being of their offspring. They were not aware that their children working on a farm were being exposed to dangerous chemicals from the pesticides and children were working in contaminated conditions which made them susceptible to all kinds of illnesses and infections. When children would work on farms they were around all types of unpredictable animals and newly invented