Essay On Children During The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution had positive outcomes of more jobs, but these new jobs brought some positives but many more negatives for the people. Child labor today is not as bad as the issue was centuries ago, but it still affects millions of children all over the world. The use of children in the work force was like putting a newborn rat in a maze and trying to make it find its own way

The younger boys who worked at the mines were called breaker boys. They didn’t work in the mine itself, but sat on benches and picked out the bits of rock from the coal. “These children worked in the picking room, a crowded, high-ceilinged vault, crisscrossed with rickety catwalks and crooked stairs, lit only by a wall of grime-choked windows” (Levine, Marvin J. "Mines, Mills, and Canneries." Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 21. Print.) Within factories, small children had to work fast at the machines, being very careful unless an unfortunate body part happens to get caught in the high-powered, dangerous machinery. For several long hours in rooms without fresh air, ventilation, and sometimes, no windows, the working conditions that the children suffered through were appalling. There are children who work in hazardous industries, risking accident and injury; there are others working in conditions that take a slower but definite toll on the children’s health (Basu, Kaushik, and Pham Hoang Van. "The Economics of Child Labor" The Economics of Child Labor (1998): 412-27. Print.).

However the industrial revolution was not all good. The working class had no other option but to turn up at the factories for work. The factory system resulted in over-crowding and unhygienic conditions and also the development of slum areas. Many factory owners who needed cheap, unskilled labour, profited greatly by using children and women to run the machines and because they were small and could fit in tunnels as well not only that they were more suited for factory life because they could adopt more quickly and easily than men. By the age of 6, many children were already working twelve hours a day in factories. These children had no free time to do anything plus they earned low wages. Hardly any of the children went to school they had to work in factories to earn money. Quite a lot of the people who worked at factories got sick and died because of the toxic fumes in the factories. While others were severely injured because the machines didn't have safety guards so many children got killed by machinery when they fell asleep and got caught up in the machines. Many of the children who were orphans, hired by the employers would

Conditions of factories were not safe for anyone, let alone a small child. Due to these conditions many children died before their prime. Many children “began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25” (www.victorianweb.org), America was beginning to lose an entire generation due to these working conditions that so many had to endure. Children were hired at an alarming rate. “In 1870, the first time census reported child workers, there were 750,000 workers in the United States age 15 and under, not including those who worked on family farms or in other family businesses” (“Child Labor in America”), these numbers were not something that was looked over, it astonished many. “A cotton manufactory of 5 or 6000 spindles will employ those 200 children” (Bremner 232). The workforce would continuously grow, hiring more and more children each day. Factories were good for using children as a means of their productivity. “Textile factories, for the most part […] were in the forefront of this industrial revolution, and children formed an essential component of the new industrial workforce” (Bremner 232). Many times without these children working some of these factories would not have survived through the revolution.

In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution created new jobs for millions of people including children. Many children during the Industrial Revolution were employed in manufacturing and mining. One of the most widely recognized jobs for children was as a “Newsie” or “Newsboy”. This job was held by young children, usually boys, while girls usually worked in mills that produced textiles and paper products. Many newsies had families and homes, and were children who went to school in the day and sold papers in the evening and on weekends to support their families. Many times orphaned, there were as many as 10,000 homeless newsies wandering the streets of New York in the 1899. Some Newsies called “Street Waifs” or children who had been orphaned, homeless,

In the documentary “The Children Who Built Victorian Britain” by BBC, talks about the children of the industrial revolution, it shows the jobs they had, where these children came from, their motivation and the progression of laws against child labor. Before the industrial revolution people used to manufactures their goods in their homes using simple machines, but in the late 1700’s this shifted drastically in Britain. They started to implement new ideas of modernization using industries to manufacture goods at a larger scale. The steam engine, iron and textile industries were one of the many industries that played a key role to improve economy, transportation and living conditions in the late 1700’s. Without the industrial revolution we wouldn’t have the technology that we have nowadays, but the industrial revolution also brought a dark chapter for history, the exploitation of children.

child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy

Child workers in factories Children were viewed as a dispensable source of labour during the Industrial Revolution. Evidence of this is that they were given potentially dangerous jobs, worked to the point of exhaustion and harshly punished for their actions. Children were viewed as dispensable because they were given potentially dangerous jobs. The jobs that children were made to do in factories and mines were often in tight enclosed spaces or close to dangerous heavy machinery. Evidence of this can be found in sources one, two and seven.

This quote I found from an online article explains what kids went through during this harsh time. It almost sounds like they were slaves by how low they were getting paid. Most of us have never even heard of kids working late at nights doing jobs that today no one can possibly do because they have been replaced with machines from the dangers they carry. Children worked some of the most dangerous factory jobs that existed and they didn’t by choice. They had no choice but to work because either their family was poor or they were orphans.

The Industrial Revolution changed the roles and lives of children of the working class. For many centuries before the Industrial Revolution, children still had to work along with their poor and working class families. Farm children tended the animals or planted seeds, pulled weeds, and harvested ripe crops in fields. Boys took care of cattle and sheep while girls milked the cows and fed the chickens. Some children who labored at home became apprentices. As apprentices, they stayed and worked with their master in a workshop, earning training in a specific trade instead of wages. Most of these children could start their own business by the age of twenty-one since they had become highly skilled masters of that trade. (Tuttle)

Introduction: In this video, we will be discussing child labour during the Industrial Revolution. Although the Industrial Revolution improved Britain in many ways such as transportation, agriculture, and production of goods, many factories had to hire children to increase their income. We will also relate the history of child labour to the use of child labour in the present day. 1.

The factory system during the Industrial Revolution had strict discipline, harsh punishment, unhealthy working conditions, low wages and inflexible working hours. Textile mills weren’t much better with child apprentices being hired as the main workers. Charles Dickens described these places of work as the “dark, satanic mills” and E.P Thompson described them as “places of sexual license, foul language, cruelty, violence and alien manners”. The factories were extremely dangerous and children were injured by the machines because they were not fenced off. Children were always exposed to the moving parts. Children could have their hands crushed by moving machines. If a poor child’s hair became caught in the machine, the child’s scalp could be ripped off. Some children were killed instantly when they went to sleep and fell into the machines. If that wasn’t enough,

Families were affected during the time of the industrial revolution due to the fact that every member of the family had to work to survive. The sad reality that was back then was children working from the age of four years old. Previously children would work in the fields, nevertheless this changed when powered machinery was invented. As a result of children’s size, this allowed them to crawl under the machinery to clean them out. The owner of the factory would benefit from employing children, as they would pay them less than adults. Work and home life drastically changed after Industrialisation. The father in the family was responsible for providing for the family, the mother took care of the children and home as their role in the working field

    Not all the information written down about children during the Industrial Revolution is extremely correct. From knowledge we can assume that children were forced into doing the labor, did not enjoy doing the jobs that were given to them, miserable at work and beaten. In document 3, an excerpt is from “The Philosophy of Manufactures” by Andrew Ure, 1835, states “I never saw a single instance of corporal chastisement [beating] inflicted on a child. They seemed to be always cheerful and alert, taking pleasure in the light play of their muscle… As to exhaustion, they showed no trace of it on emerging from the mill in the evening; for they began to skip about… It is moreover my firm conviction [opinion]  that children would thrive better when employed in our modern factories, than if left at home apartments too often ill-aired, damp, and cold.” According to Andrew children working had given them a much better experience, having a good time, getting paid, and getting new knowledge of machines and labor, Andrew does not state that the children were beaten, nor

During the Industrial Revolution, every member of the family continued to have a role to play. Men, women and children worked in factories or mills. Women and children were just as valuable to a factory owner as men. The work was difficult, exhausting and sometimes dangerous. Gradually, a sharp distinction between work and home emerged. Working hours were long and there was little time for family interaction. As awareness of poor working conditions was raised, government legislation placed restrictions on women and children in industry. Working hours for women were decreased and children were required to attend