Analyzing Kelley's Child Labor Laws

Florence Kelley was a social worker who lived at the end of the 19th century and the beginning of the 20th. In a speech to the National American Woman Suffrage Association, she stresses the importance of changing child labor laws by appealing to her audience's emotions and ethics. She goes into detail describing the time of day and the type of work they are doing to emphasize her argument. The speech has a sense of urgency and is a clear call to action which form the tone of the piece. Florence Kelley uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to argue for labor law reforms.

Initially Kelley conveys her message about the corrupt child labor laws by criticizing the practices of the states in a way that incites change by using examples and rhetorical devices. She begins by providing specific evidence of child labor statistics to add to her credibility. Explaining that “two million children under the age of sixteen” are working just to survive, alludes to the

Throughout the 1700’s and the early 1800’s child labor was a major issue in American society. Children have always worked for family businesses whether it was an agricultural farming situation or working out of a family business in some type of workplace. This was usually seen in families of middle or lower class because extra help was needed to support the family. Child labor dramatically changed when America went through the Industrial Revolution. When America’s industrial revolution came into play, it opened a new world to child labor. Children were now needed to work in factories, mills, and mines. These were not ordinary jobs for young children, these jobs required much time, effort, and hard work. “American

Throughout history, the topic of suitable working conditions on children has been a prominent issue in regards to the limit of their actions. Nearly 2 million of America's laborers ranged within the ages of six and sixteen, which are considered to be crucial years for intellectual and social development. Instead of implementing the children’s time in necessary educational matters, their time was spent crafting society’s “stockings” and “artificial flowers”. One particular social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley, strived to bring attention to the tedious working hours abhorred by children in a speech presented at the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. In order to convey her message in an effective matter, Kelley

Kelley uses a very persistent tone in her speech to convey her message, because what she is arguing has been going on for some time now in America. She recognizes the parents in her audience to use pathos. This is very effective because they have children of their own, and would not want the same conditions for their own kids. She also realizes that her audience is not only adults with children so she changes her tone throughout her speech to more of a logical appeal and tries to prove her points with evidence. She states that “ No other portion of the wage class increased so rapidly from decade decade as the young girls from fourteen to twenty years old.” These young girls and boys aren’t just working because they want to, because they are force because of their family and financial situations. The exigence of her speech is that children and women are in poor working conditions and no one is doing anything about it. These kids do not deserve to have to work for night shifts up to eleven hours to provide for themselves and or help their

She mentions “boys and girls, after their 14th birthday, enjoy the pitiful privilege of working all night long” (lines 44-45). The author uses the oxymoron “pitiful privilege” to show that these children are being forced to start working when they turn 14, as if it is a celebration of this age. It is also showing a sarcastic tone since a privilege connotes a positive benefit rather than a ‘pitiful’ one which gives a negative mood. Kelley’s use of oxymoron in her speech gives a sarcastic tone and shows her disagreement to the readers and listeners with these laws enforced on children ages 16 and below working for more than what we consider the maximum hours we should work

In document 1, an excerpt from William Cooper’s testimony before the Sadler Committee, explains how they had to work sixteen hour days and only got forty minutes to eat lunch at noon. The work was so difficult a man by the name of Joseph Hemogram tells his story of working in document 4, Excerpt from the testimony of Joseph Hebergam to the Sadler Committee, explains how his muscles do not work properly anymore. The labor was so long with such little amount of free time his well being was the cost of having to work. Children who worked in the factories were subject to harm. There were children as young as six years old working. If a child was too young to work with machinery they would have to assist textile workers who would treat them horrific and beat them. Children could be given cruel and unusual punishments for anything. The best thing that came out of these struggles were that child labor laws were created to protect children from working and factories from harming the children (Child Labor In Factories). There is a political cartoon of a child lying on the pavement in front of a podium that says “Profit”. In the background there are a bunch of factories producing smoke (Child Laying On The Monument). This is showing how children’s lives were the cost of someone else’s profit from working in the factories. Factory owners did not care whether the children were safe or not. They cared about if they were getting as much

She starts off by saying, “ We have, in this country, two million children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread.” That first big number of two million creates an eye-opener to her audience. To think that 2 million kids who aren’t even 16 yet are already working could get people to ask themselves “Why 2 million kids?” Florence Kelley also says that these children work up to 11 hours a day. There are 24 hours in a day that means that almost half of the day children are out there working in factories with pretty much no time to do anything else because they are the ones helping provide for their families.

She uses phrases such as, “while we sleep” and “work all night”. This use of repetition alludes to Americans not being awake to this urgent issue affecting hundreds of thousands of children. In order to persuade her audience, she must make them feel guilty of not have taken action before. In lines 89, 92, and 96, Kelley repeats the phrases “free the children”, “for the sake of the children”, and “freeing the children from toil!”. This creates an image that children are slaves to their employers and they must be saved, a sense of urgency. Kelley also repeats the idea that the women should feel guilty for not taking action against child labor as they are the fortunate ones that are able to. She does this to persuade the convention to talk to the important political and wealthy figures they know in order to improve child labor and working

United States social worker and reformer, Florence Kelley, in her speech to the convention of National American Woman Suffrage Association attempts to convince the audience that child labor laws should be abolished. Kelley adopts a shaming tone in order to persuade the members of the Woman Suffrage Association that child labor laws are wrongful. Florence Kelley begins her speech by conveying the idea of underage children around America, who are currently working under harsh conditions. She first appeals to the listener’s logic using logos by referring to the children that are ages six and seven and who work “in the cotton mills in Georgia” as well as eight, nine and ten year olds who work “in the coal-breaking of Pennsylvania” (paragraph 1,

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

The speaker begins her speech by introducing the topic of child labor, stating powerful facts that support her case and using poignant diction to create sympathy; these devices work together to bring attention to the problem of children being overworked from very young ages, and attempt to win the audience’s allegiance to her cause. Referring to a census regarding the different groups of people making up the “wage earning class,” Kelley declares that “no contingent so doubles from census period to census period…as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” The rate of young girls working, earning a living, increases faster than any other group of people. The reference to a census, tells the audience that, not only

Kelley attempts to appeal to our logical sides by giving us statistics such as “two million children” and even “11 hour night.” We know most people do not work this long even in a regular working day , which is around 8 hours.She also talks about how old the kids are when they start working, as young as 6 to 16, and even their work hours which vary from eight to even twelve hours which is half a day! These numbers are shocking and also true, furthermore, they can be trusted because of the credibility she

In our generation, subjects such as child labor no longer exist, and we can thank our ancestors for this, But the question remains, what was society like when such an evil act was embedded into the norms? Florence Kelley, social worker and reformer, presented a speech that urged citizens to ban child labor; the speech vocalized how evil this act was and uses many examples to appeal to one’s emotions and morality. Right off the bat, Kelley asserts, “... Children under the age of sixteen years who are earning their bread,” which appeals to the reader’s logic and reasoning as well as inform the reader.

The speaker begins her speech by introducing the topic of child labor by stating powerful facts that support her case and using poignant diction to create sympathy; these devices work together to bring attention to the problem of children being overworked from very young ages, and to get people to initially agree with her opinion and see her as a credible source on the matter. Kelley refers to a census regarding the different groups of people making up the “wage earning class” and saying that “no contingent so doubles from census period to census period…as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty years of age.” The rate of young girls working, earning a living, increases faster than any other group of people. The reference to