Child Labor In The British Industrial Revolution

Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.

Not only were the workers not treated well, the building was also very unsanitary and unsafe. They worked on top of each other in cramped spaces where there were just lines and lines of sewing machines. The exit doors were locked in order to stop the workers from leaving to go to the bathroom. Only the foreman had the keys to unlock the doors.There were four elevators that had access to the factory floors but only one of them were in working condition. In order to get to the working elevator, the workers had to go down a long narrow hallway. This elevator was only able to hold 12 people at a time. Factory floors had no sprinkler system and the entire building only had one fire escape that was not big enough for all of the people in

If a child were to work at the mill they would start out as young as ten years old. Most of the children that did work at the mill would got to school for about 6 hours then they would go to work for 7 or so hours. Also many of the women that did work at the mill their husbands had died so they had to provide for their children and they typically had more than two children. It was very rough at the mill, the air was filled with fumes and lint and it would get stuck in the worker's lungs and they would get really sick. It was terrible for the children to because they didn’t have a well developed immune system so they would get sick a lot quicker and they would get

One of the many reasons why Industrialization is a negative impact on society is that it caused child labor. Child workers vary from ages 5-17.Child labor is when child work for money to support their family. There were not a lot of different types of jobs for child, but some of the job opportunities were coal miners, factory workers, and

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.

Many people working had very poor living conditions. Friedrich Engels describes the England streets, the slums, ¨...unpaved, full of holes, filthy and strewn with refuse.”and their rivers as ¨...coal-black and full of stinking filth and rubbish…(Document 9)¨ It wasn't just bad at their homes it was also bad at their work. Joseph Hebergam was a man who had been working at one of the many mills that had horrible working conditions. Working in these horrible conditions Joseph was told he would die within the year of 1832 because he had a severe illness. When asked how he got the illness he responded with, ¨He (the doctor) told me it was caused by the dust in the factories and from overwork and insufficient diet...¨ People just did not die because of an illness they also died from infections. These mills were working their workers to

Child labor was a cruel and unfair way of using children in unnecessary situations. It was debated for a countless number of years whether child labor was a social problem or a political problem. Children were responsible for completing very dangerous, rigorous, and demanding jobs. Most jobs for the children were completed in factories, farms, and coal mines. Subsequently, the working conditions for the children were not healthy, and it led to life threatening situations. Many would get seriously injured or killed. Some worked until exhaustion and fell asleep on the job, and would experience harsh consequences. Generally speaking, child labor drastically changed the way owners ran their businesses during the Industrial Revolution. The ruthless ways of child labor were never changed for the better until different Acts and Laws were put into place. People were concerned with the social and physical wellbeing of working children in Britain during the Industrial Revolution.

Most machines had no safety devices, meaning that one mistake could result in a lost limb, and in worse cases a lost life. Sometimes, workers would even fall asleep in the middle of working next to an unsafe machine. Children were basically taken advantage of in the factories since their small hands and bodies could fit where the adults’ could not. Their job was often to change spools in the humid textile mills or to repair broken machines or threads. The children were young and uneducated and were not aware of the hazards all around them, such as the huge machines. They faced whippings when making a mistake or disobeying. Lint and dust filled the air, weakening the workers’ lungs and eyesight. In conclusion, the environmental factors and machines inside the factories harmed the working-class, resulting in too many illnesses or lost

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.

The working conditions of the average laborer during the industrial revolution were oftentimes harsh and dangerous as seen in documents in 1,2,3 and 5. According to the Sadler Committee of 1832, men were forced to work excessively long hours and were whipped to stay awake. (Doc. 1) Additionally, the Sadler Committee revealed that many workers have suffered from infections, disease and muscle problems. (Doc. 2) This shows that industrial factory owners oftentimes exploited their laborers for profit. Andrew Ure’s The Philosophy of Manufactures reveals that children in the factory

Mill workers took the jobs that were available to them, but was it really worth the risk? They not only endangered themselves by working in conditions where the lint filled their lungs, their kids joined on the bandwagon too. Although there were good things to be noted in the mill village (the sense of community for example), the bad outweighed it all in the end. The mill workers’ jobs costed them their lives with nothing to show for their hard work.

Working conditions were jeopardous. Mother Nature was not good to the workers, as there was an abundance of

Children most of the time worked in mines, glass factories, textiles, canaries, and home industries. A lot of these industries are filled with dangers that can easily kill them. In this quote “Children as young as six years old during the industrial revolution worked hard hours for little or no pay” (Child labor in factories). A good number of these kids were harassed and mistreated by the factory bosses. If children didn’t arrive on time to work, they would have to be punished by the factory bosses. The punishment was that the children would have to sprint up and down the factory aisle until they were completely drained out of energy and they had to do this nude carrying a backpack full of heavy objects. This caused a lot of children to develop

Throughout the American Industrial Revolution, child labor in industries such as textiles, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, laboring, street work, and domestic work was endemic in the United States. Several factors, including mechanization, urbanization, industrialization, poverty, labor shortages, and lack of regulation were the primary causes for this increase in child labor. Children, as young as three years old, worked from sunrise to sunset in factories, mines, fields, and mills where conditions were excruciating. The arduous work resulted in myriad deleterious effects, namely, afflictive injuries, pitiful deaths, and bleak futures. In order to curtail the abusive conditions, numerous people championed the rights of child laborers and ultimately achieved their concordant goal of gaining federal regulation of minimum employment ages, permissible types of jobs, and duration of work hours for youths.

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.