Child Labor In The Early 1900's

Everyone can agree life has it’s wonderful and egregious moments. Some people have a grand life with insufficient negativity. Others people have a miserable life and non imposing. In the late 1800’s and beginning to mid 1900’s, child labor caused several children to have an inimical life rather than a preeminent life. When people read what these children had gone through, they fail to remember to put themselves in the children’s situation; therefore, they don’t understand, nor cease how horrendous life was for the children. Numerous factual documents state how deplorable life was for the children during this era. Furthermore, these documents include the Union-made Cigars, Finding of the Commission, the Law of 1913, the letter from WPA Teacher Union to Governor Lehman, and lastly a telegram from Mrs. of Nassau County to Governor Lehman. Schools today teach this time period to the students and share innumerable certainties of the children’s lives. Ultimately, children in this life span had an atrocious duration.

Child labor was very common and popular especially in the late 1800s and early the 1900s even though many people were not aware of the dangers. We can define child labor as work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and their dignity, and cause to their physical and mental development. Children are the base of a country but in a developing country child labor is an issue that has yet to disappear. Most of the children remain illiterate because of their poor economic condition and parents do not have enough money to spend on the education of their children, rather they send their children for work so that they could earn some money during their poor economic condition. The objective of my research paper is to raise awareness

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.

After industrialization in America, the Progressive Era (1890 – 1920) began. Lives were changing and people wanted the rules to as well. They did this by passing reforms. Some reforms were written on the subjects of child labor, women’s rights, and monopolies and trust.

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

Lewis Hine(1874-1940) was born in Oshkosh, Wisconsin. He studied sociology at Chicago and New York universities, becoming a teacher, then took up photography as a means of expressing his social concerns. In 1908, Hine left his teaching position for a full-time job as an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee to document Child labor. Throughout America, child labor was ignored and unrecognized. Hine believed that if people could see for themselves the abuses and injustices of child labor, they would demand laws to end child labor.

The practice of Child Labor in America in the early 1900s had a devastating impact on generations of children. This mainly impacted children of poor and disadvantaged families; these families tended to suffer from generations of debt or were new immigrants to America. These children worked long hours which they did not get paid nearly enough for. They worked hard, dangerous jobs daily. In the 1900s, children chose to support their families in times of need rather than furthering their education, for which they did not get paid nearly enough. These jobs affected their health poorly and had a negative impact on their childhood and development. Children of poor families in cities suffered the most during the Industrial Revolution, because they had to work long hours, did hard jobs, and often sacrificed their health and education to support their struggling families.

“The right to a proper childhood is considered a human right, but it wasn’t always like that.” Child labor was a major problem during the Gilded Age. It was a disgrace seeing mostly all of the children from the United States working under very poor conditions. Children who were born into a second or third class family were subjected to work in very dangerous jobs, which included many health hazards. Most of these children looked way older than they really were because they were treated that way. All but the smallest babies worked. The children acted like adults instead of the children they were. They were forced to work because if they had the choice to go to school and learn they would’ve chosen that option instead of having to work all day.

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.

When one hears the term “Child Labor”, an image of children making low quality clothing in some dingy third world sweatshop inevitably comes to mind. While this imagery is unfortunately founded in fact, the third world is not the only area complicit with this heinous practice. Truthfully, we, as a nation are also guilty of propagating this heinous practice. For over a century, this nation’s youth were subjugated to exploitation and abuse at the hands of captains of industry in the hopes of extracting every ounce of profit they could. Fortunately, sympathetic individuals recognized the children’s need for advocacy and rose to their defense in the form of organized dissent that appealed to the highest powers of this country to fight for those who could not fight for themselves. In this paper, we will look at what exactly child labor is, the circumstances that gave rise to the widespread acceptance of child labor usage, what working condition these children experienced, and how the United States eventually made its use illegal.

The “Gilded Age” was a time between the Civil War and World War I. It was also a time of economic growth. During this time new discoveries were made of new technologies and products. It was the beginning of industrialization. With new discoveries of technology and products that led to a better life for the middle class and a jump in the economic success.

Child Labor, once known as the practice of employing young children in factories, now it's used as a term for the employment of minors in general, especially in work that would interfere with their education or endanger their health. Throughout history and in all cultures children would work in the fields with their parents, or in the marketplace and young girls in the home until they were old enough to perform simple tasks. The use of child labor was not a problem until the Factory System. The Factory System is a working arrangement where a number of people cooperate to produce articles of consumption. Some form of Factory system has existed even since ancient times.

The decade of the 1910’s was one of many changes. Many changes that were decades in the making were finally fulfilled. These changes came from new governmental policies, increases in industry, and the rising incomes of Americans. Many new rights were given to Americans in the 10s, in particular, child labor laws were changed, and women were given more freedom. In 1910, children under 15 made up 18% of the nation's employment. Many of these jobs were very dangerous, had long shifts, and very low pay. Congress passed child labor laws in 1916 and 1918 as part of the progressive agenda. However, the Supreme Court declared these laws unconstitutional.Women could be considered second class citizens in the 10s. Women were given few options both educationally,

A huge issue that was happening during the Progressive Era was child labor; Lewis Hine was one of many brave investigative journalist that helped change legislation. Children would work long hours with horrible working conditions, get paid very little and were forced to forgo an education. Not only were they going through this, but the work they did had an long-term impact on their health. Child labor is terrible and it is still going on today. This topic needs to be brought up again so people can become more aware and informed about it.

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