Child Labor Thesis

In 1907, two miles south of Centralia, Illinois was the Centralia Mine No. 5. The Mine was there to provide coal during World War II. This particular mine employed 250 men and produced 2,000 tons of coal each day. During the next several years there were several complaints made regarding the safety of the mine. On March 25, 1947, the mine exploded, killing 111 miners. (Stillman, 2010)

In a photograph taken by Lewis Hine, he shows us “how dangerous the machines are that the children are working on and that they were practically working inside of them” (Document 8). Being in a room full of dust and sweat, small children could get all of the dust and lint stuck in their lungs. With no windows, this work habit is highly unsafe for the children. It is actually unsafe for anyone who is stuck in a small room with no windows for thirteen hours a day. In the same interview, Elizabeth Bentley was asked, “To explain what she had to do while working in the flax mill” (Document 7). Her answer was, “When the frames are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller, and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going again” (Document 8). A six year old child doing all this work was a disaster waiting to happen because children could easily get hurt or hurt another person.

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.).

It was not uncommon for both sexes of all ages to be working alongside each other in horrid, hazardous conditions during the era of industrialization. A prime example of the use of child labor was the Breaker Boys in the Woodward Coal Mines of Kingston, Pennsylvania.

Document 6 states children working underground, breaker boys inhaled great amounts of coal dust damaging their lungs and causing illness. This shows that many children were worked hard. Additional document 1 shows that in 1910 there were 163000000 child workers,117 infants under one died. That means .5% of the work force was children.

The laborers in the mines are being completely victimized in order to make money, clearly demonstrated by Disraeli’s words. Child labor abuse was not exclusive to coal mines however.

In the coalmine, it was rare to come across a boy that was in decent shape. “From the cramped position they have to assume, most of them become more or less deformed and bent-backed like old men” (Document A). From this, many kids had hunches at the age of 12. For a 12 year old boy, a workday included hard work “for ten hours at a stretch, for sixty cents a day” (Document A). Not only that, but the job was very dangerous. Cuts and bruises from the col happen all the time and cleanliness is never thought about. Infections take place, and even worse, often “a boy is mangled

In the 21st century, our whole economy is depended upon technology. However, from the end of the Civil War and into the early 1900s, the economy was industrializing. However, industrialization created a larger need for larger workforce. The working conditions changed, but it often caused hardships for workers. As a result, the government, groups and individuals attempt to solve many problems such as low wages, child labor, and unsafe working conditions through the passing of laws and workers’ union.

When the majority of the mines closed in 1986, after a few years, there was still no real emphasis on wearing the proper protective gear. “We just wore our regular work clothes, hard hat, googles, and respirator, gloves, that was it, ear plugs,” he said. “No protective clothing.”

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

The children were working in slave-like conditions. They beat the children, and overseers often got away without paying them. The kids worked up to nineteen hours a day with less than an hour break, if they got one at all. These kids missed out on the chance to go to school and learn, most could not read or write. The big machinery was difficult for the children to manage and so they would often get injured and in extreme cases have died due to injuries in the factories.

With many limbs lost and fingers penetrated off, children throughout the Industrial Revolution proved themselves strong in order to survive the conflict and compromise ahead. For example, some children were abused while they worked and others died in order to earn income for their families (Industrial). There was conflict within many regions of child labor. Such as the societal disagreements of what the children’s working conditions were and how they could still be improved. There was compromise with the laws and safety of all the children working at such a young age and in dangerous working conditions.

It was a dangerous work because accidents happened” (Gale Magazine). The work conditions for children were very bad during the industrial revolution. Since there was no laws, the children who worked were forced to do what the adults did. Some children died in agriculture and that was because there was no laws to protect the children. The children simply were underpaid, overworked, and treated

These deaths and injuries called for better safety for all working and many well-organized methods of getting rid of the gasses with flames and creating paths for water to leave the mines were thought up for more efficient coal mining. Inventions such as giant vacuums were used to rid of flooding water and one-man tunnels used for both mining and creating paths for water to go into a nearby river. Without a doubt coal mining was the most dangerous job in the early part of its life, killing around 1/3 of workers and causing permanent damage to bones and brains to around 60% of actual miners.

Children were put to work, and had many cruelties done to them if they were to