Dbq Child Labor

“C: What time did you begin work at the factory? B: When I was six years old” (Testimony on Child Labor in Britain) Children started doing strenuous work at such young ages. Children would often be mentally or physically tormented in life because

To begin with, power driven machines replaced hand labor and factories were being built left and right in the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. While the new, shiny machines were bringing in money for the companies they were still looking for ways to make more and they turned to hiring children rather than adults. Children were a source of cheap labor. For example, a child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, 6 days a week, to earn

Working at the factory was not very enjoyable for the laborers for it involved a repetitive amount of work in an extremely hot environment. Factories were dirty and rarely cleaned, which caused the workers to get extremely sick. Sickness spread easily especially with everyone working in the same closed space.  Machines were unsafe and could potentially provoke life-threatening injuries. Children got involved for they were naive, cheap, and easier to control. Child labor continued to grow and many died or got sick because of this. The laborers were exploited, taken advantage of, and oppressed. Even if it harms other people, entrepreneurs and business owners would do whatever it takes to get their hands on the pot of gold. After all, money means

It has been found in the 1900 census that more than 1,750,000 children from 10-16 were working for pay in the United States (Derickson 485). There were another 250,000 workers who were under the age of 10 (Derickson 486). Many historian suspect that the number of child workers was even higher then what is known. This is because there was a tendency to record false information or to not record any information at all (Derickson 486). Many child workers were members of immigrant families who worked in shops making toys, and clothes. In the mountains of West Virginia and Kentucky where coal mining is an important part of the economy. Men would bring their sons with them to the coal processing mills when they were as young as 6 (Derickson 486)

“The demand for labor grew, and in the late 19th and early 20th centuries many children were drawn into the labor force. Factory wages were so low that children often had to work to help support their families. However, child laborers rarely experienced their youth” (National Archives). Child labor was a “normal” thing to many people

In the early 1900’s many young children had to work in factories and mills to help provide for their families. These children often died due to exhaustion and malnutrition. I do not feel that children were an acceptable source of labor, but I think I can understand why some kids had to work and why some employers would hire them. Some families may have not been able to afford to send their children to school because the money their kids made from working was important part of their families income. It probably would have been a hard decision for parents to send their children to work because they knew the bad work conditions of factories and mills. Employers would have hired children because they did have to pay them as much as adults at the

“The Cry of the Children” and stories, poems and other works were a direct response to the lack of standardized child labor laws and, or the enforcement of existing laws and regulations related to this issue to protect the safety and welfare of child laborers. Although the English Parliament passed the Chimney Sweepers Act in 1788, it wasn’t until the Factories Regulation Act of 1833 that finally sparked a significant point in taking this issue seriously. From the late eighteenth century the employment of children in mines and factories neglected child workers safety and the conditions of employment would be strongly debated for many years after. In 1833, the Report on the Employment of Children in Factories had led to the Factory Act of 1833

In the 1900's children as young as 9 years of age worked long hours in mills and factories. In certain countries children are still working those harsh hours today. Child labor was/is a large issue globally, especially for multi-million dollar companies where they have children working harsh ours in factories. These places are unclean, unsafe, not to mention the fact that they are also being underpaid. The public had concerns about the children's’ physical and mental health state. Though one of the main arguments for some families

During the 19th century child labor was still an ongoing; huge impact in America, mostly because factories needed tiny hands to do the job. They had no option but to work nor resting, they were not able to attend going to school. Handling machines was all they knew how to do, their childhood was taken away from them at a very young age. Several of the machines need no adult strength only tiny hands so they could fit between motors and gears. The lower working class families had to rely on their kids for more income, but what they made was never enough. Child Labor first started in the early 1800’s, while all hand work was now being replaced by machines in huge factories making steel, glass, and chemicals. In fact, kids were breathing in chemicals

Child labor in America was a major issue. Back in the 1900’s, children, as young as three years old, worked in factories, mills, on the streets, and even in the coal mines. Earning less than twenty cents an hour, these children were contributing to one-third of their family’s total income. The work conditions, put children in direct contact with danger, had deprived them of a proper education and revoked the child from having a normal childhood. In this summative response I will be discussing Lewis Hines- a photographer who ventured all over the states- and the immaculate photos he took of children working in harsh conditions and how one’s social class can affect one’s life-chances. I will also mention how child labor has improved over the

Child labor during the industrial revolution was very common and also very dangerous. The children would work in mines or factories. Mines were very cramped and also there was the constant threat of the mine collapsing on you. Factories weren’t any safer, children could get

The industrial revolution was one of the hardest times in American history. With these hard times brought pollution, poverty, and prejudice. Along with these corruption's brought one of the darkest sides of the industrial revolution and America's past, child labor. The industrial revolution brought many social evils. One of possibly the most worse of the social issues happens to be the unfair treatment of children in labor. Child Labor was a scandal of Child Labor is the employment of children working under the age of physical maturity.. Children would start work in mills, coal mines, and factories as young as 5 years old, to 18 years of age. An average child would work 18 hour days. Work days typically ran from dawn to sunset, and winter usually

(Laslett, 1970) Coupled with these innovations was the new concept of applying scientific methodology to industrial processes. (Laslett, 1970) All of these changes, while beneficial to businesses, did little to improve the lot of the industrial laborer. (Laslett, 1970) One of the key complaints of an entirely unregulated labor force in the late 1800s was the extensive use and abuse of child labor. In 1870, nearly three quarters of a million children between the ages of ten and fifteen worked in hazardous aspects of manufacturing, agriculture and street trade. (Laslett, 1970) By 1880, that number was over one point one million, or one in every six children in that age group. (Laslett, 1970) By 1900, that number doubled. The conditions under which children worked were very dangerous. They worked the same shifts as adults (about 12 hours a day, six days a week), denying them the opportunity for school and play. (Laslett, 1970) The factories, mills, mines and other work venues in which they labored were unsafe and unregulated. Children were also often used in the most dangerous aspects of industrial work, such as clearing jammed machines or working in confined spaces too small for adults. (Laslett, 1970) In 1881, only seven states had any kind of regulation laws for child laborer. Desperate for money to survive, immigrants and working-class Americans forged

Employers often had multiple machines which meant they needed to have numerous workers. This did not phase employers however, because they could get away with paying the children so little. Their jobs were often tedious, repetitive tasks, such as replacing bobbins on a string spinner or picking out debris from fast moving coal in coal mines ("In the Playtime" 1). These jobs had no way of setting the children up for better work, because no skill was learned from such repetitive tasks ("In the Playtime" 1). This meant that when other employers looked for experience in a certain field children could not say they had much experience. Not only were their jobs repetitive, but they were extremely dangerous. In order to ensure that children would not leave their posts, employers often locked children in the work room despite dangerous contaminants such as coal dust, lint, and oil ("In the Playtime" 2). This also made it a breeding ground for disease. These conditions would lead to respiration problems, cancer, and other extreme medical issues. Ultimately this led to fewer work opportunities in the future because repercussions of some diseases, such as asthma, meant it was near to impossible for that child to lift heavy objects or anything of the sort. Many children received shortened lifespans due to these conditions also. A study done well after these times showed that boys who worked inside around lint, cotton, coal, or any small particles, were half as likely to live to the age of twenty than a boy who maybe worked outside in the fields. For girls the percentage was worse ("In the Playtime of Others: Child Labor in the Early 20th Century" 2). However these were not the only dangers in the workplace. Many children worked with hazardous machinery and often became careless around the machines after working long hours. Many would get stuck in

The people working in factories were affected negatively negatively by the Industrial Age. Early factory workers would have workdays up to 14 hours long (Farr). While this was around the same length as a preindustrial workday, the amount of work done within that time changed. Preindustrial workers worked in bursts of energy. Factory workers, on the other hand, had to work nonstop in order to meet demands. A worker as young as 10 years old could have a 16 hour work day with only one break (Doc 1). Even when machines broke and production stopped, workers had to stay in the factory, though these unscheduled breaks were often used for relaxation. These long work days were tiring for adults, but even worst for child workers. Children as young as 6 years old were hired as factory workers. They crawled under machines to