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Essay On Childhood In The 1800s

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The family and childhood perspectives of the 1800’s were vastly different to those of today. The children of 17th-century were represented as mini-adults and expected to act as such. Child labor and child welfare laws were nonexistent, proving to be a huge difference to today’s society. Childhood during this time brought few protections from family or government. The mind set of this Era revolved around productivity and children were seen as just another asset to produce income. During the Industrial Revolution, from 1760 to 1850, work life for children dramatically changed. Children had always helped on farms or assisted in making textiles at home. However, as life became more urban and industrial there were fewer domestic job opportunities. This forced many children from working on their family farm to working in unsafe factory conditions. …show more content…

The profitability of textiles caused the factories to sometimes run 24 hours a day, resulting in children as young as six years old working overnight shifts. The work was exhausting and dangerous; one wrong move could easily cause irreparable damage. Other than the factory job boys were employed in agriculture or mining whereas, girls were most commonly domestic servants. Due to a big increase in income for Middle-class families, this allowed the use of more hired help. The work was grueling, along with psychological and sexual abuse which happened frequently. Many people did not see a problem with child labor. Childhood did not have the special protective status that it has today, and most accepted the idea of a “cooperative family economy, in which all household members contributed to the material support of the family.” (BARUSCH, FOUNDATIONS OF SOCIAL POLICY: social justice in human perspective,

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