Personal Narrative Essay: Child Labor In The United States

More than that, I also longed to be free. I wanted to be the freest person in the world. Freedom to me was not simply doing what you want to do. Anyone can do that. Freedom for me meant having the power to do what you know you ought to do. Most people know what they ought to do, but they do not have the power to do it. So, I started looking for answers. My name is Nathaniel Mihnovich, and I am here to share about my life and my world. So what is life? For me, Life was not a normal thing. Life is like a game where it is difficult to quit or win. When you take a good look at society and life in general, I think you will see that we are all just playing one huge game.

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.

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.

issues of all kind. The country I was born in did not guarantee freedom of

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.

Children would breathe hot air, would have sweat dripping down their faces and would taste the dirt and salty tears. Their backs and every other part of their body would start aching by the age of 14. This is what happened during the early 1900's when child labor existed. Families in the early 1900's (also known as the Progressive Era) would work their own children for 16 hours a day in awful conditions with very little pay. The abolishment of child labor made modern children not have to feel the pain that children would experience. The end of child labor in the United States affected children today because if the end of child labor never happened then child labor would still be a tremendous problem in the United States today.

Child labor becomes a major problem in the late-1700s and mid-1800s, the number of children younger than 16 years of age is working in the industry, leaving their homes to work in factories and mines which exposed them a dangerous and unhealthy conditions. Individuals and business viewed children as an affordable, achievable and renewable resource with a low wage. Even though many States or countries passed laws prohibiting child labor. The worst kind of child labor still rampantly exists in our country; despite the continuous fights against it because laws were not enforced enough that child labor still exists today.

Way back in the 19th century everyone who was physically capable worked. They worked in the feilds, in shops and markets, in homes serving, they worked wherever they could. When the industrial revolution brought about new macherinery for old work it was not so easy of an adjustment. The people went along well with the new technology, but the machines and general atmosphere in factories was dreadful. Deaths were extremely common. Child labor was a necessity for the time period, but has since been rightfull illegaliszed.

Many of the products that are used and consumed in the United States are made in other countries. One of the main reasons for multinational corporations to produce goods in countries other than the United States is the cost of production. It is far cheaper to produce goods such as blue jeans, paper goods, and plastic toys to name a few. In recent years the conditions in sweatshops in China, Japan, and elsewhere have garnered public outcry from Countries like the U.S. and most of Europe. The main contention, child labor in dangerous and horrid conditions. However one often overlooked example of child labor in sweatshop-like conditions exists were many people never thought. The chocolate we eat. “From 2013 to 2014 more than 1.1 million children in the Ivory Coast were engaged in the most common Worst Forms of Child Labor as recognized by the United Nations… up from 791,181 children from 2008 to 2009” (Berman, 2015). The benefactors of this child labor are huge multinational enterprises such as Nestle, Mars Inc., and The Hershey Co.

Before child labor was really a thing, there were strikes that the adult employers were holding because of low wages and other problems. The reason the employers chose to hire children instead of adults is because they would work for low wages, and also faster when it came to production and easier to train. The reason children have to go to work in the first place is to be able to aid their families in need. My question is how can children aid their families, when they can't even aid

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

Minors were employed for less wages than other workers with the same amount of work and hours of labor.

There is nothing more vital to the essence of human functionality than the ability to pursue your best life. Since colonization, freedom had been a term that was commonly left to interpretation by those who had the power to make the rules: religious/political leaders and the wealthy. The rights that Americans consider givens today were withheld from many individuals because of their race, gender or religion. As an individualist, I believe in discretion, volition, druthers, and I very much appreciate my independence. Though I was not alive to witness the creation of the U.S. Constitution or the immediate effects of its enactment, I believe that it most affects my life today because it contracted my inalienable civil rights and settled government practices that are still utilized to

I really wanted to be free because my family and I had lived in a free state, so I decided to go to Court. We won, we are free! I was lifted to the sky! I was hopeful for what was yet to come.

Every time that I’m hearing the word “Freedom”, I’m seeing a lot of things going on with it. If someone has it, he or she could do a lot of things in the world because they have power to do things to make themselves better. There are three short stories, which the protagonists of the story have the freedom, but they used it in different ways in their different situations. One of the stories, “The Story of an Hour” by Kate Chopin that talks about Mrs. Mallard experienced freedom in just a moment. Second, the “A&P” by John Updike, which talks about Sammy who discovered freedom after he saw himself having more and better opportunities after he quits his job. The last is the story of Tillie Olsen “I Stand Here Ironing”, which talked about Emily