Roles Of Children During The Industrial Revolution

The way children grow up and are treated by their parents has changed immensely from the 18 and 1900s. Adult perspective of children has also changed. Children are no longer viewed as property, but an actual human being who has choices. New laws and organizations have outlawed and forbid certain acts against children. In the United States, if one is under the age of 18 years old they are considered a child. There is a vast difference between how children were treated in the 1800s and in today’s society; whether it’s child abuse or child labor, how children are raised has changed for the better.

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.

From quitting school and getting paid a minimum of 25¢ to continuing school and getting paid a minimum of $4.25. During the Industrial Revolution, children would seek work in order to provide for their families and leave school doing so. History.com claims that “In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16.” Many employers would hire children because they were easier to manage and ultimately could be paid less than adults. Today there are many restrictions on child labor that provide a safe work environment and rights for the youth. Labor conditions have changed since the Industrial Revolution thanks to reform movements and have paved the way for the safer modern day conditions.

Today we have child labor laws, which prohibit the use of children as workers. During the industrial revolution, there was no such thing. You can see in Lewis W. Hine’s photo that a child is dangerously balancing on a milk crate so he can reach the machine. (Lewis W. Hine) Children worked extremely dangerous jobs for very little pay. This boy in the photo could easily fall from where he is balancing and could cut himself open on the machine.

child could not earn much, but even a few pence would be enough to buy

Child labor was a cruel and unfair way of using children in unnecessary situations. It was debated for a countless number of years whether child labor was a social problem or a political problem. Children were responsible for completing very dangerous, rigorous, and demanding jobs. Most jobs for the children were completed in factories, farms, and coal mines. Subsequently, the working conditions for the children were not healthy, and it led to life threatening situations. Many would get seriously injured or killed. Some worked until exhaustion and fell asleep on the job, and would experience harsh consequences. Generally speaking, child labor drastically changed the way owners ran their businesses during the Industrial Revolution. The ruthless ways of child labor were never changed for the better until different Acts and Laws were put into place. People were concerned with the social and physical wellbeing of working children in Britain during the Industrial Revolution.

At the end of the previous century, as American city populations continued to grow and families struggled make ends meet, children often took on odd jobs to help their parents. Elizabeth Rose describes children’s lives in Philadelphia in her book A Mother’s Job, writing “A visitor to any of Philadelphia's working-class neighborhoods in 1890 might encounter children in the streets peddling fruit, selling newspapers, carrying large bundles of clothes for their mothers to work on at home, rocking small babies, and playing games like kick-the-can in between delivery wagons, horsecars, pushcarts, and ice trucks.” By the end of the 19th century, children were already caring for their siblings with little adult supervision and wandering dangerous city streets alone.   In addition to the dangers of poverty and a hostile urban environment, children were also often forced into factory jobs, forced to work an average of 12 to 18 hours a day for 6 days a week.

Children were working to have an income to help support their families during this era. They worked in factories, coal mines, and on farms. The factories that they worked in often worked the children as vigorously as the adults. They were not allowed breaks and worked over 69 hours per week (Source 3). “The Life and Adventures of Michael Armstrong, the Factory Boy” by Frances Milton Trollope, illustrated these conditions. A child’s death from working was the most common way to die in this century (Source 1).

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

Throughout the American Industrial Revolution, child labor in industries such as textiles, agriculture, mining, manufacturing, laboring, street work, and domestic work was endemic in the United States. Several factors, including mechanization, urbanization, industrialization, poverty, labor shortages, and lack of regulation were the primary causes for this increase in child labor. Children, as young as three years old, worked from sunrise to sunset in factories, mines, fields, and mills where conditions were excruciating. The arduous work resulted in myriad deleterious effects, namely, afflictive injuries, pitiful deaths, and bleak futures. In order to curtail the abusive conditions, numerous people championed the rights of child laborers and ultimately achieved their concordant goal of gaining federal regulation of minimum employment ages, permissible types of jobs, and duration of work hours for youths.

In the 1800s most families had about seven children, then in the industrial era the families had about three or four children. The reason that the average of children dropped in this era was due to couples waiting longer to get married or spacing the pregnancies out. One of the big causes of fewer children in this era was because of contraceptives. Contraceptives were just discovered and many couples realize that it was a very effective method. With families having fewer children their main concern was getting their children educated and have knowledge about the economy, so they would be successful in the real world. Education became more populated this time in history, about 71% of children ages five to eighteen went to school. Women became

Children all around worked in factories, mines, or in the fields picking cotton. These jobs would provide them with an income to give to their families. Children were paid only a fraction of what adults were paid. Most of the time children that weren’t getting paid were orphan’s. “The factory owners justified their absence of payroll by saying that they gave the orphans food, shelter and clothing, all of which were far below par (Child labor in factories).”The items that they could of made could sell for about 60 dollars and still only get paid about ten

In the early 1900’s, children were often forced to work long hours with very little pay. In addition, the conditions in these factories were considered highly dangerous. Because the children were required to work in these labor conditions to support their families, they were unable to get the education they deserved. The working conditions during the Industrial Revolution were poor; however, the working environment for minors today has significantly improved. There is a long list of physical demanding jobs that are not allowed to employ children.

Therefore, women and children were sent to work during the Industrial Revolution, often pressured by the man of the household to take these positions. In The World of Child Labor: An Historical and Reginal Survey author Hindman describes the reason for the increased use of child labor as, “Payment for the entire family’s output was usually made to the household head. The system of payment created incentives for parents to put children to work as young as possible, for long hours of work, and favored families with many children (Hindman 479). ” Children could work from dawn to dusk with only a few minutes of break time, and they had no choice of what the money was used for.

Although children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution.There was a big impact on the daily life of a child labourer as poor children often worked full time jobs with minimal pay in order to help support their families. Young children worked long hours in factories under dangerous conditions. children were easier to manage and control than adults because their size was perfect as it allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines.The practice of child labor continued throughout much of the Industrial Revolution until laws were eventually passed that made child labor illegal.