The Role Of Children During The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution had positive outcomes of more jobs, but these new jobs brought some positives but many more negatives for the people. Child labor today is not as bad as the issue was centuries ago, but it still affects millions of children all over the world. The use of children in the work force was like putting a newborn rat in a maze and trying to make it find its own way

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.

Conditions of factories were not safe for anyone, let alone a small child. Due to these conditions many children died before their prime. Many children “began work at age 5, and generally died before they were 25” (www.victorianweb.org), America was beginning to lose an entire generation due to these working conditions that so many had to endure. Children were hired at an alarming rate. “In 1870, the first time census reported child workers, there were 750,000 workers in the United States age 15 and under, not including those who worked on family farms or in other family businesses” (“Child Labor in America”), these numbers were not something that was looked over, it astonished many. “A cotton manufactory of 5 or 6000 spindles will employ those 200 children” (Bremner 232). The workforce would continuously grow, hiring more and more children each day. Factories were good for using children as a means of their productivity. “Textile factories, for the most part […] were in the forefront of this industrial revolution, and children formed an essential component of the new industrial workforce” (Bremner 232). Many times without these children working some of these factories would not have survived through the revolution.

The other large part of English child labor was inside of textile factories. Michael Sadler, chairman of the UK parliamentary committee looking to pass a bill to limit child labor in Britain, interviewed factory workers to showcase what happened inside the factories to the British Parliament, in hopes of laws being passed to stop this. In The Sadler Report, he interviews Mr. Matthew Crabtree. Crabtree describes the brutality of his working environment where he was a blanket maker. According the interview, he started working in the factory at age eight, and at that point he would work from “ six in the morning to eight at night,” with one break for lunch at noon. When the factory was busier, he would work sixteen hours. Due to the extreme hours, Crabtree reports extreme exhaustion, and loss of appetite. On top of being kept extremely unhealthy, punishments were doled out often. Crabtree reports that a regular occurrence at the end of the day would be the factory administrators would beat the fatigued children who were too tired to keep up with production. He himself describes being beaten with at piece of the machinery called a “billy,” saying, “I had been struck[...] so much so as to knock me down.” Sometimes, he saw other children 's head’s be opened

In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution created new jobs for millions of people including children. Many children during the Industrial Revolution were employed in manufacturing and mining. One of the most widely recognized jobs for children was as a “Newsie” or “Newsboy”. This job was held by young children, usually boys, while girls usually worked in mills that produced textiles and paper products. Many newsies had families and homes, and were children who went to school in the day and sold papers in the evening and on weekends to support their families. Many times orphaned, there were as many as 10,000 homeless newsies wandering the streets of New York in the 1899. Some Newsies called “Street Waifs” or children who had been orphaned, homeless,

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

Mortality rates were decreasing rapidly. This was not only an effect of the poor living conditions, but also of the high pollution that was being created by the factories. Conditions for adult and children in the factory during the Industrial Revolution were unrelenting in its enforcement of tough rules, long hours and its unsanitary and, sometimes, dangerous environment. According to author, the mill work that Sam and the other children did was dangerous nor particularly difficult. Children of the Industrial Revolution perhaps suffered more than the adults also “some of the children had their hands terribly lacerated by the carding machine”. Owners realized that children were easier to train and control and they were forced to work as young as eight years old. They worked for many hours in factories and were denied their education. At such a young age, education and the support of family would have been instrumental in the development of such an impressionable mind. The innocence of what it means to be a child was exploited by the business owners who wished only to gain more

The working conditions of the average laborer during the industrial revolution were oftentimes harsh and dangerous as seen in documents in 1,2,3 and 5. According to the Sadler Committee of 1832, men were forced to work excessively long hours and were whipped to stay awake. (Doc. 1) Additionally, the Sadler Committee revealed that many workers have suffered from infections, disease and muscle problems. (Doc. 2) This shows that industrial factory owners oftentimes exploited their laborers for profit. Andrew Ure’s The Philosophy of Manufactures reveals that children in the factory

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

Often, the children were made to work “from five in the morning till nine or ten at night”, with “no time … for breakfast and no sitting for dinner and no time for tea”. These constant and long working hours not only can lead to mental and physical suffering, but they can also cause an increase in injury rates from working in general due to mental and physical fatigue. Additionally, the superiors of the workers often beat the children mercilessly. According to a firsthand account from John Birley, who was a child laborer at the time, a supervisor once “knocked me down knocked me down and threatened me with a stick. To save my head I raised my arm, which he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks, and suffer pain from it to this day, and always shall as long as I live...”. This act demonstrates the cruelty the child workers suffered at the hands of the superiors, due to the utter lack of regulation of these textile mills. In fact, the replaceable nature of their jobs and the Combination Acts essentially forced the children to endure this treatment, as they had no other way to support their families. This account is supported by similar accounts from an unbiased third-party doctor who investigated the mills. He stated that not only were the textile mills “nurseries of disease and vice”, the

So factory and mine owners depended on child labor greatly. They especially depended on children who were good with their hands and parents realizing an extra income often forced their children into work. As a result, children got abused and injured constantly. In Aspects of Western Civilization, Rogers refers to different accounts of children being physically deformed for life as a result of their employment. He also provides statistics on children's death causes, which include causes like: falling down the shafts, drowning in the mines, suffocating of choke-damp. "An imperfect abstract from the registration of deaths for the year 1838, gives a total, in p. 177-178

Was Child Labor Necessary during Industrial Revolution? Industrial Revolution began in England in the mid 1700s. The changes in Industrial Revolution were not only to improve the manufacturing of products, but also helped those countries to have a better economy and life. At that time, there were many jobs opportunities, many people, including children, most of them worked in factories. A lot of factories owner tented to use child labor, but they treated children badly.

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.

Working Conditions of Children in Textile Mills After thorough investigation into 5 sources referring to the working conditions for children in factories during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, we now have the opportunity to bind all the facts together and create a detailed account. However, there are still questions over the reliability of some of the sources, so further research and comparisons with other mills need to be made. Making comparisons will also indicate the typicality of Styal.

Throughout the Industrial Revolution, children were used as workers in the factories. They were put through harsh working conditions and dangerous situations. Many times children working would be hurt because they did the dangerous jobs adults could not do. . They were small enough to fit is tight places, and had small hands that could work in the machines; most of these places adults cannot fit. In addition to this, they were payed very little because they were just children. So, overall they were treated as subhuman and “used” as workers, instead of being fairly treated as a child. These children never got to live their childhood, but went straight to work. In order to document these harsh conditions and try to bring about reform, Lewis Hine photographed children in the mills. He displayed their harsh working conditions to all people to show that children are not living their childhood. In this paper, I will discuss two photographs that Hine took, each of which were taken during the Industrial Revolution and shortly after. They had the initial purpose of reform, but after much circulation and viewing, became an icon to child labor. These images were seen so much that they lost their ability to strike huge change in the people of America, and because a common image to see. However, these images still brought reform even though they caused desensitization in people. This paper will evaluate two pictures and argue three theories of Sontag. These three consist