“When People In The United States Think Of Children'S Rights

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 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

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

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).

When the Industrial Revolution started, many families had to find someone to work or they wouldn’t survive. When European immigrants came, they brought opinions that said children should work. That’s when children really started working. When it all started it went widespread and no one became concerned when children were not getting a modest education. By 1900, millions of children were working so as their families could survive.

If it wasn’t in farms, then it was out in the hot sun of the fields, or even in factories. Kids were meant to work in their family’s farm, but when it was time to send them to work in other farmer’s farm it was to do so. Working in agriculture was difficult with the extreme temperatures. For some children high temperatures was normal because of how they were used to being out working. Others that worked in factories sometimes dealt with carrying heavy equipment and dangerous tools. Many factories had to do with fire and toxins that many worked around of. Being in factories they were useful due to their size, they’d fit anywhere that adults couldn’t reach into. They were easier to control for how young they were and even though they managed to do most of the work, they were paid less than the adults. All minors had long hours to work every day for such little pay. Sometimes hours reached at least ten to fourteen and didn’t give them much break that was supposed

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.

When poor kids came home from working their parents would teach them what they would do in school if they were to go. Parents made them miss out on school because they were so poor that they needed money. It was more important than having their child's education. In 1836, Children under the age of fifteen in Massachusetts that were working in factories had to attend school for at least three months/year. Unskilled and labor intensive jobs may be risky, also training and supervision may be inadequate.

At five years old, what were you doing? I am almost certain that your answer to this question would not be working over twelve hours a day in a factory, managing heavy machinery, and receiving barely enough money to help support your family. However, this was the reality of thousands of children during the early 1900s. Many people were against child labor and tried to bring reform by enforcing and creating new laws and regulations, but this proved to be difficult due to lack of compliance and government support. The issue of whether or not children should be able to work and if so what regulations must be emplaced upon them have been incessantly discussed and debated. Although many arguments can be made either for or against child labor, I

It was not rare to find kids working for long days and hours in mills or factories or other places of trade. It was called child labor. Many families lived off of the income that their kids brought home every day. Concern from the public about the fact that these kids had to work so much and so hard began to rise. Supporters for child labor laws proved that children who worked such long days, such as 26-27 hours a week, were always rundown, depressed, and deprived of real education, fresh air, and time to play with friends and act like children. They also were concerned about the physical risks that these kids could have. Kids in factories had high accident rates. Some states passed laws limiting child labor, but these states had restrictions that held an economic drawback.

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

Their idea of a solution was to hire children to be able to take care of parts that could not be accomplished by larger men. Factories everywhere started taking in children ages 5 and up for work. Many children were forced to work 12 hours a day or close to 48 hours a week. Many children either wanted to or were forced to go into work to help support their families. Many of these children did not receive schooling; therefore ensuring them living out their lives in factories. Because they were children, people sought to take advantage of them money wise, causing them to work for close to nothing.

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.

It has since been a social issue that many have struggled to face, despite the recent changes in the social law and ideology. However, this wasn’t always the case, because society viewed child labor as being tolerable instead of unethical. In fact, in the early 1800’s children were already working long grueling hours as a way of supporting themselves and the family. Children were often subjected to work 50-70 hour weeks, but this was seen most prominent in poorer families where the cost of having a child was too much of burden for certain families to carry. This would often result in families giving up their children by turning them over to factory mill owners, where they would be able make enough to support themselves and only that.

When children are forced by their families to work, they no longer have the time to attend school. Though there are a significant number of children who go to school and work, the work may negatively impact their studies. Data from 12 Latin American countries find that third and fourth graders who attend school and never conduct market or domestic work performs 28% better on mathematics tests and 19% better on language tests than children who both attend school and work. Child labor is also problematic because it creates a vicious cycle. A study conducted in Egypt found that many fathers couldn’t find work or were unemployed for health reasons that were a result of them having worked too long hours, in conditions that negatively impacted their health as children.