Child Labor

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While the working conditions for children in Europe during the Industrial Revolution were hazardous and sometimes fatal, the era was only capable of the extraordinary profits and accomplishments it achieved because of child labor. They achieved the feats that they did because of the wide array of labor the children performed in factories, coal mines, and cotton mills.

Children that worked in factories were cheaper to hire than adults and could be manipulated with physical abuse to work extensive hours and for low wages. The Industrial Revolution brought population increase which equaled to more child workers. New factories were built which brought more jobs. These jobs led to more houses to be built and people flocked to the factories for the jobs. With a sustained income, families grew and thus the population increased. The population increase allowed for more child workers, which said before, were much cheaper labor than adults and they did not need to be skilled. Children would work 12-19 hours a day with minimal break time. They would get whipped, beaten and abused if they fell asleep on the job or if they were ever out of line, mostly the younger children were susceptible to this. There was no use for expensive skilled workers anymore because the Industrial Revolution brought machines which were easy to operate. The children did not need any special skills to operate the machines so the factory owners could pay them very little, often 10-20% of the salary of an adult. The factory owners profited greatly because of how little they had to pay their employees and how many items were produced and sold.

Coal mines were a source of heavy profits during the Industrial Revolution. Children worked in coal mines where accidents ...

... middle of paper ...

... era flourished. They were very much involved in factories, coal mines, and in textile mills. These businesses were major parts of the economy in the 18th and 19th century and they depended a lot on child workers.

Works Cited

Child Labor and the Division of Labor in the Early English Cotton Mills

Douglas A. Galbi

Journal of Population Economics

Vol. 10, No. 4 (Oct., 1997), pp. 357-375

Proletarianization in the Industrial Revolution: Regionalism and Kinship in the Labour Markets of the British Coal Industry from the Seventeenth to the Nineteenth Centuries

John Langton

Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers

New Series, Vol. 25, No. 1 (2000), pp. 31-49

Schmidt, James D. 2010. "Broken Promises: Child Labor and Industrial Violence." Insights on Law & Society 10, no. 3: 14-17. Academic Search Complete, EBSCOhost (accessed March 29, 2011).

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