Child Labor During The Industrial Revolution

The Industrial Revolution sacrificed the rights and lives of many for the advancements of society as a whole. To have the safe working conditions we have today, many people during the Industrial Revolution had to suffer through horrendous conditions such as long work hours, poor working conditions, and dangerous working machinery. However, it was these practices in Great Britain that led to mass production, lower costs of retail pricing, greater accessibility, and an increased supply of goods. All these factors created a middle working class that supplied the enormous need for job fillings. But as the industry expands and the technology advances, the standard of workers worsen, and people lacked their basic human rights in the workforce. Many

This practice, of course, is now banned today but many companies still choose to appoint children as workers because they were inexpensive and disposable. This is the same reason why they were hired during the Industrial Revolution. Children could do many of the jobs adults can do but were specifically hired due to their small size. They could reach into small spaces adults were not able to. Their pay rates however was very little if any at all because many children worked for their living spaces, since many children were orphans. “Those very children were sent into virtual slavery by a government body; they were deserted or orphaned pauper children who were legally under the custody of the poor-law officials in the parish, and who were bound by these officials into long terms of unpaid apprenticeship in return for bare subsistence.” Statistics show that children were paid 10 to 20 percent of what adults were paid for the same job, and almost fifty percent of workers were children in some British factories in the 1700s. The working conditions children faced during the time was very depressing. They were placed in mines, glass factories, textile factories, places suited only for adults. A child’s injury was a common sight because there was little to no safety regulations in the places they worked. Supervisors treated children as slaves, often beating them with a strap as punishment if they feel that their job is not up to how they feel it should be. Another punishment was to basically drown their heads in cisterns full of water. "When I was seven years old I went to work at Mr. Marshalls factory at Shrewsbury. If a child was drowsy, the overlooker touches the child on the shoulder and says, "Come here". In a corner of the room there is an iron cistern filled with water. He takes the boy by the legs and dips him in the cistern, and sends him back to work." In the year 1770, it was estimated that over