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Child labor laws during the industrial era
Arguments for and against child Labour
Arguments for and against child Labour
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“Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school.” Back then in the U.S., children were working between ages 5 to 17. Between the 1800s and 1900s, many children worked in agricultural fields, fishing, mining, manufacturing, and even drug trade and prostitution. Even though child labor laws are still avoided around the world, the effects on child labor in the US, before, was unbelieveable. Children were suffering from health issues, reform movements grew and other countries followed enforced child labor too. Most children who worked; suffered health related issues. “Many of the industries that employ large numbers of young workers in the United States have higher-than-average injury rates for workers of all ages, …show more content…
Some weren’t supervised, they might’ve been too short to do the work or didn’t want to do the work. When children worked over 15 hours a day, they suffered with either malnutrition, fatigue and anemia. With that said, the risk increased of having permanent disabilities and death. Once again due to their long hours of work, kids dealt with aggression, substance use, sleep deprivation and misconduct. Most people didn’t care and that proved how morally wrong they …show more content…
Many states were involved and enacted laws by the 1920s. Overall 36 states set laws against children, under the age of 16, working in factories at night or over eight hours. As a result, a lot people began to see the negative sides of child labor and advocated for children. More kids went to school for free and worked until they were 16. Thanks to the International Labor Organization, they’ve kept an eye out to regulate work since the twentieth century. There were only a few attempts of child labor but the more and more they tried, the more states banned children working underage. That made a huge impact in the US but still not in any other
Twenty-three year old Elizabeth Bentley is one of the thousands of children who worked for agonizingly long hours, and became physically deformed as a result of her labor. During an investigation of the conditions of child laborers, she testified these statements as to her years at a flax mill under the authority of a Mr. Burk. In reference to her hours of work, she responded that she worked “from five in the morning till nine at night, when they were thronged” (Document 7). Bentley, along with the rest of the child workers, worked for sixteen long hours a day. That only leaves them approximately eight hours for sleeping, hobbies, and eating. They were only allowed “forty minutes at noon” (Document 7) for meals, with no regard to breakfast or drinking breaks. On top of working inhumane hours of labor, they clearly were not allowed to eat their full, which is a detrimental factor to their health. Deformities and injuries were, unfortunately, very common. She states that it is “very common indeed” (Document 7) to have such disabilities that Bentley herself developed “as a consequence of this labor”
As industry grew in the period following the Civil War, children, often as puerile as 10 years old but sometimes much younger, labored. They worked not only in industrial settings but additionally in retail stores, on the streets, on farms, and in home-predicated industries. This article discusses the utilization of child labor in the Amalgamated States, concentrating on the period after the Civil War through the elevate of the child labor reform kinetics. These are kids who are as adolescent as 6 years old and are being coerced to fight against others. Albeit children had been auxiliaries and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached incipient extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours in hazardous factory conditions for very little mazuma. Children were utilizable as laborers because their size sanctioned them to move in minute spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit, children were more facile to manage and control and perhaps most importantly, children could be paid less than adults. Children are working at puerile ages endeavoring to fortify their family with the little pay that they are fortuitous to get. Children who are in economic child labor are less liable to be in school. Of the total children aged 5 to 14 years in economic child labor, about 15 percent were not in school. Child labor is generally defined as
Many businesses and factories hired children because they were easier to exploit; they could be paid less for more work in dangerous conditions. Plus, their small size made many children idea for working with small parts or fitting into small spaces. Children as young as four could be found working in factories, though most were between eight and twelve. Despite the economic gains made by the business that employed them, many children suffered in the workplace. The industrial setting caused many health problems for the children that, if they lived long enough, they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children were also more likely to face accidents in the workplace, often caused by fatigue, and many were seriously injured or killed. Despite efforts by reformers to regulate child labor, it wasn’t until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that children under 14 were prohibited from
Child labor started during the industrial revolution, cheap labor was needed, and the machines could be operated by children. Many children worked because of poverty, they were forced to work to help out their families. The lack of government regulations that enforced safety standards or that said how long the children were to work. They would work very long hours with nothing to show for it. Since children were so small they could fit into small spaces that the adult workers could
Factories were utilizing children to do the hard work. They employed children as young as five or six to work as many as twenty hours a day. According to Document C, children worked in factories to build up muscles and having good intellect in working rather than getting an education. They became a different person rather than conventional children. There were additionally health issues due to child labor: rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, higher chemical absorption rates, and developing ability to assess risks. Progressive Era reformers believed that child labor was detrimental to children and to society. They believed that children should be protected from harmful environments, so they would become healthy and productive adults. In 1912, Congress created the Children’s Bureau to benefit children. The Keating-Owen Act was passed in 1916 to freed children from child labor only in industries that engaged in interstate commerce. However, it was declared unconstitutional sinc...
The labor conditions that children faced were very demanding for a human being from such a small age. For example “In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods” (Wolensky 2). The children working in the factories had their childhood freedom taken away from them. “In 1830 in a sample of 43 Manchester mills, 22.3% of the workforce was under 14 and 32.4% under 16” (Cunningham 412). This means that about 50% of the workforce in the mills were made up of children under the age of 16 and in today in the United States, a person cannot work until the age of 16. “And it is a hard thing for small children to be confined in a tight close room all day long. It affects their growth, makes them pale and sickly” (Nason). The time these children spent in the factories prevented them from spending time with their neighbors, friends, and family. The fact that young children had to work in these textile mills, created changes to American culture on how childhood years are supposed to be spent.
According to the article “A History of Child Labor” reviewed by Milton Fried, a child could work as long as six days a week for up to 18 hours a day, and only make a dollar a week. Child labor was nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families. Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big
Child labor is using an adolescent to work with minimal to no pay. In today’s society it is considered immoral, but that was not the case in the 1920s. In that time period child labor was very prevalent. Children of all ages would engage in this without a choice. One issue with this is the child never gets the proper education to prevail and get a well paying job. This was not just a job on the farm, there were many forms of labor such as factory work, agricultural work, and domestic work. The conditions were not fit for working, and the children were paid the bare minimum. Further, it was realised that child labor was harmful to the well being of the child. As a result, there were laws created to abolish it. Child labor
In the mid-19th century the entire country utilized child labor because kids were paid less and the money the children earned was necessary for their family’s survival. According to The American, a high school history textbook published by Holt McDougal, the “North and South used children- cheap labor- for full days… 10 year old slave children worked in the fields like adults” (Danzer 266). During the mid 1800s it was the “norm” for young children to work to support the family, “one Northern mill employed 100 children ages four to ten” and textile-mills often had workers 15 years old and younger (Danzer 266). Unsafe child labor was very popular, increasing child fatalities and injuries caused by fatigue. Throughout the progressive era, multiple groups worked to protect child workers and eliminate unsafe child labor. In 1908 reformers were able to gain legislation in many states, this allowed restrictions to be placed on child labor, while also setting work hour standards (Danzer 517) Finally, in 1938 Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA), which “restricted the ages, hours, and working conditions of school-age workers” to improve teen safety while working ("Regulating Teen”). The specifics of teen and child work have continued to change and improve over the past 80
Currently there are laws and regulations that protect children from working in hazardous workplaces at a young age. The article, "The Impact of Discrimination on Working Children and on the Phenomenon of Child Labour” mentions the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938 under President Franklin D. Roosevelt not only set the minimum wage but also banned children under the age of sixteen from working. This act led to the decline of child labor in the United States over a period of time. For the first time after a long time, children did not have to work in hazardous workplaces and risk their lives. Children were able to live their childhood and did not have to grow up so fast. In add...
...that were turned down by Congress. Like Jane Addams said in The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets in 1909 (Document C) the government was so concerned about industry that they forgot the well being of children. It wasn’t until 1916 that the Keating Owen Act was supported, which regulated child labor. But it wasn’t even established and child labor continued.
Child labor has been around for hundreds of years. “Children of poor and working-class families had worked for centuries before industrialization” (Tuttle 1). Before children were needed in factories they worked on family farms tending the fields or animals, as time went on families moved from farms to the cities where children were still required to work. Children worked for numerous reasons some were that their parents couldn’t work so the responsibilities were passed to the children; others included the simple need for more money to feed the entire family. Large businesses welcomed the increasing number of child workers, for the business it meant cheap labor and cheap laborers that could be replaced easily. The exact number of child workers is unknown and has been estimated as stated in multiple articles such as this, “By 1900 over two million children, mostly immigrant children under the age of sixteen, were employed” (Wagner 1). Parents wanted their children to work as soon as possible so they could get as much income as possible, parents often did illegal things to get their children to work, “Boy’s parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date o...
The majority of the children started at a young age “What time did you begin work at the factory? When I was six years old” (Document 7). Children were counted upon to start work at the earliest age possible to earn money to aid their family. In addition the kids would also have the same hours as adults, which was at least eight to ten hours a day. Bustling work was assigned to the children also “ Explain what you had to do: When the frames are full, they have to stop the frames, and take the full bobbins off, and carry them to the roller, and then put empty ones on, and set the frame going again” (Document 7). Young ones were expected to do hard work which involved running back and forth, it was sure-enough strenuous work for younger children. Loads of kids did work similar to this if not harder, most kids worked in textile factories. Bountiful amounts of kids body’s were physically damaged “You are considerably deformed in person as a consequence of this labour? Yes I am” (Document 7). The hard labor the children had made their body's frail and weak after a long period of time. This started happening when they grew into teenagers after all the years of work they did. Child labor had a extreme effect on children's life, but the working conditions for children and adults were just as
Children are now welcomed to earth as presents bundled in pinks and blues. In the 1800’s children were treated as workers straight from the womb. Children trained early in age to perform unbearable tasks (Ward 3). Imagine how it felt to be unwanted by a parent and sold to a master who also cared nothing about them. Many children earned a few pennies by becoming chimney sweeps or working in the streets running errands, calling cabs, sweeping roads, selling toys or flowers and helping the market porters (Ward 3). The young children did not have much choice on which job (life) they wanted, but by far sweeping chimneys was the most dangerous. The children were forced into confined areas filled with comb webs, where they sacrificed their lives to clean. William Blake does a great job depicting hardship of children in the 1800’s in “The Chimney Sweeper” through the use of diction and imagery.
Struggles of Child Labor Child labor in the twentieth century was very harsh. Children were useful as laborers because their little bodies allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit. Children were easier to take control of and perhaps most importantly, children could be under paid more frequently than adults. Child laborers often worked to help support their families.