Child Labor In The 1800s

An estimated 152 million children around the globe are doing work that prevents them from getting an education or that's harmful to their health.The history of child labor is important in how it is today. How it is today is important because it can affect us greatly. How it affects people is important because it can change people's lives and their families very greatly. Child labor is wrong because they can get hurt and their education can be taken away.

“In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16”(IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “The educational reformers of the mid-nineteenth century convinced many among the native-born population that primary school education was a necessity for both personal fulfillment and the advancement of

the nation” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). The nineteenth century needed child labor to progress their economy. It helped families and the country but we have changed since then and no longer need it.
“Children not only worked on the family farm but were often hired out to other farmers.

Boys customarily began their apprenticeship in a trade between ages ten and fourteen” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “Both types of child labor declined in the early nineteenth century, but factory employment provided a new opportunity for children” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). Children worked in a few places based on the time they were working in. They started at farms then they moved to factories as they industrial revolution happened.

“In colonial America, child labor was not a subject of controversy. It was an integral part of the agricultural and handicraft economy” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “During the Great Depression, Americans wanted all available jobs to go to adults rather than children” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). They had child labor to help support them when it first started in America. But when it ended in America the adults just wanted all the jobs just to go to them.

“Over 100 million children around the world work in hazardous conditions in agriculture, mining, domestic labor, and other sectors” (HRW Staff). “ On tobacco farms, children work long hours in extreme heat, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides that can make them sick. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, child laborers in artisanal and small-scale gold mines work underground in pits that easily collapse and use toxic mercury to process the gold, risking brain damage and other serious health conditions” (HRW

Staff).
“It was a clear violation of child-labor laws, which prohibit 12 and 13-year-olds from working most jobs, except on farms, and also say that youths aged 14 and 15 may not work in hazardous jobs, including construction” (Alana Semuels). “‘No one’s going around looking for child labor on construction sites, except for us,” Pranis said. “The resources just aren’t there’” (Alana Semuels). There is still child labor in America. Not many people look for it but it’s against the law and can it hurt the kids.
“An estimated 152 million children around the globe are doing work that prevents them from getting an education or that's harmful to their health.

That's almost 1 in 10 children worldwide” (Nurith Aizenman). “It's worth noting that these statistics only cover children who are doing work that is hazardous to their health or that prevents them from attending school full time because of the hours involved or the nature of the job. So it does not include, for instance, 12- to 14-year-olds doing nonhazardous, "light" work for fewer than 14 hours a week” (Nurith Aizenman). It shows that there are a lot of kids working in hazardous conditions at a young

age.
Child labor is bad because kids don't get an education and can get hurt. This topic is important because it affects many lives negatively. It can endanger the kids future and his life. It can make life for his family and friends worse. Also their bosses might not take care of them and just find a replacement each time a kid gets hurt or sick. This compares to child abuse because this can hurt them and their bosses can be cruel.