Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution

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Recommended: Impacts of child labor during the industrial revolution

Background Research
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.
The Industrial Revolution was a major factor involving child labor. It was during this time that America had entered a great boom of prosperity, and there was an excessive demand for many products that steadily became cheaper, the more that was produced. Because of supply over demand, there was a great increase in available jobs within factories. The new stream of child workers was matched by a tremendous expansion of American industry in the last quarter of the nineteenth century. This led to a rise in the percentage of children from ten to fifteen years old who were profitably employed. Although the official figure of 1.75 million significantly understates the true number, it indicates that at least 18 percent of these children were employed in 1900. In southern cotton mills, 25 percent of the employees were below the age of fifteen, with half of these children below age twelve. (Irwin, Yellowitz. "Child Labor." Child Labor. History.com, n.d. Web.) In addition, the horrendous conditions of work for many child laborers brough...

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...suffered from their inability to receive a quality education. These were many things that child labor reform groups set out to change.

Works Cited

Basu, Kaushik, and Pham Hoang Van. "The Economics of Child Labor." The Economics of Child Labor (1998): 412-27. Print.
Daniel, Annie S. "Charities." The Wreck of the Home How Wearing Apparel Is Fashioned in the Tenements. New York: n.p., 1905. 624-29. Print.
Hine, Lewis. Furman Owens, Olympia Mill. 1908-1912. Photograph. The History Place, South Carolina. The History Place. The History Place. Web. .
Irwin, Yellowitz. "Child Labor." Child Labor. History.com, n.d. Web. .
Levine, Marvin J. "Mines, Mills, and Canneries." Children for Hire: The Perils of Child Labor in the United States. Westport, CT: Praeger, 2003. 21. Print.

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