Child Labour In The Industrial Revolution

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How did the industrial revolution contribute to the rapid increase in child labour during the 1800’s and what effect has this had on child slavery in today’s society? With this question in mind, I will be focusing my essay on child labour as a contemporary social problem that is still seen as a major issue in society today. In particular I will be focusing on child labour in England and its relationship with the British industrial revolution. Child labour is often referred to as the employment of children in hardworking conditions that are more often than not harmful to their physical and mental health. By analysing the origins of child labour as a result of the industrial revolution and focusing primarily on child labour in the textile industry in England, I will be discussing how the issue of child labour came to be such a big problem in society both in the past and the present and answering the question of how the industrial revolution contributed to the rapid increase in child labour.

“Many children are employed in horrible conditions in many countries around the world” (Sebastian, 1997). Child labour is a problem that was seen in not only England specifically, but exists in most third-world countries during the early stages of the eighteenth century. Child labour is an important issue because it affects the lives of millions of children around the world who are suffering from severe mental and health problems due to the poor working conditions with which they are forced to work in as well as the mistreatment they receive from whom they work for. Child labour dates back to the eighteenth century where children were forced to work in harmful conditions for extremely low wages, from as early as the ages of six or seven. Howeve...

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... widespread and this is just one of many examples of how child labour existed in society in the 1800’s. “Today child labour is often seen as outside the scope of child welfare and child protective services” (Mayers, 2011). Many people believe that child labour was a social issue that is no longer a big problem, however child labour is still a big problem in countries around the world today and many children are suffering from these unnecessary working environments because employers value profits more than the lives of these innocent children. The industrial revolution introduced a completely new outlook on life and contributed to the way employers thought about their workers, just like Winks and Neuberger discuss in their article, “the industrial revolution changed the world in concrete ways and in the ways people experienced and thought about their lives” (2005).

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