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Industrial revolution and child labor
Children in the industrial revolution vs children now
Industrialization impact
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Before the industrial revolution, it is evident that weavers worked at home, sharing the job among the whole family. It is also clear that it was very expensive just to weave the clothing and took a long time for it to happen as weavers used their hands and foot to go through the process rather the machinery. However, as the industrial revolution began, the factory system was introduced. Whilst people had to be skilled to weave before the revolution began, anyone was able to be employed in the textile mills as most work was done by machineries. Instead, many workers performed tasks that was often repetitive. As time went, the work in the industrial revolution got only easier. More machineries were introduced. First the flying shuttle, then …show more content…
The textile industry was able to employ workers that weren't experienced and still be successful at the same time.
Why were children employed and how was it related to family conditions?
When the industrial revolution began, children were seen as ideal employees. The factory owners were able to see the usefulness of children in his factory and families were often grateful for this opportunity (29). Unfortunately, families struggled to afford for their living as they just moved from the rural areas. Their workplace was taken, their house and everything they owned. For these reasons they were happy to send their children to work.
What were the expectations of children working in textile mills and what were the consequences if they went against
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They were expected to work same amount of time and follow the same instructions. However, when children made mistakes, it can be evident that their punishment was more harsher compared to adults. Whilst adults got cursed and for yelled at, children also got physically damaged. "Woodward and other overlookers used to beat me with pieces of thick leather straps made supple by oil, and having an iron buckle at the end, drew blood almost every time it was applied.” John Brown quoted in the “Lion” newspaper in 1828 (30). This primary source indicated the punishment children got. At the same time the reasons for these abuse was despicable. In an interview that occurred in 1849, an unknown women who worked in a cotton mill as a child stated “Sarah Golding was poorly and so she stopped her machine. James Birch, the overlooker, knocked her to the floor. She got up as well as she could. He knocked her down again. Then she was carried to her house…….she was found dead in her bed. There was another girl called Mary……she knocked her food can to the floor. The master, Mr. Newton, kicked her and caused her to wear away till she died. There was another, Caroline Thompson, who was beaten till she went out of her mind. The overlookers used to cut off the hair of any girl caught talking to a lad. This head shaving was a dreadful punishment. We were more afraid of it than any other punishment for girls
Many of us complain about the tough hours we work or the amount of chores we have to complete, but think about the truly harsh conditions that young girls and women had to work in the textile industry with very little pay and no accolades. Back in the 18th century, when the Industrial Revolution struck, it made it hard for female mill workers to enjoy being employed. Due to the terrible working conditions, the amount of hours worked, and the low wages were a few of the similarities that the female mill workers in England and Japan shared.
Imagine being forced to work in conditions that might cause you to lose a limb, to be beaten daily, or to be left with long term respiratory conditions. These terrible conditions were realities to families who worked in textile factories in the 1700’s. England was the first to adopt textile factories which would benefit with mass production of cotton material. According to the power point, “Industrial Revolution; Life in English Factories”, low and unskilled workers, often children, ran the machines and moved material, this helped lower the cost of goods. During this time, commissions investigated the working conditions of the factories.
The lives of large section For the first time in history children were an important factor of the economic system, but at a terrible price. The master of the factories employed children for two reasons. One, because of their small body which can get inside the machines to clean it and use their nimble fingers. Second, the masters use to pay low wages to the children who could be easily manipulated. The average age for the parents to send their children to work was ten.
Physical abuse by plantation owners towards both their servants and slaves was common. One account by Thomas Gates in a General Court of Colonial Virginia document about Elizabeth Abbot, an indentured servant, stated that “she had been sore beaten and her body full of sores and holes very dangerously raunckled and putrified both above her wast and uppon her hips and thighs” (General Court of Colonial Virginia). In fact, such abuse towards servants and slaves was so common that the state of Virginia had to make laws for such cases. Unfortunately, colonial governments did not consider corporal punishment illegal. Thus adding to the brutality endured by persons in captivity and servitude during the colonial era. “Moderate corporal punishment inflicted
These comforts and conveniences included better and more developed homes, cheaper clothes, more tools and utensils to work with, and faster and cheaper travel. One of the most important concerns of this time period is the effect of child labor. Document 7 states: Large machines and rising demand for products quickly led to the growth of the factory system. The building of these factories led to the hiring of massive numbers of child workers, the youngest at 11 to 12 years old.
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
Harriet Jacobs describes several situations in which she was harassed, and abused physically, mentally and emotionally. “Slavery is terrible for men; but it is far more terrible for women.” Women were abused physically
Similarly, the change towards a factory-oriented nation was a harsh one for the industrialists. Many of the adult labor force had no training in how to use the machines and took awhile to pick up the new techniques (Basu and Van, 1998). It was more time consuming and costly to teach the adults than it was to hire children during the start of the revolution. Children could be molded into the ideal adult worker as they rose through the ranks in the factory. Studies indicate that about 50% of workers started working in the factories when they were less than ten years of age, from this overall amount 28% of these child workers started working when they were under the age of fourteen, while only 7.8% of workers started working in the textiles from the age of twenty- one or higher (Nardinelli, 1980).
There has been a stigma that only slaves were brutally punished for misbehaving or attempting to escape, but behind closed doors women suffered the same amount of pain or if not worse than slaves from their masters. Douglass witnessed a number of incidents and describes the abuse as, “Master would keep this lacerated young woman tied up for four hours at a time… he would tie her up and hit her for breakfast, leave her, return for dinner and whip her again” (44). Another time he witnessed his Aunt Hester abused from what he believes to be his father, “… he took her into the kitchen and stripped her down, leaving her neck, shoulders, and back entirely naked… he commences to lay on the heavy cow swing” (16). Douglass included this event in is narrative because to paint the picture for readers that men had complete control of their slaves and women at home. Whatever the man thought was best to handle certain situations from slaves disobeying orders or thinking women had no rights of their own, the men during the 1800’s would use abuse to assert their dominance and authority. Douglas described these events in great detail, from the slave masters’ tying their hands together and being hanged, stripping them naked, leaving half their body exposed, but most disturbingly Douglass witnessed and describe the cries and blood dripping to the floor. Revealing the gruesome details from women abused is
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.
While he was in Baltimore Fredrick Douglass observed the multiple beating of two young girls across the street. Douglass says "The girls seldom passed her without her saying, 'Move faster, you black gip!' at the same time giving them a blow with the cowskin over the head and shoulders, often drawing the blood" (49). But women were not the only ones who received beatings. The men were also physically abused.
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s big business began to boom. For the first time companies were developing large factories to manufacture their goods. Due to the new mechanics and cheap labor, factory owners could now produce their goods at a cheaper rate. As big businesses brought wealth and capitalism, it also widened the gap between the wealthy elite and the poor. One class in particular was horribly affected by the growth of big factories. This class was the poor working class. According to the article “Child Labor in the United States” written by Robert Whaples, a big proportion of the labour work force was made up of children: “In 1820 children aged 15 and under made up 23 percent of the manufacturing labor force of the industrializing
The factory system was the key to the industrial revolution. The factory system was a combination of Humans and new technology. New technology was arriving every day. The greatest invention during this time was the steam engine. The creation of the steam engine was credited to James Watt. There had been other steam engines before James Watt’s but none of them were efficient. Watt’s engine was the first efficient engine that could be used in a factory. The steam engine had the strength of ten thousand men.(Pollard) This was not the only invention that helped the factory system evolve. Textiles were a major product of the Industrial Revolution. Production was slow at first in the factory. In 1764, a British inventor named James Hargraves invented the “Spinning Jenny.” This lowered production time which enabled the factory to produce more per day. In 1773, John Kay, an English inventor, created the “flying shuttle” which lowered the production time even more.(Encarta) If production had not been speed up, the Industrial Revolution would have not had that big of effect as it did in North America.
Factory and mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. Industry profited from this arrangement by saving money, since child labor was more “cost effective”. According to one historian, Clark Nardinelli, “in 1835 56,000 children under the age of thirteen were working in textile factories alone. By 1874, the number of child laborers in the market hit its peak with over 122,000 children between the ages of 10 and thirteen working in textile factories (4).” ... ...
Imagine waking up at five in the morning to walk over a mile to a factory where you work until noon where you get a half hour break for lunch, then it’s back to work until nine or ten at night, when you are finally allowed to go home and you are only eight years old. Today that seems unimaginable, but during the early 19th century it was the everyday life of thousands of children whose ages range from as young as five until you died. During the Industrial Revolution many children were required to work dangerous jobs to help their families.