Children During The Industrial Revolution

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Improved working conditions for children were another way life changed during the Industrial revolution. In 1750, 14% of workers in Britain were younger than 14. During the beginning of the Industrial revolution children as young as 6 worked hard hours for little to no pay. Sometimes these children worked up to 16 hours a day with a one hour break total. 12-14 hours of work was common for children. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common to children to be near and use. Children working in theses factories would be treated terribly. The people the children worked for would beat them, verbally abuse them, and not care about their safety at all. Both girls and boys were subject to these harsh forms of pain infliction. A form of …show more content…

Based on what they discovered, the government passed, "The Factory Act of 1833" to regulate excessive child labor. This law set limits to how many hours per day children could work. This was the first government regulation of the Industrial revolution. However, this was still a small step because even after the reform 9 year old children could still work nine hours a day six days a week. Factories didn't like this law saying that it would slow production, increase the cost of there products, and make them a less competitive company. Parents worried that their family would have less money to survive as a result of the lost …show more content…

The act stated regulations like, children under 8 years old and younger couldn't work and that children couldn't work at night. Also, children between 9-13 years old could only work 9 hours a Daytona less and children between 13-18 years old could only work at most 12 hours a day. Employers needed an age certificate. Four factory inspectors were sent to investigate thousands of factories throughout England and enforced the law. Throughout the 19th century, parliament passed laws to help improve working conditions in factories. In the textile industry in 1844, children 8-13 could not work more than 9 hours a day. Women couldn't work more than 12 hours a day and 9 hours on Sunday and children's ages had to be verified by doctors. Also, accidental death had to be reported to a doctor and investigated and machines had to be fenced in to decrease injuries to children. In 1847, women and children under age 18 could not work more than 10 hours a day, over the course of a six day work week in the textile industry. In 1878, all industries had to abide by the regulations that children under age 10 count be employed and had to attend school. Also, 10 to 14 year-olds could only be employed for half days. Finally, in 1901, the minimum work age was raised to 12 years old in all industries. The British give increasingly regulated child labor in factories, along with instituting a public school system. In 1918, the Education Act made school mandatory

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