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Industrial revolution and child labor
Industrial revolution child labour
Industrialization essay child labor
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Most have a daily routine, you wake up, do what you need to do to get ready, then it is off to work. Of course you would rather sleep in or maybe your boss is not the nicest person, but for the majority of people that is the worst of their work problems. It is no secret that work is not always the easiest and most enjoyable thing to do, however if you consider how it use to be with fourteen hour work days, low pay, unsafe conditions and the fact that there was an excessive amount of child labor, it makes the present sound like heaven. After a long and hard commitment of forming unions, fighting for laws, going on strikes, and being restless the workers finally received the wages, hours, and safety regulations they deserved on top of ending child labor. …show more content…
Before the Industrial Revolution child labor was not unusual, people believed that it was necessary to have unskilled children so they could perform the simple tasks that were needed around the factory (Holzka).
“In the United States, labor unions led the opposition of child labor even before the civil war. Given the rural population and the laissez-faire attitude of the government, however opposition to child labor did not generate much non-union support until decades later.”(Holzka) There were many different views about child labor in some ways it was necessary for working class families so they could be fed on the other hand child labor reduced the wages of the adult workers (Holzka). Also children were expected to work on their family's farm as soon as they were able (“Seven Years of Child Labor Reform”). Children also had dangerous jobs in the factories, they spent hours in hot and humid mills, sometimes unable to see because of all the dust. There were employed children as young as five years old (Ellis, Esler 308). Children who worked in mines had the toughest days of all, they had to do things like haul coal carts in the uncomfortable heat and some had to sit in the dark opening and closing
vents. Aside from child labor, workers were treated poorly by having incredibly long hours and terrible pay. Workers were in the factories six to seven days a week working twelve to sixteen hour shifts. The machines had no safety devices so workers could easily lose a body part or even their lives in some extreme cases. Cleaning the factories was not a major priority of the business owners so everyday the employees were breathing in lint because it was in the air. There was no such thing as disability insurance or workers compensation so a worker who got ill or injured was fired. The ratio of women to men was astonishing the women over populated the factories. The business owners looked down on women they thought women were inferior and easier to manage, they also payed the women a significantly less amount compared to a man's salary (Ellis, Esler 257). Eventually the workers decided they had it and finally took action. Employees went on strikes, refusing to work until they came to an agreement with their employers. "Some strikes lasted just a few hours, while others stretched on for years. Some have been resolved peacefully while others have erupted into bloody, violent conflicts. Some strikes have concluded in victory for the workers while others have ended in utter defeat"(Holzka). Violence was often involved when it came to strikes, especially when employers tried to continue running their businesses without the workers on strike, many employers even called the police when strikes did not end (Esler, Esler 308). "Many of the major gains for the labor movement have come about as a result of strikes, when employees refuse to work until an agreement has been reached. "(“The Labor Movement”). “Employees had to work longer hours for less pay than in the past. In response, they organized into unions to register their complaints."(“The Labor Movement”). The first labor unions were called Mutual-aid societies, a group of workers banded together to help injured or ill workers."One employee is powerless to achieve change in the workplace, but when workers join together they become a significant transformative force."(“The Labor Movement”). However lawsuits and violent repression was often thrown at unionizing efforts. Since labor unions were illegal at this time workers tried the best they could to keep them secret. However their anger sometimes led them to violence, eventually riots occurred. A group known as Luddites were furious about the labor-saving machines that were costing them their jobs. Some of them acted out by smashing the machines with sledgehammers and even burned factories. In the 1800s everything began to change. The government started to accept the idea of unions, it took a few years but unions were finally legalized in 1825 however strikes remained illegal for a little while longer. Parliament passed several laws that benefited many, for example in 1842 mine owners were forbidden to employ women or children under the age of 10. In 1847 a law passed that limited women and children to a ten hour work day. Laws called “factory acts” were developed to reduce a child's work day to 12 hours and forbid children under the age of eight or nine from the cotton mills.However not everyone followed these rules so in the 1830s and 1840s teams of inspectors went around to make sure the law was enforced (Ellis, Esler 258). Laws continued to be made to reduce a woman's workday and require child employees to be educated. In 1924 there was a proposed amendment against child labor which stated "The Congress shall have the power to limit, regulate, and prohibit the labor of persons under 18 years of age." This power in terms of existing state regulations as follows: "The power of the several States is unimpaired by this article except that the operation of State laws shall be suspended to the extent necessary to give effect to legislation enacted by the Congress" (Holzka). sadly this amendment was ruled unconstitutional by the supreme court. However this unfortunate turn of events did not keep the workers from expressing their views against child labor. Later in the 1900’s an act was put into place that granted free elementary education for all children (Ellis, Esler 257). “Labor unions won the right to bargain with employers for better wages, hours, and working conditions” “Working class men gained the right to vote which gave them political power,”(Ellis, Esler 258). “As a demand for mass-products grew, new factories opened, which in turn created more jobs.”(Ellis, Esler 258).Wages increased which enabled workers to have enough left after paying rent and buying food to do something for themselves. Workers fought for decades to achieve the respect they deserved. Although a major portion of society was against them and what they believed in, after receiving enough knowledge about their fight, one could consider their attempts, to be successful. After what seemed to be an endless fight for better working conditions, which included fighting for laws, going on strikes, and organizing unions, the workers finally received the wages, hours, and safety regulations they deserved on top of ending child labor. Next time you are questioning how good you have got it at your job, just remember everything the nineteenth century workers had to go through to give you everything you have today.
As industry grew in the period following the Civil War, children, often as puerile as 10 years old but sometimes much younger, labored. They worked not only in industrial settings but additionally in retail stores, on the streets, on farms, and in home-predicated industries. This article discusses the utilization of child labor in the Amalgamated States, concentrating on the period after the Civil War through the elevate of the child labor reform kinetics. These are kids who are as adolescent as 6 years old and are being coerced to fight against others. Albeit children had been auxiliaries and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached incipient extremes during the Industrial Revolution. Children often worked long hours in hazardous factory conditions for very little mazuma. Children were utilizable as laborers because their size sanctioned them to move in minute spaces in factories or mines where adults couldn’t fit, children were more facile to manage and control and perhaps most importantly, children could be paid less than adults. Children are working at puerile ages endeavoring to fortify their family with the little pay that they are fortuitous to get. Children who are in economic child labor are less liable to be in school. Of the total children aged 5 to 14 years in economic child labor, about 15 percent were not in school. Child labor is generally defined as
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
Children as young as young as five or seven years old worked in dangerous factories. Many times if the children fell asleep while on the job, they would slip and get stuck in the machines, resulting in death. Child labor in the late 1800’s was very unsafe and put the lives of young children in danger. The children worked in very dangerous conditions, most of the time it was factories. The conditions were very poor, the factories were dirty and unsafe for children. The children would work for up to sixteen hours with little to no pay.
Factories were utilizing children to do the hard work. They employed children as young as five or six to work as many as twenty hours a day. According to Document C, children worked in factories to build up muscles and having good intellect in working rather than getting an education. They became a different person rather than conventional children. There were additionally health issues due to child labor: rapid skeletal growth, greater risk of hearing loss, higher chemical absorption rates, and developing ability to assess risks. Progressive Era reformers believed that child labor was detrimental to children and to society. They believed that children should be protected from harmful environments, so they would become healthy and productive adults. In 1912, Congress created the Children’s Bureau to benefit children. The Keating-Owen Act was passed in 1916 to freed children from child labor only in industries that engaged in interstate commerce. However, it was declared unconstitutional sinc...
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.
According to the article “A History of Child Labor” reviewed by Milton Fried, a child could work as long as six days a week for up to 18 hours a day, and only make a dollar a week. Child labor was nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families. Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big
Child labor is using an adolescent to work with minimal to no pay. In today’s society it is considered immoral, but that was not the case in the 1920s. In that time period child labor was very prevalent. Children of all ages would engage in this without a choice. One issue with this is the child never gets the proper education to prevail and get a well paying job. This was not just a job on the farm, there were many forms of labor such as factory work, agricultural work, and domestic work. The conditions were not fit for working, and the children were paid the bare minimum. Further, it was realised that child labor was harmful to the well being of the child. As a result, there were laws created to abolish it. Child labor
Canada, although it was very much alike during the 18th and the 19th century, however, when the 20th century came around equality took place and attitudes towards child labour were changing dramatically.
During the New Industrial Age in America, many aspects of American life were in flux. People were moving from rural areas to large population centres and factories were booming. This was also when America started to become an extremely capitalist country, with values to match. The economy was set up in a way that lower class Americans struggled to make a living, and as such child labour came into play. Children would work in factories that had conditions barely suitable for adults, let alone still developing children. They had to do this because it was necessary for their families to have whatever extra money they could get their hands on. All the while, upper class Americans were profiting off of the children’s suffering and amassing wealth
The way in which people work in the labor force and are managed has changed quite a big deal since the beginning of the Industrial Revolution. Prior to the Industrial Revolution many people worked on the land and worked at a pace that was applicable for them with no one looking over their shoulder to make sure work was being done. One of the biggest reasons for the changes to the industrial society pertains to the discipline and surveillance in the labor force. Some of the many changes that that occurred because of the how laborers worked and having a manager were: strikes, the ending to child labor, creation of the middle class, and new political ideology.
Cotton production during the Industrial Revolution played an important role in English history. The revolution was brought on by the development of new technologies, which included the invention of machines capable of producing large amounts of cotton fabric. The resulting shift in cotton production from home to factory began in 1760 and was complete by about 1830. The industrialization of cotton production transformed England in many ways, including rapid urbanization and the introduction of children into the factory workforce. It can be argued the cotton industry would not have been so successful without the use of children; however the effects were detrimental to their well-being and eventually led to the passage of a series of laws to limit child labour.
“Child Labor in U.S. History.” Child Labor Public Education Project. 2011. Web. 2. April. 2014
The Industrial Revolution restructured the employer-employee relationship into an impersonal association exhibited by indifference to the quality of life of the worker. Children were especially exploited because they could be hired for lower wages and were made to work equally long days (Miller). Around the 1830s, children constituted about one-third of the labor in New England (Illinois Labor History Society). The conditions of workers as a whole necessitated action on behalf of the rights of laborers.
... this time is self-explanatory, the cost of labor had gone up along with the prices of everything else and child labor was significantly cheap (3-4). Children were sent into fields for twelve to thirteen hours a day picking fruits, cotton and tobacco. Some children delivered the newspaper on bike which is still a common job, only children back then did it hours on end tirelessly. Although the industrial revolution was almost 200 years ago (1820-1870) the influence it had on America is significant; imagine if children would have stayed in school during that time rather than going out and working extensive hours in field or factories. Do you think if children were never exposed to harsh working environments then, that today, child labor would be a problem? Many think our ancestors are to blame and others say children have been working since the days of the Egyptians.
“Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school.” Back then in the U.S., children were working between ages 5 to 17. Between the 1800s and 1900s, many children worked in agricultural fields, fishing, mining, manufacturing, and even drug trade and prostitution. Even though child labor laws are still avoided around the world, the effects on child labor in the US, before, was unbelieveable. Children were suffering from health issues, reform movements grew and other countries followed enforced child labor too.