Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Child labour and its effect on kids
Child labor in factories hardships
Negative Impact Of Child Labor
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Child labour and its effect on kids
The Industrial Revolution A controversial topic in the 1800s, during the Industrial Revolution, was asked by many people, was whether or not textile factories are safe for not only workers in general, but most importantly children. Many were led to believe that the factories were indeed unsafe for children. This is because there has been many reports and accounts, in which children and adults have not only been wounded or ill from the conditions, but have lost their lives. So, is it or not? This is what medical professional, Dr.Ward, said on the situation,” We could not remain 10 minutes in the factory without gasping for breathe. How it is possible for those who are doomed to remain there twelve or fifteen hours to endure it?” (House of …show more content…
Lords Interview with Dr.Ward) This begs the question as to what the children went through when trying to endure the horrible conditions, since their not as developed anatomically. There could be much damage to the lungs and other organs. So, yes of course it’s wrong there’s a lot of solid evidence against child labor.
However, there were individuals who thought that the majority of people were exaggerating the conditions of the textile factories. One of those people, for example, was a journalist named Edward Baines who stated that,” A committee of House of Commons was appointed to inquire into the effects of factory labor on children; and mass of ex parte evidence was received, which was full of the grossest exaggerations and misstatements.” (History of the Cotton Manufacture) This impacted people’s views on factory labor and made them question whether it’s wrong or not even more. Again, the question was still being debated, is it wrong or not? In an excerpt of a factory worker's testimony, Joseph Hebergam said this,” I have damaged lungs. My leg muscles do not function properly and will not support the weight of my bones… He (the man’s brother) was cut by a machine and he died of infection.” (Testimony of Joseph Hebergam to the Sadler Committee) Hebergam also went on, detailing the conditions children were in. So, after all the evidence against child labor in factories how could the question still be asked? All because some individuals were asked to understate the situation and others thought that people were over
exaggerating about the whole thing. To this day people still get injured and sick while working in factories. So, yes of course, factory labor is unsafe especially to children, seeing as how even adults were affected horribly.
English textile factories were very bad for the health of the working class families. As Dr. Ward stated, “Last summer I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester, and we could not remain ten minutes in the factory without gasping for breath...¨ This shows that the conditions were so bad that they had trouble breathing because how bad the air was. Dr. Ward also says, ¨Cotton factories are highly unfavourable, both to the health and morals of those employed in them. They are really nurseries of disease and vice. These factories were very unsafe and you could get many diseases and injuries, especially if you were a kid as a lot were. The kids were in many accidents in the factories, as Dr. Ward states,
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.
Often, children were forced to work due to money-related issues, and the conditions they worked in were terrible. Children worked in coal mining, such as at Woodward Coal Mining in Kingston, Pennsylvania (Doc. 7). Children were used to make the process of producing products cheaper, and they were paid low wages; the capitalists hired children just to keep the process of making products going and to make profit. One cause of child labor in harsh conditions was the unfateful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City in 1911. Teenaged immigrant girls that were employed there worked under sweatshop-like conditions. The building they worked in was inadequately equipped in case of a fire, for the doors were locked, leaving no exit for the girls, and the single fire escape collapsed with the rescue effort; as a result, when the fire started, they were unable to escape. 145 workers were killed, but the company owners were not penalized harshly for this tragedy. This further demonstrates that capitalists were able to get away with the harsh conditions that they put their laborers, especially child laborers, through for their own benefit, which is making more money and using any means to get it, even if those means are low wages and harsh working
Young girls were not allowed to open the windows and had to breathe in the dust, deal with the nerve-racking noises of the machines all day, and were expected to continue work even if they 're suffering from a violent headache or toothache (Doc 2). The author of this report is in favor of employing young women since he claimed they seemed happy and they loved their machines so they polished them and tied ribbons on them, but he didn 't consider that they were implemented to make their awful situations more bearable. A woman who worked in both factory and field also stated she preferred working in the field rather than the factory because it was hard work but it never hurt her health (Doc 1), showing how dangerous it was to work in a factory with poor living conditions. Poor living conditions were common for nearly all workers, and similar to what the journalist saw, may have been overlooked due to everyone seeming
The owners of the factories in New England, like in Lowell, Massachusetts, oppressed young girls by being careless with their safety. It was already terrible that women made one-eighth of what men made; their affordability for employers made girls, especially immigrants, desirable to save money. That could be the cause of the employer’s lack of regard for their safety. In the factories, from sunrise to sunset, women, men, and children had to breathe in unhealthy and unventilated air. In addition, men and women were being injured and killed because of hazardous surroundings, as Mary S. Paul writes to her father, “My life and health are spared while others are cut off.” Workers have been breaking their necks and ribs and being killed by cars (Doc F). It is an employer’s responsibility to keep his/her employees safe because, in reality, it would be in their interest to keep their workers alive to make them money. Still the girl’s well-being and interests were ignored because it would trouble the factory owners. As a result of the owner’s profiteering, employees were dying.
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
A Lot of machines didn’t have any safety precautions this lead to a lot of injuries and death in factories. Breaks weren’t being given much to the employees and men were being paid about 10 cents per hour or maybe even less for hours worth of work. Women would make almost half of that. Children were paid less than 10 cents an hour as well for fourteen hour days of work since they were doing less complex work that didn’t take much skill. Cording to this article many children had physical deformities because of the lack of exercise and sunlight. Because of the mistreatment of children during that era the labor union was form
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.
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.
The Industrial Revolution has brought a major transformation to the American society. New technologies and advancements changed the way Americans viewed their world. Gender issues, social class, immigration, relations with Native Americans, and slavery were either positively or negatively impacted by the revolution. Nevertheless, the United States’ huge step toward progress during the Industrial Revolution made a lasting impression in American society.
For centuries machines have fueled the functioning of our society by being the foundations of business and labor. This all started in Britain, due to the island’s abundant natural resources in coal and the country’s booming cotton industry. Although the Industrial Revolution sparked a successful economy, it lowered the quality of life for many people. Because of the Industrial Revolution, children had to labor in the factories, poor people felt they were not treated properly by the factory owners, and living spaces were polluted and taken away for the purposes of mechanization. Children were expected to work in factories in order to help provide for their families; this meant that their childhoods were taken away from them, as they had to work
Before considering the reasons for and impact of child labour, it is necessary to provide a brief overview of the Industrial Revolution in England. The 14th century saw England shift from an exporter of raw wool to manufacturer of quality woollen textiles. The two main events that took place, which allowed this to happen were: the Hundred Years’ War and Bubonic plague. The Hundred Years’ War was a battle between the English and French, which, began in 1337. During the war, King Edward III of England created a wool monopoly in an attempt to raise funds to help support the war effort. This was achieved by taxing the export of wool to Flanders and the Low Countries. As a result, the production of woollen textiles decreased, and provided England the opportunity to capitalize on the shortage. It was also during this time the Bubonic plague struck Europe killing somewhere between a third to a half of the population. The effects of the plague were devastating for the most part, but...
During the Industrial Revolution, working conditions for children and adults alike were appalling, worked long hours for very little pay was the norm. For example, two boys worked on pushing a cart up and down a tunnel filled with coal for up to 19 hours and don’t see the light of day. Also in textile factories there were many machines with exposed parts run by unskilled labourers which led to many accidents. Poor working conditions including child labour has been in use for many centuries but in the industrial revolution the work conditions were particularly po...
For example, factory workers were expected to work 14-16 hour days, six days a week. The dusty, dirty, unlit mills along with few break times made working there a living hell. “Breaker boys suffered from chronic throat trouble and respiratory illnesses that were caused by inhaling coal dust. Above ground machinery, particularly coal crushers, were dangerously loud. If a breaker boy worked long hours around the coal crusher he often suffered from hearing loss (Wagner). Due to the fact that there were no safety laws in place, ear plugs and masks were not used. In fact, no safety equipment was. The dangerous machines with unprotected parts made children susceptible to injury and death. If someone were to get injured, they were immediately fired and not paid compensation for their health care. “If a boy was caught wearing gloves, the boss would beat him. A skin condition that miners termed “Red tips” was brought about by prolonged contact with sulfur from the coal. Breaker boys’ fingers often became cracked, bloody, and swollen from sorting (Wagner)....
England was the first country to experience the advantages and disadvantages of the Industrial Revolution, as it was the very first country in which the event happened, primarily because England was such a good source of coal and iron, arguably the most important resources needed by a country during the Industrial Revolution. Although England also experienced the Industrial Revolution because England was bountiful in lead, copper, tin, limestone and fast water supplies, overall, England was probably the most ideal place for the Industrial Revolution to be staged in the first place.