Why was child labour used in the industrial revolution. Child Labor 2019-01-23
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Was There Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution?
For many years he had been an engine-man, and had been tempted, or starved, into the coalmines that he might get higher pay. In 2004, the United States passed an amendment to the Fair Labour Standards Act of 1938. Factory owners needed large numbers of workers for a very low cost and low maintenance so they preferred to employ children. Children who worked at an early age were often not forced; but did so because they needed to help their family survive financially. The report listed electronics, garments, toys and coal among other goods. However, this tradition of child labour reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution as children worked in factories and mills around Britain.
After the Civil War, millions of Americans left their small towns and farms to work at jobs in cities, factories, and mines. Families willingly deployed their children in these income generating home enterprises. Reforms From the opening of the first cotton mills, there were attempts to stop the use of child labour. Why did they hire children? This was a little bit on the extreme, but it was not common for children who worked in factories to work 12-14 hours with the same minimal breaks. Work in agriculture was typically less regulated than factory duties.
The flames were also a danger as there was always a risk of underground gases exploding. The tax was imposed on everyone older than 8 years, in some colonies. The child factory worker's diet provided very little nourishment, giving them just barely the energy they would need for their long working hours. Also, the children were to attend school for no less than two hours during the day. Meatpacking In early August 2008, Labour Commissioner David Neil announced that his department had found that , a company in which had recently been raided by , had employed 57 minors, some as young as 14, in violation of state law prohibiting anyone under 18 from working in a meatpacking plant. They were expected to endure long hours of work for very little pay and were often placed in incredibly dirty and dangerous situations.
With the coming of the Industrial Revolution, small-scale guilds and craftsman shops were replaced by large-scale factories. Girls wore cotton drawers with a shallow bodice, a cotton or flannel chemise loose shift like a shirt , calico petticoats sometimes of red flannel in winter after the 1870s and woollen stockings. Girls from wealthy families would usually be taught at home by a governess. Thompson, The Making of the English Working Class New York: Random House, 1964 , p. If they fell asleep they were beaten by the miners.
Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution Essay
Retrieved 8 July, 2014, from Simkin, J. Even when schools are sometimes available, they are too far away, difficult to reach, unaffordable or the quality of education is so poor that parents wonder if going to school is really worth it. They worked in mines with bad ventilation and developed lung diseases. The distance varies as the work is not always on the same wall, sometimes 150 fathoms, whiles 250 fathoms. Kids earned less than half of what adults made in the work force.
Child Labor during the Industrial Revolution Essay
However, eventually laws were passed. My last child was born on Saturday morning, and I was at work on the Friday night. It takes three journeys to fill a tub of 4 cwt. There were many loopholes to these acts, and many of the acts were not enforced. Younger boys were the first to wear trousers, but for reasons of practicality rather than fashion. To reduce the cost of the good, and not reduce their profit, they would think of a way to reduce the production cost, and this is where child labour comes into play.
For example, adult men were paid around 10 shillings per week, while women were paid 5 shillings for the same work, and children were paid just 1 shilling. Some supervisors used terror and punishment to drive the children to greater productivity, mentally and physically abusing them, caring more about profit than well-being. S child labor made up more than 40 percent of the population Wolensky. Factory owners loved child labour, and they supported their reasoning with ideas that it was good for everything from the economy to the building of the children's characters. Preindustrial Era Children of poor and working-class families had worked for centuries before industrialization - helping around the house or assisting in the family's enterprise when they were able. Children worked in gas works, nail factories, construction sites, shipyards and chimney sweeping. They know nothing that they ought to know, they are rendered unfit for the duties of women by overwork, and become utterly demoralized.
Child labor in Factories During the Industrial Revolution
It was debated for a countless number of years whether child labor was a social problem or a political problem. Culture and ideology in Ireland. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions. This convention has been ratified by 135 countries. The casual reader would miss the fact that, in his revelations of ghastly conditions for children, he was referring to the parish apprentices: That glaring mismanagement existed in numberless instances there can be no doubt; and that these unprotected creatures, thus thrown entirely into the power of the manufacturer, were overworked, often badly-fed, and worse treated. Factories employing children were often very dangerous places leading to accidents occurring, resulting in injuring or even killing children on the job.
When the Industrial Revolution came to Britain, there was a high demand for labor to work in the various mills and mines because of the demand for production. To the parish authorities, encumbered with great masses of unwanted children, the new cotton mills in Lancashire, Derby, and Notts were a godsend. Some child workers worked all day pulling wagons of coal up small tunnels just a few feet tall. We were all ordered to come into the board room, about forty of us. It became more dangerous to work on farms as more heavy machinery was introduced. Most were orphans; a few were victims of negligent parents or parents whose health or lack of skills kept them from earning sufficient income to care for a family.
