The tremendous increase of child labor in the U.S occurred in the late 1700s and early 1800s. While child labor in the U.S has always existed it was usually in family business or agriculture, but during the Industrial Revolution, child labor reached its extreme due to new innovations and ideas. The beginning of the Industrial Revolution brought, urbanization, factories, jobs, more immigrants, and it replaced hand labor for making manufacture items. Children from poor families had to go and work to support their families because that was the only way they can survive. Also, children provided cheap labor that benefited factory owners during that time.Children went to work in harsh and dangerous conditions, leaving their education behind so they and their families can be able to survive.
The Industrial Revolution created urbanization because it replaced hand labor for making most manufactured goods. The textile industries, mining industries, and manufacturing industries began to spring up and flourish all over the country. Most poor families moved to the urbanized areas due to the jobs that the factories provided. Those children who came from poor
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Children got paid less than adults and they were easier to manage and control. Child labor made up about 20% of the workforce. They worked about 12 hours a day, six days week with a weekly wage of one dollar. Children who were 5 years old or younger were paid less than one dollar. Those children were very helpful in some jobs, because of the size they were able to and move in small places where adults can’t fit. Employers benefited a lot from child labor because children were hard working, did not complain about their low wages because they were given about 10 or 20 percent of the money that adults would get doing the same job, and they were able to tread those children just like slaves were
At this time in history, there were “two million children under the age of sixteen” working to provide for their families, and some kids beginning labor at the tender ages of “six and seven years (in the cotton
When Cornelius Vanderbilt died he left his $100 million fortune to his son William Vanderbilt and they both had the same attitude. During the Gilded Age these big business and their owners were thought of as being Robber Barons or Captains of Industry. The poor working conditions that were provided, the corruption they led in government, and their use of child labor shows that they were Robber Barons. Children were used in labor to work a lot and most days of the week. Kids as young as 5 often worked as much as 12 to 14 hours a day for barely any pay.
The industry owners got children to work for them because the owners didn’t have to pay them as much money like how they have to pay adult workers a lot more money compared to the children. Weren’t able to go to school like we can today because they had to go to work everyday instead of learning. The child labor problem decreased from the 18.1 in the 1890s to 11.3 in the 1920s. In 1938 congress passed a law called Fair Labor Standards to get rid of child labor in our country. During the Progressive movement our state legislatures were corrupt and only had the rich being able to be chosen to be our state senators not the People.
During this time period it was not just adults that were working. In order to support their families, children were sent to work as well. The new places of work such as mines, factories, or garment shops were wanting workers that could reach into small spaces and could do small tedious jobs , there is where the children come in.
One of the tolls industrialization took was that children were being forced to work.
If you instill that in your children and grandchildren at an early age, you can continue to have the family farm. Forms of child labor, including indentured servitude and child slavery, have existed throughout American history. As industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into urban areas and factory work, children were often preferred, because factory owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard.
Many parents needed their wages to make ends meet. In Document C from The Spirit of Youth and the City Streets by Jane Adams 1909, Jane states how children enter factory life when the law allows them to, and children end up not having childhoods. She writes that people are so caught up with the marvelous achievements of their industry and end up forgetting the children who have to work to help out as well. In Document G, a court case Hammer v. Dagenhart 1918, the father of two sons one under fourteen years old and another one between fourteen and sixteen explains his concern about the exploitation of his children in a cotton mill. He says its concerning that children are allowed to work more than eight hours a day and six days a week.
During this time, some children as young as six began working in factories and mines. Edgar Gardner Murphy founded the National Child Labor Committee in 1904 to organize mill operators' support for child labor restrictions. Then, many states across the United States legalized child labor, which forced children to do very hard work designed for adults, resulting in deaths and harming children in a variety of ways. This also had an impact on their education, as many children in the United States did not receive an education while growing up. Children frequently worked up to 18 hours per day, six days a week.
Child labor was another problem presented at this time. At the rate they were going back in 1900, 26% of boys between ten and fifteen were already working, and for girls it was 10% (Background Essay). Child labor was increasing as fast as the children working were dying. An example of this tragic scenario was Dennis McKee, a 15-year-old boy who was smothered to death by coal (Document B). This boy had a family, and that family had to deal with the loss of their son, all to the fault of an industry that thought to use young, able-bodied boys for their work was a fantastic idea.
During the Progressive time, the main goal was to expand the government to a social setting instead of a political environment. African Americans were considered inferior to the white culture. Child labor was seen in all factories, they would work in the cruelest conditions for little to no pay. During this time, it was Congress’ decision whether or not child labor was legal or not. In present day, African American have a lot more freedom than written in history.
Lewis Hine took pictures of child labor and that helped people see what was going on behind the scenes of big companies. John Spargo was a writer and his books informed people of child labor and how bad it really was. One of his most famous books was called “The Bitter Cry of Children”. After people started to realize that this needed to change laws started to get put in place. There were four acts/laws passed: the Children's Bureau, the Adamson Act, the Keating Owens Child Labor Act, and the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938.
Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground,
Child labor was a great problem in the Industrial Revolution. Factory owners usually hired women and children rather than men. They said that men expected higher wages, and they suspected that they were more likely to rebel against the company. Women and children were forced to work from six in the morning to seven at night, and this was when they were not so busy. They were forced to arrive on time and they couldn’t fall behind with their work because if they did they were whipped and punished.
Child labor. A topic widely frowned upon, may be beneficial when executed properly. Employing children can possibly provide stability and safety to a child, and opportunities for their communities to advance. In its simplest form, child labor can be beneficial to communities and families when laws and rights are respected. Keeping children off of the streets is a benefit having to do with child labor.
There are many reasons that cause child labor: Poverty and unemployment levels are high – As you see, the most of employed children work in less developed countries by economy. In such countries poor families and children may rely upon child labor in order to improve their chances of attaining basic necessities. According to U.N statistics more than one-fourth of the people around the world live in poverty that is caused by the high unemployment levels. Free education is limited – U.N estimated that approximately 75 million children were not attending school. The education for the whole world’s children costs 10-30 Billion dollars that is 0.7% - 2% of the annual cost of global military spending.