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Child labor in factories 1840
Child labour in the 1800s factories ages under 12
Child labour in the 1800s factories ages under 12
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If a worker whined about their low wage or the long hours spent working they would be fired, and the owners would hire a new worker. Most of the time the workers didn’t get any time off for breaks or even going to the bathrooms. It wasn’t just young women who had to work in the harsh factory conditions. Children also worked in the factory because their families need
Did you know Around 11% of college students are sexually assaulted; 23% female and 5.4% male? In America between 2% to 10% of people in prison are innocent people that are falsely accused. “Picking Cotton” by Jennifer Thompson-Cannion and Ronald Cotton. Jennifer Thompson was a college student living off campus in an apartment. One night her apartment got broken into and she was raped at knifepoint.
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
About one hundred thousand workers from six hundred different mills were on strike there. The strikers wanted their work cut from sixty to fifty-five hours. About a sixth of the strikers were children under sixteen.” ( 5, Josephson). As a result, she gathered a large group of mill children and their parents, shaming the mill owners of their actions.
Factory Working Working in the 1800’s was hard and was very dangerous, by the mid 1800’s America was using machines to produce most things such as clothing, shoes, watches, , guns, and farming machines. The workers would work an average of 11.4 hours a day. The workers were very tired. The factories were very rugged and dangerous, there were fast rapidly moving parts exposed and that cuased many accidents with adults and children.
The Industrial Revolution was a horrific time in the 1700s by the fact that it caused bad pollution and children would be worn out at the end of their work day. The greatest aspect of industrialization was that the kids and adults had good surroundings. “Of these there are 500 children who are entirely fed, clothed, and educated by Mr.Dale” (Document 6). The quote is evidence that shows the kids were well cared for.
The Production of Cotton from 1800-1860 The production of cotton during 1800-1860 in America started because of many factors that influenced America to start their own industries. According to The American Nation Beginnings to 1877, before the Industrial Revolution most of the Americans manufactured goods were imported from Britain, however due to the war of 1812, Britain blocked the United States from getting goods. The many factors that influenced the increased production of cotton from 1800-1860 were the resources that Americans had, the demand for cotton, and the technology that helped the production of cotton.
Many of the working kids had lasting health issues because of working in the factories. “C: Do you know of anybody that has been similarly injured
During the time of the Industrial Revolution, which was throughout the Manifest Destiny, the cotton gin increased demand for cotton, which led to an increase in children working in the employment industry. The video says, “In the eighteen thirties, a ten year old mill girl described her life. [She said] we were paid two dollars a week and the working hours of all the girls extended from five o’clock in the morning till seven in the evening, with one half hour for breakfast and for dinner”(Turning Points in History- Industrial Revolution). This demonstrates that the working conditions were long and tiresome. The girls were paid the bare minimum for their prolonged, strenuous
Another critical grievance against society performed by many affluent employers was the exploitation of the new generations. Not only were fully adult workers being brutalized through an abhorrent working environment, children as young as six years old were exposed to many of the same or similar conditions. Document three is a photograph of two little boys who look to be no older than nine years of age changing the bobbins in a giant machine without any safety equipment while the machine is running. Not only are these kids forced to work in danger of losing digits or other body parts to the hazardous contraptions they worked with all day, this eliminates any chance they have to complete much, if any amount of education that might have helped them rise up in society and break the vicious circle that makes and keeps the poor the way they are, impeding any hierarchical progress. After a grueling day of hard work with little income to show for it, as people went home to their families to eat, they were presented with virtually inedible meat that was then compounded with rat hair, and feces.
Many children these days aren’t able to have jobs because of Child Labor Laws which allow the forbidding of the employment of children and young teenagers, except at certain carefully specified jobs. Now Elizabeth had worked from the age of six, creating major gaps in her learning. Now, children have the opportunity to gain an education at the cost to nothing, until college. This is something to be taken advantage of. One of the last reasons is “The living conditions were very terrible.
Child labor during the 18th and 19th century did not only rapidly develop an industrial revolution, but it also created a situation of difficulty and abuse by depriving children of edjucation, good physical health, and the proper emotional wellness and stability. In the late 1700 's and early 1800 's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. Many of America 's factories needed a numerous amount of workers for a cheap salary. Because of this, the amount of child laborers have been growing rapidly over the early 1800s.
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.
1. How do these testimonies present the realities of child labor? Give specific examples. The testimonies give us a brief snapshot of the condition in which children worked.
Child labor was a great concern in the Industrial revolution but very few people did something to stop it. Women and Children were forced to work more than 10 hours a day with only forty minutes to have lunch. Elizabeth Bentley once said that they didn’t have any time to have breakfast or drink anything during the day. They worked standing up and if they didn’t do their work on time they were strapped (whipped). Children were treating like they were not important, like they didn’t deserve a better life.
