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Essay on Child Labor in the United States
Child labor in the early 1800s
Child labor in the early 1800s
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More handpicked essays just for you.
Essay on Child Labor in the United States
Child labor in the early 1800s
Child labor in the early 1800s
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
In the twenty-first century, there seems to be less news regarding child labor and women’s suffrage in developed countries. However, long ago, in the 1900s, the United States was suffering from such an issue too. In 1905, Florence Kelley gave a speech in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, about the relationship between child labor and women’s suffrage. She spoke in an urgent tone to government officials and the general public through descriptive language and punctuation to evoke emotions, continuous rhetorical questions to reinforce her purpose, repetition to juxtapose a child labor’s life to those of adults about her purpose of abolishing child labor as well as giving women their suffrage. Kelley begins her speech by introducing the working conditions of child laborers through descriptive language.
On July 22nd, 1905, Florence Kelley, a United States social worker and reformer who fought successfully for child labor laws and improved conditions for working women, delivered a speech on child labor before the convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia. The purpose of her speech was to convince her audience that the only way to stop child labor was by allowing women the right to vote. Florence Kelley uses certain rhetorical strategies, such as pathos, diction, and an extensive use of figurative language, to appeal to her audience and accomplish her goal. Kelley’s speech is composed of a substantial amount of emotional appeals to aid her in connecting with her intended audience. In paragraph four she says, “Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through, in the deafening noise of the spindles and the looms spinning and weaving cotton and wool, silks and ribbons for us to buy.”
Finding the fact that children from the age of “twelve to twenty years” are subject to labor heartbreaking. Florence Kelley’s speech, given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association, uses a variety of rhetorical strategies to turn the hearts of the audience against child labor, along with strengthening the argument for women’s suffrage. She does this to ultimately to argue that when women can vote, they will put a stop to child labor. While other rhetorical strategies, such as logos and ethos, serve mainly to impress the audience’s reason.
Throughout this speech, Florence Kelley addresses The Philadelphia Convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association in 1905, to bring attention to the working conditions of young children across the nation. Kelley’s rhetorical strategies are, listing examples of the appalling working conditions in a repetitive manner and appealing to ethos and pathos to persuade her audience. Kelley creates a compelling argument that captures the audience and throws them into the issue and then persuading them to join her battle. Kelley forms strong personal and emotional statements that strikes the hearts of the audience. She captures the hearts of the mothers and fathers in the audience and then encourages them to empathize with victims.
Florence Kelly uses many rhetorical strategies to convey her message about child labor in her speech. She conveys that young children are working and losing sleep for men and women to buy nonessential wardrobe. In her speech she uses repetition and sarcasm to convey her message. Kelly use of repetition emphasizes her support on reasons why child labor is wrong.
Florence Kelley, a 1900s reformer and advocate who worked to promote children’s rights and put an end to child labor in the United States, demonstrates appeals to logos and appeals to pathos in order to develop a passionate, powerful tone and hold the audience accountable/gain sympathy. Her organization of ideas, combined with diction that appeals to the emotions, create an influential speech that both flows logically and tugs on the heartstrings of the crowd. Initially, Kelley immediately draws her audience in, establishing the purpose of her speech and where she stands regarding the topic of child labor. She is well-organized and maintains a steady delivery of facts and statistics that help to further explain her point of view.
In her speech addressing the National American Woman Suffrage Association on the topic of child labor, Florence Kelley bases her argument, through the use of logos, cacophony, and rhetorical questions on the ethical merit against child labor. Establishing her main arguments, and introducing the topic at hand, Kelley provides statistical evidence by which she conveys the pandemic of child labor. By stating that, “We have, in this country, two million children who are earning their bread,” she establishes the idea that child labor is widespread throughout the union and further notes the idea by describing the alarming trend of low wage-earning children growing as a demographic. She also notes it is especially common for girls between the ages
Children from as young as the age of 6 began working in factories, the beginning of their exploitation, to meet demands of items and financial need for families. In Florence Kelley’s speech before the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia 1905, Kelley addresses the overwhelming problem of child labor in the United States. The imagery, appeal to logic, and the diction Kelley uses in her speech emphasizes the exploitation of children in the child labor crisis in twentieth century America. Kelley’s use of imagery assists her audience in visualizing the inhumanity of the practice.
In Florence Kelley’s passionate 1905 speech against child labor at the convention for the National American Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, she employs multiple persuasive rhetorical strategies to guilt her audience and provoke action. Kelley, through illustrating the experiences of young children with auditory and visual imagery, juxtaposes her audience with the plight the children face, calling them to not perpetuate the problem and act. Kelley further utilizes statistical figures to connect with her female audience and call for change. She further connects her audience to the injustice, shaming their comfort in comparison to the danger and pain the children face. Florence Kelley illustrates the terrible conditions and grueling work children of the time dealt with through visual and
In a speech spoken toward the National American Woman Suffrage Association, Florence Kelley addresses the rough times young children go through while working. Her speech is said to empower people to take a stand and stop child labor as evidenced by her use of appealing to the audience's emotions and stating specifically what she and the women can do to help, as well as her usage of questioning the decisions being made. Florence Kelley voices her opinion of what people should do to stop child labor by tugging at the heart strings of her audience. She wants the NAWSA to understand what the children do on a day to day basis for small amounts of money. In line 18 Kelley clarifies that "While we sleep, several thousand little girls will be
In Florence Kelley’s speech, she spoke about child labor. Specifically, she wanted to persuade her audience that children across the nation should be free child labor. To persuade her audience, she imagery and appealed facts and her audience’s emotions by using repetition and rhetorical questions. Throughout her speech, Kelley evoked emotions of sympathy and guilt from her audience.
Child Labor Analysis Child Labor was one of Florence Kelley’s main topics at a speech she gave in Philadelphia during a convention of the National American Woman Suffrage Association. Kelley talks about all the horrors children were going through and the injustices they were suffering. She talks of the conditions children working in, the hours they were going in, and all in all, how wrong child labor was. Her purpose for this was to gain support of people to petition for the end of child labor. Kelley’s appeals to Ethos, Pathos and Logos through the use of great rhetoric is what allows her to achieve her purpose.
During the 1900’s, it was common for children to be found working long hours in harsh conditions at factories and textile mills. Also, women were in the midst of fighting for their right to vote. However, the advocation of women’s suffrage would not only benefit women but also children as women would be able to ratify better child labor laws. As a reformer and social worker, Kelly was a strong advocate for women earning the right to vote, so they can better protect the young girls influenced by society’s poor child labor laws. Florence Kelley gave a speech at the convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association in Philadelphia on July 22, 1905 about child labor.
During the late 1800s and early 1900s, many countries were experiencing child labor. Labor worked extremely hard for long hours and didn't get paid well. This was extremely harsh for people who had low incomes, immigrants, and larger families. Mary Harris Jones made a big step in becoming a leader of a labor organization for workers getting better benefits, and more rights. Mother Jones’
In conclusion, Florence Kelley used many rhetorical strategies in order to call her audience to arms against child labor laws. She accuses the laws of being unjust and labels the children prisoners. In the last two paragraphs, Kelley refers to her cause as the "freeing of the children." She believed the children were robbed of their basic rights and freedoms by labor laws and used strategies such as pathos, parallelism, and illustration to convince her audience to help her "free