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Child Labor In The 1800s Essay

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In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s machines started replacing hand labor for most manufactured items, like soap and dairy products in England. Factory owners found out that children workers were cheaper than adults, therefore letting them have more workers. By the mid 1800’s, child labor was a major problem in the economy. This was during the Industrial Revolution.This was a period of time when there was a economic and social change from hand tools to power driven machines, like the power loom and steam engine. This also included the start of coal being used for many things throughout the world.Unlike working on farms, working in a factory was hard work. The harsh conditions of the damp, dark, and very dirty factories, the long 12 to 16 hours of work per day, and the little pay of a 16 cents a day makes factory working one of the worst jobs in the world to have.
Soon after England started child labor, America followed with millions of children. In 1900, 18% of all American Labour were under 16. Child labor microscopically declined in the early 1900’s with children being replaced young adults as well as adult immigrants. …show more content…

This led to several states to establish a minimum wage for labor and jobs and minimal requirements for school attendance. Yet, these laws had many loopholes and were only in place in some states including Connecticut and Pennsylvania where they were laxly enforced. In addition to children working, immigrants, starting with the Irish in the 1840’s and continuing with the chinese after 1880 along with groups from southern and eastern Europe, provided a new pool of child workers. Yet many of these immigrants came from a rural background and had the same attitude and thinking toward child labor as Americans did in the eighteenth

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