Child Labor In The 1800s

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

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