Child Labour During The Industrial Revolution

“No greater calamity can befall us as a nation than that our children should grow up without knowledge and cultivation. If we do not prepare them to be good citizens. . .then our republic must go down to destruction as others have before it.”(Tuttle). Mann, an American educational reformer during the Industrial Revolution, said this about the young and tortured children. He was ahead of his time with his understanding that children should not be included in the workforce. We can see a conflict forming with the parents of families, the government, and factory owners being hesitant to find a compromise for child labor. Factory owners wanted to keep their factories in business, but were low in workers. This resulted in children having to work

The high demand for workers set the stage for factory owners to hire large numbers of children, exposing them to many dangers. New jobs included mine work, agricultural work, apprenticeships, factory work, domestic work and more difficult tasks for these small children to accomplish. Children would work all day in extreme temperatures while doing agricultural work(“Eastern”). Other jobs included chasing away birds, sowing , and harvesting crops. Boys started their apprenticeship in a trade between the ages 10 and 14(Griffin). “Breaker boys” processed raw coal in small stalls each day, breaking them into various sizes for different furnaces(“child”). Coal bearers would have to carry baskets of coal on their shoulders. Children worked as “trappers”in mines as well, who opened trap doors in mines to move coal. Factory work was considered dangerous for all. Factories put out fumes that, when inhaled, could soon cause diseases for the children(“Eastern”). Young girls would work in match factories, most chemicals often made them lose their teeth from all of the horrible fumes(History.com). These dangerous conditions started getting the attention of lawmakers and other adults. The start to compromise was soon to