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Florence Kelley's Speech On Child Labor

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In the speech, given at the National American Woman Suffrage Association convention, a United States social worker and reformer who successfully fought for child labor laws, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout States, compares different states and their child labor laws, and details the power that they have as american citizens, in order to prove that laws and restrictions need to be put in place for child labor, ultimately moving the people attending the convention to stand up to child labor and fight the government to put new laws in place. To convey her message about child labor, Florence Kelley identifies how the working ages vary throughout the States in order to show that the laws are inconsistent throughout the states. She wanted to have fair ages throughout all of the states because “they vary in age from six and seven years (in the cotton mills of Georgia) and eight, nine and ten years (in the coal-breakers of Pennsylvania).” She goes on to say that kids aging from six to sixteen are working dangerous, dirty jobs at such a young age. Identifying the ages of children working during this time is a powerful example showing how unfair and how unlawful the child labor laws are and why it needs to be fixed. …show more content…

She gave evidence and real examples of how different states have different laws for child labor age and working hours. “In Alabama the law provides that a child under sixteen years of age shall not work in a cotton mill at night longer than eight hours” … “ North and South Carolina and Georgia place no restriction upon the work of children at night,” This was one of her first comparisons throughout her speech. Florence Kelley comparing different states and their child labor laws is a great deal of evidence to show how the laws aren’t consistent throughout the states and that the laws are inconsiderate and overall wrongly put

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