ipl-logo

Child Labor In The 1800s Essay

1511 Words7 Pages

In the late 1800s, the Industrial Revolution was brought to the United States from Great Britain. The Industrial Revolution was a time period which brought people from the rural areas to the city. Most manufacturing took place in people’s homes using home-made tools, and basic machines. Henceforth, innovation was needed to speed the process of making clothes, enhancing the transportation system, better mass production of iron and more. On the other hand, child labor sprung up a big issue during that time. Children were underpaid, abused, had a very low education rate, but also had to work to support their family. Later, reformers and lawmakers tried to pass laws to stop, and help decrease the amount of child labor happening in their state, but that did not help much because as the inventors …show more content…

All children under the age of fifteen who worked in factories had to complete a minimum of three months of school. Soon another law declared children to work a maximum of 10 hours a day. Shorter work hours, upgraded working conditions, and age requirements were all changes in the system of child labor from 1802 to 1878. In 1885 a law was passed stating children were under the age of twelve they could only use the breakers, but if kids were under twelve they could mine. However, that later changed in 1902 when laws were passed to change the mining age from twelve to fourteen. It took may years for American to band child labor, but by 1899 twenty-eight laws were passed to help prevent child employment. Even though these laws were, in play many states did not administer the rules in the workplace. In fact, the Federal Government tied to reinforce the laws in the early 1900s, but did so work so in 1938 the Government began to patrol work places and made children stop working under the age of 16 full-time. During holidays, and after school hours’ children 14-15 could

Show More
Related
455 Words | 2 Pages

The court case of Hammer v. Dagenhart is a extremely crucial case over child labor laws and child labor in general. A brief syllabus of the case is that children were working long hours in factories in the early 1900s which were causing health issues for them and just the simple fact that is was these were not fit for children to be operating. Some of the places/worksites that had child labor included mills, factories, industrial workshops and other similar to those with tedious work that adults wouldn't do for the pay they were offering. This took place just prior to the Great Depression and already money was hard to come by. Therefore many of these kids were just trying to support their families and help out with what they could.

Read More
589 Words | 3 Pages

These reforms included stricter safety standards, shorter work hours, and the elimination of dangerous working conditions. As a result of these efforts, New York and other states began to pass laws that regulated child labor and improved working conditions for all workers. In New York, for example, the state passed the Labor Law of 1913, which prohibited children under the age of 14 from working in factories and required employers to provide safety equipment and training.

Read More
730 Words | 3 Pages

Kelley provide Georgia as an example and a comparison to how other states try to handle child labor. Kelley says, “In Alabama the law provides that a child under sixteen years of age shall not work

Read More
1219 Words | 5 Pages

They limited the hours of work for children, of certain ages, children from 9 – 13 were only allowed to work 8 hours a day, those who were 14 – 18 could only work 12 hours a day, and the children under 9 were not allowed to work at all. The government made sure of that the act was carried out. After a while in the 20 century the government went further to protect the children’s rights, the labour unions did not want children to work in the factories anymore due to danger being involved. In 1850 the government made the hours increase the women and children worked to 10 and a half hours a day, but not allowed to work before 6am or after 6pm. Plus in 1874 the government made the another labour rule for all women, children, and men that no worker was allowed to work more than 56.5 hours per week.

Read More
471 Words | 2 Pages

Children would start work in coal mines and factories as young as 5 years old to 18 years of age. A child would work 18 hour days. Work days typically ran from early morning to late at night, and winter usually made longer hours, from 68 to 72 hours per week. Because of laissez faire businesses were allowed to pay an extremely low amount of money and to allow children to work in horrible working conditions. This is why children were often forced into labor, it also was to help their families bring in more

Read More
566 Words | 3 Pages

Coalmining was a prominent industry throughout eastern Pennsylvania, northern Maryland, and Wyoming. In 1885, legislation was passed in order to restrict the working age of miners. Breaker boys, who worked aboveground to sort slate, rocks, and other debris from the coal, were required to be at least twelve years of age. Underground miners were required to be at least fourteen years of age. Boys ' parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date of birth in order to have their children, who were often as young as five or six years of age, work in the mines.

Read More
1560 Words | 7 Pages

Child labor during the 18th and 19th century did not only rapidly develop an industrial revolution, but it also created a situation of difficulty and abuse by depriving children of edjucation, good physical health, and the proper emotional wellness and stability. In the late 1700 's and early 1800 's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for making most manufactured items. Many of America 's factories needed a numerous amount of workers for a cheap salary. Because of this, the amount of child laborers have been growing rapidly over the early 1800s.

Read More
964 Words | 4 Pages

Although it was later declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court, this act shortened working hours and prohibited the interstate sale of goods that were produced from child labor. Even though this act failed to be passed until the 1940s, Wilson passed another law called the Adamson Act. The Adamson Act ensured an eight-hour workday for railroad workers, and more pay if they had to work overtime. “He championed labor laws to institute an 8-hour day on railroads (and time-and-a-half for overtime), and to prohibit the shipment of any product produced by child labor in interstate commerce.” (Bushong).

Read More
234 Words | 1 Pages

It wasn’t until the Great Depression and the competition between adults and children for the job, that the labor laws were amended to exclude children. In 1938, congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, prohibited children under 14 to work. (scholastic.com) In the 1940s John Caffey noticed

Read More
528 Words | 3 Pages

The minimum age to work was nine. They were able to work nine hours instead of twelve but they still had to attend school. Then the Factory Act of 1844 was passed. The children worked half of the day and went to school half of the day. The next act that was passed was the Factory Act of  1847.

Read More
396 Words | 2 Pages

In the article “Time Machine (1902): Children working in the Pennsylvania coal mines” by McClure’s Magazine, it is showing how the kids in Pennsylvania have had to work underage, with nothing but a lying father and no proof that they are below age. This is known, because in the article it states “Children's age certificates are often false. When a father wishes to place his son in a breaker, he obtains an ‘age blank’ from a mine inspector. In its spaces, he writes some age at which it is legal for a boy to work.” This is showing, as stated previously, that kids work underage, and there isn’t any proof that they are actually lying.

Read More
830 Words | 4 Pages

After a long history of sending children to work, first laws were introduced to

Read More
573 Words | 3 Pages

Finally, the legislature passed laws banning child labor. maximum hours were set, and child labor died. Regarding labor laws, in 1908, the court case of Muller v. Oregon made it so women could only work ten hour work

Read More
274 Words | 2 Pages

Child labor in Victorian England The children would work all day and would not get much rest, they would work to help their families. Also they would work in coal mines in the dark. Child labor in Victorian England was awful because it said that the children would climb chimneys and clean them also they would work in coal mines in the dark. What caused children to work was that in england because they thought that the kids were slaves and that they needed more young people to work so they chose the children. In (www.VictorianChildren.org/Victorian-child labor/) it said that “children were the right people to help people work and they were the norm of the 1800’s”.

Read More
855 Words | 4 Pages

Child labor was a great problem in the Industrial Revolution. Factory owners usually hired women and children rather than men. They said that men expected higher wages, and they suspected that they were more likely to rebel against the company. Women and children were forced to work from six in the morning to seven at night, and this was when they were not so busy. They were forced to arrive on time and they couldn’t fall behind with their work because if they did they were whipped and punished.

Read More

More about Child Labor In The 1800s Essay

Related Topics

Open Document