Unsafe working conditions plagued next to, if not, all factories during industrialization. Thousands of workers grew ill or suffered injuries as a consequence of their labor, and would yield their jobs, surrendering their source of income. Taken in the early 1900s, “Lewis Hine’s picture depicts two children working on a very dangerous machine” (Document 8). The matter that children were allowed to manage these machines is awful enough, ignoring just how dangerous the machines were. In addition to this, the children did not appear to be well supervised, which made it all too easy for a disastrous injury to occur.
Women in New England wanted to work at textile mills so they could afford education, support their families, and it was a high-paying job opportunity. Mills became popular in the early 1800s during the Industrial Revolution. They first became a thing in the US when Francis Lowell went to England and memorized how the factories worked since stealing the plans would be illegal; he then remade them in New England. The Industrial Revolution and mills changed how daily life was lived. Before, families attended to their own needs; farmers supplied food, women tended to the livestock, sewed clothing, and did the laundry, and the children helped with any chores around the house.
Up until the early 20th century, American labor laws did not protect employees and work environments were not monitored for unsafe conditions. Factories were allowed to run without proper fire exits, ventilation, pay, breaks and even children were forced into labor. These unsafe conditions came crashing down just before the end of the workday on March 25th, 1911 in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory in New York City. In just under 30 minutes, 146 lives perished (Benin). Today, we call these factories “sweatshops” and they are primarily found in countries that lack laws enforcing proper working conditions.
Many had to work in unsafe conditions in which one can easily lose their life. For example, according to Robert owen ( 1771-1858) “ Working condition were difficult and dangerous. Small children worked alongside their parents in the factory.” These dangerous conditions brought social inequality as the working class were treated as if their lives do not matter. Since the workers could be easily replaced, the owners did not care about the quality of the working conditions.
Over the course of the 20th century, many significant changes were conceived and executed by the field of public health. These improvements are no less relevant today, and from the beginning, they have aided us all. However, there is a major achievement which underscores the safety and good health of the historically downtrodden: bettering work conditions for labourers in need of social change. Not only was this movement important for public health, but it gave the exploited working class a voice, allowing the affected public to organise and fight for better conditions themselves. Before any work was done in favour of making labour safer, manual work was a very dangerous job.
Document 1 describes the working conditions of British factories. In this excerpt, a testimony is given by a 28-year-old worker who began working in the mills at the age of 10. During that time he would work 16 hours straight with only one 40-minute break for lunch at noon. This left no time for school and resulted in the man being able to read but not write. And at times the children were even whipped to keep them awake.
The workers often became injured, losing arms and skin, because they got caught in the machines. The long hours with no nutrition in the dust and smoke-filled air of the factories led to many deaths and illnesses. Although some factories did not display poor working conditions, most did, and child labor was also a serious problem in the factories because the owners often took advantage of the children's’ small and skinny bodies to do harmful machine work. In The Philosophy of Manufacture, Andrew Ure wrote that he had never seen beatings inflicted on children and that the children were always cheerful and alert. This statement is opinionated and not entirely true because when a person visits a factory,
They also employed them because they were small and could go under and fix the machines easily. As children were expected to work at a young age in the Industrial Revolution time, they employed loads of children so than they didn’t have to do as much work and they could get more done at once. The jobs they done caused injuries frequently such as crushed fingers, broken arms, and even legs been pulled off. The factory owners did not force the workers to work they had a choice, either be homeless, or get underpaid and mistreated. The children had to fix broken machines and fix the broken threads, when they were still going.
In an excerpt from Joseph Hebergam’s interview with the Sadler Commission in 1832, they interview a mill worker who speaks up about the harsh conditions that workers are forced to face. The worker had lost his brother to an infection he received when he was cut by a machine, he also said that there were a dozen who had died during the two and half years he was working there (Doc 3). The names of the mills were blanked out due to testimony, but it goes to show how far factories will go to keep these truths under wrap. In a speech made by Lord Ashley to Parliament in June of 1842 following the testimonies of the commission, they investigate a coal mine and interviewed workers. Robert North says they would be beaten if they said anything and the women from ages
The amount of time most adults worked was beyond unhealthy, but, what made it worse was that kids as young as nine were sent into the mill to work 6 1/2 hours. This was from Document G as Document G also described that adults were working more than 12 hours a day in warm, and damp air in the factories. Being in warm and damp conditions for half of a day every day is beyond miserable for the body physically and mentally. Many sicknesses were passed as a result from this which resulted in many deaths. It was clear that the health of most adults were detoriating, but it was still ultimately decided to put kids to work like adults even though children generally are not as healthy as adults.
Children’s fingers were often severely injured and in most instances cut off due to the factory machinery. Their arms were often caught in the machines and stripped all the way down to the bone and some were so severe that they had to amputate a limb. Children had to work to provide for their families
Factory owners sought to control and discipline their workforce through a system of long working hours, fines and low wages. In the early 1800’s, injuries were very common textile mills (Mill Children). Due to bad working conditions mill workers suffered from a lot of sicknesses (Cotton Dust & OSHA).The mill girl’s “normal shifts were usually 12-14 hours a day, with extra time required during busy periods. Workers were often required to clean their machines during their mealtimes” (Factory Life). In the 1840’s, workers experienced bad working conditions; in the novel Lyddie, Lyddie responds to these problems by ignoring them at first, but eventually speaking up.
The Sadler committee checked factories and interviewed children and young adults to explain about what occurs in the factory as well as how the factory conditions are compared to where they should be. William Cooper was an 18 year old working at a factory so he could support his family. He began working at the age of 10. Since he was working at the factory, he could not get an education. William was only able to read, but could not write. He also explained how he only got one 40 minute lunch break in 12 hour shifts (Doc 1).
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.
The workers were often subjected to sweltering heat in the summer and frigid conditions in the winter. But, that was not it, at the time there were no laws in place that required businesses to ensure their employees' safety, and this regularly lead to many injuries and fatalities in the workplace on a daily basis. There was not a single work place that did not have injured or mutilated employees, and this was due to the unsafe working conditions of the factories, “Let a man so much as scrape his finger pushing a truck in the pickle-rooms, and he might have a sore that would put him out of the world; all the joints in his fingers might be eaten by the acid, one by one… There were men who worked in the cooking rooms… in these rooms the germs of tuberculosis might live for two years, but the supply was renewed every hour.” (109).
