Child Labor In The 19th Century Essay

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It is hard to mark a particular date on which child labor began. Children were always asked by their families to help in the fields or where the parents worked. In addition, when slavery was still in place, children were considered as slaves too. However, there is a real increase of child labor during the industrial revolution during the late 18th century and especially in the 19th.. The need for labor force increased in that period, and since the work was easier, it could be done by children who would not ask for a high salary. The main advantage of children is their size, they can fit every where adults can not, such as small places in factories and mines. That was one of the reasons why so many children were working during that time. At the beginning of the 20th century, there was a huge economic, political and social crisis. Unemployment was at its highest so people wanted the job to go to unemployed adults rather than children. In addition, policies toward education were reinforced, and as a consequence, children were required to go to school. This applied mostly to …show more content…

Indeed, child labor help maintain a circle of poverty. Children are forced to work because their families can not afford to send them to school. As a consequence, they receive little to no education and they remain in low-paid jobs. Usually, they get married and have children with someone in the same situation as them. Like their parents before them, they don 't make enough money to send their children to school, and so the children work to help their families survive. And it goes on for generations in a vicious circle. It worsens the inequalities within a region or a country, especially about incomes and access to health and education. Consequently, the standard of living of the country decreases. Having a low standard of living does not lead to the prosperity of a