More handpicked essays just for you.
Child labor essay about history
Child labour during the industrial revolution working conditions
Child labour during the industrial revolution working conditions
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
During the Progressive-Era, 1890-1920, Presidents Roosevelt and Wilson played major roles in making this time period a success (Schultz, 2014). Each wanted the United States to be more aggressive when it came to international affairs. They felt being timid was not the way to accomplish this goal; however, instead, they set out to increase our military force extensively. President Roosevelt is the first major player accomplished this goal merely 3 years prior to the end of his presidency. By 1906 the U.S. had the 3rd largest military in the world.
Before the days of labor laws and unions, there was a time in which laws were not able to keep up with a rapidly changing industrial economy. As machinery and technology advanced, so did the possible amount of revenue being generated. Unfortunately, this machinery made it so unexperienced workers, such as children and teenagers, could work hours on end creating products. With little legislation in place, these vulnerable workers were exploited in factories and mills. Many individuals, such as Florence Kelley, called for change by creating speeches that would be presented in large conventions and rallies.
According to Johnson's content, Historians have seen the Populist Era as grasping the years 1880-1900 and the Progressive Era 1900 up to America's entrance into World War One. Since the times of the Founding Fathers, the informed world class had guided, in the event that they had not precisely run, the United States, and they felt their impact was being dissolved by the sheer amount of cash now sloshing around in the insides of America's awesome ship of state. Americans had been in the Pacific since the 1780s, as guides, merchants, whalers, anglers, and, not slightest, evangelists, and from the 1820s US missions were set up in Hawaii and different islands in strength. The pretended by American teachers in the securing of Hawaii was ordinary
These fixes came in way of individual and group actions, as the economy changed in America, the progressives were hard at work responding to the change in political system. A book titled “The Jungle” led to President Roosevelt’s creation of the Pure Food and Drug Act and the Meat Inspection Act of 1906. It wasn’t enough to have words that described the conditions in which people worked in, so a photographer name Louis Hines, began taking pictures. The photographs that Hines took, led to American being face to face with over two million children under 15 working in mines for wages. Workers began organizing unions to get corporations to raise their wages, ultimately leading to employers opening their eyes to the fact that a great way to mitigate the problems associated with industrialism is to pay their workers more (Mayhew, 1998).
Reforming the Government During the years 1890 to 1920, there was a group of people called the Progressives they identified many problems that they saw in the city at the time. The Progressives were a diverse group of people from every work of life for example: journalists, Democratic politicians, Republican politicians, industry leaders, and many more. They agreed to use scientific principles in order to identify problems, offer solutions, and then in a rational ways solve these problems. For example, a group of journalists who utilized the Progressive ideals were called, “ the Muckrakers,” which helped spread knowledge about political and social problems. The Progressive’s believed society had these problems because of industrialization and organization, however, that is not completely correct.
The 1900s was a time period filled with political corruption, social inequality and injustice, discrimination, poor working and living conditions. The progressive movement resulted in response to these issues. Members and advocates of this movement were usually white (some blacks too), middle-class, Christian, college educated women (and men). They sought to achieve social justice through equality and enhance life in America for everyone. To further the nation’s democratic ideals, they hoped to incorporate reforms based on the expectations of the majority public.
The ideology of classical liberalism throughout the industrial revolution, brought by philosophers such as Adam Smith and Samuel Smiles, rooted ideals of economic interests over social well-being as they promoted arduous and monotonous work, induing for children. However, through the factory act of 1833, efforts of social reformers such as Michel Sadler and Lord Ashley to expose and shed light on the harsh working conditions of child labor to the public and stirring public outcry for the change and embetterment of the working class proved effective and demanded change. Many reforms were made for the child labor as there were age minimum requirements, limiting work hours, and even requiring education for children. Now, although this goal of actually seeing change an improvement for the working class due to limited government intervention, in 1833, the Factory act’s impact was far-reaching, paving the way for more effective labor reforms in the
During the late 1800’s a seemingly impossible uphill battle for equality and rights gained a new ally in the Progressive Movement, whose main goal was to enact reform in a practical, plausible way. Before this Movement social conditions were worsening across the United States and inequality in politics ran rampant, to spread the news of this new forms of media and campaigning arose, and after the Progressive Movement ran its course it left a drastic imprint on the history of American reform. This era is famous for its changes and philosophies that governed America and its people such as the argument between Conservationists and Preservationists or the issue of tariffs that had persisted since the birth of the United States, but what the Progressive
During the first two decades of the twentieth century, a large and diverse number of Americans claimed the political label “Progressive.” Progressives all shared a common fundamental belief of developing methods to counteract against the political and social issues of the time. They thrived in tackling some of the most crucial issues of society, as they were able to improve the conditions of the urban environment, increase the democratic influence of citizens, and sap most corruption out of the government. However, as the Progressive Movement successfully managed to cover those areas, it was limited to solving the issues of only white Americans, failing to represent the minorities, especially African Americans.
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.
During the Progressive Era, various social reform movements emerged in response to the economic, social, and political challenges of the time. Some of the major social reform movements of the Progressive Era were: Women's suffrage movement: The women's suffrage movement aimed to secure voting rights for women. Women were denied the right to vote in most states and at the national level. The movement achieved success with the ratification of the 19th Amendment in 1920, which granted women the right to vote. Temperance movement:
In the period between 1900 and 1920, the federal government and reformers were very successful in bringing social, economic, and political reform to the federal government. While not every aspect of it was successful, the rights of women, fighting against child labor and limiting the control of trusts and monopolies were three distinct successes of that time. Even before the progressive era, women challenged their place and articulated new visions of social, political and economic equality. The progressive era was a turning point for women as organizations evolved fighting for equal rights. Woman began to become very involved in a variety of reform movements.
After the Civil War, our country was battered and beaten, but it rebuilt itself over time and spread its policies, as well as manufacturing practices, throughout our country. Early in the 20th century, members of our nation started to look at some of these practices and policies and began to question their merit and whether they assisted our population or not. Many people were involved in the progressive movement in America from the presidents to a slew of popular authors and photographers. The one thing that they had in common was that they saw problems with how various industries in our nation performed that they knew needed to be fixed. They did not always agree on everything, such as immigration, but they always had the nation’s best interest at heart.
Change takes places everywhere, everyday. If we as humans experience change on a daily basis, it should be no surprise that even “The Land of the Free” must eventually evolve. A Fierce Discontent by Yale alumni Indiana University historian and Michael McGerr documents this change that spread throughout America, which is known as the Progressive Movement. Michael McGerr believed that “the people and struggles of that age of “fierce discontent” a century ago still command our attention” (McGerr, xiii), which sheds a little light as to why he chose to write about the Progressive Era. It was social and political reform and activism that made up the Progressive Era and
Wiebe displays the reforms of the Progressive Era and the changes they were seeking. Wiebe describes the progressive reformers as, “the new middle class” (Robert H. Wiebe 80). Ultimately, this new middle class was looking to reorder the government by themselves. A major reoccurring theme was the focus on the children based on Wiebe’s view of the progressives. This is shown when Wiebe writes, “He united the campaigns for health, education, and a richer city environment, and he dominated much of the interest in labor legislation” (Robert H. Wiebe 82).
