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The Spread Of Child Labor During The Second Industrial Revolution

1160 Words5 Pages

On September 19, 1874, at a Granite Mill in Fall River Massachusetts, about twenty young women, some girls as young as five, died in a fire that started on one of the machines (Shuman 4). The public was horrified about the deaths, but no one asked why there were so many children in the factory (4). The problem of child labor came to the attention of the public during the second Industrial Revolution (3). Throughout the 1900s the awareness of the problem grew, and laws were passed to curtail dangerous, abusive jobs for children (5). As their economies grew, the United States and the Western world were able to almost completely eradicate child labor (Lopez-Calva 4). However, economically disadvantaged countries, have not been as successful (Pierik …show more content…

Since the beginning of time children have worked on the family farms and in family businesses to help their families (Browne et al.1). Many cultures see work as part of a child’s training and education, and in some families everyone has to help to support the family (Kruse and Mahoney 1). Work can indeed be beneficial to children and help children to develop social skills or skills in a particular trade or occupation (Browne et al.1). The primary difference between work for children and labor is that labor is not usually at the child’s home and is most often performed in less than favorable, and perhaps even hazardous, environments (Pierik and Houwerzijl 7). Child labor forces children to work for very little compensation and becomes almost like a form of slavery (13). The child has no time for an education which could eventually lift the child out of his dire circumstances (Bullard 4). Child labor harms a child’s present and …show more content…

In addition to limiting the educational opportunities of children, child labor creates a cycle of poverty from which the child can not escape even in adulthood (Bullard 4). Employers can easily manipulate the workforce by hiring children as a cheap alternative to adult labor (4). A large supply of cheap labor keeps wages and working conditions poor for adults, increasing the need for children to work (Lopez-Calva 2). This phenomenon of cheap labor also diminishes the need of industries to modernize, which in turn hurts the development of industry in the country (2). The only way to change the cycle of poverty is through industrialization and education together (Pierik and Houwerzijl 17). The history of the Western world has shown that only when economic conditions improve will child labor end and education for children become a priority

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“Child labor and poverty are inevitably bound together and if you continue to use the labor of children as the treatment for the social disease of poverty, you will have both poverty and child labor to the end of time” (Grace Abbott). The issue of child labor has been around for centuries. Its standing in our world has been irrevocably stained in our history and unfortunately, our present. Many great minds have assessed this horrific issue and its effect on our homes, societies, and ultimately, our world.

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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.

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Child labor was a huge issue in the late 1800’s to the 1900’s. Children often worked through unfair, unhealthy, and unsafe. Children often worked hard for little pay. The children often contracted diseases and lost arms, hands and fingers in accidents and even died sometimes. Young workers had dangerous jobs like working in the coal mines.

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In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s machines started replacing hand labor for most manufactured items, like soap and dairy products in England. Factory owners found out that children workers were cheaper than adults, therefore letting them have more workers. By the mid 1800’s, child labor was a major problem in the economy. This was during the Industrial Revolution. This was a period of time when there was a economic and social change from hand tools to power driven machines, like the power loom and steam engine.

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By the early 1900s many people were calling child labor “child slavery” and were demanding an end to it. Children were forced to work in order to support their families. Children as young as 9 years old worked poor conditions in textile factories and coal mining. Factory reformers called for the regulation of child labor. Many believed that working children were the successors of textile factories and could not run without them.

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The rise of child labor in the United States began in the late 1700s to the early 1800s when factory power-driven machines were invented, almost eradicating the need for hand work on items made in factories. Even though there were machines to replace the human work, the machines still needed to be operated by people. Operating the machines did not require brute strength, and adults needed to be payed more money, so factories used children for their work. Why did children work in the factories? Did the factories abduct them or did they do it by choice?

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Employers found that children would work for less than adults and most families would make their children work to bring more income for their family. “Some children work so they can help their parents meet basic necessities such as food, clothing, and a home. Orphans often have no chance but to work. ”(Herumin, 75).

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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.

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In the world today, as millions of people from developed countries enjoy the benefits of globalization through cheap products and services, around 150 million children from the ages of 5 to 14 years old in developing countries are involved in child labor in order to produce those products and services (UNICEF 2011; Basu 1999). They work in industries of agriculture, manufacturing, and even sex trade with the intention of helping their families undergoing financial problems, without realizing that this could lead to the possibility of harming their physical and mental development, interfering with their education (UNICEF 2011; Polakoff 2007; Rahman & Khanam 2012). Although poverty is still revealed as a strong determinant of child labor, other factors also play important roles; including illiteracy, lack of quality health facilities, employers’ attitudes, limited support from governments in the area of quality education for poor families and inappropriate government policies (Rahman &

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We have to acknowledge when managing the issue of child labor we need to perceive that it can't be dispensed with, as fast as is sought because of its many-sided quality and basic reasons. It's discriminating to manage the supply elements of child labor, essentially due to the monetary circumstance of the family, and the nature of the educating framework. There are presently 8.4 million children utilized worldwide to perform the most noticeably bad manifestations of youngster work. Child labor is alarmingly predominant in Egypt, where it has been an issue of sympathy toward numerous years. By 1988, 1.4 million children between the ages of six and 14 were working in Egypt.

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This form of child labor can train the children for the future, especially to those who will run their family businesses next time. These forms of trainings can help them prepare and discover their capabilities. After all, “school participation or education attainment is a measure of input, while skills are measures of output”, in Sim, Suryahadi and Suryadarma’s opinion, “data on skills among children is rare in developing countries, yet skills make up the crucial ingredients that determine an individual’s future earning capability”, they add (Sim, Suryahadi and Suryadarma). Child labor can also provide a certain feeling of achievement, attainment, independence and pride for children at young age which will make them feel well-equipped for the

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There are many reasons that cause child labor: Poverty and unemployment levels are high – As you see, the most of employed children work in less developed countries by economy. In such countries poor families and children may rely upon child labor in order to improve their chances of attaining basic necessities. According to U.N statistics more than one-fourth of the people around the world live in poverty that is caused by the high unemployment levels. Free education is limited – U.N estimated that approximately 75 million children were not attending school. The education for the whole world’s children costs 10-30 Billion dollars that is 0.7% - 2% of the annual cost of global military spending.

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It is very shocking that there are still same political considerations, that encourage child labour in our country and for which the safeguards extended for prevention of child labour, are not implemented effectively. The foremost of this being the fact that the children are not the voters and hence, do not constitutes a political pressures groups’. This eventually make, no politician interested to their about and salve the problems relating to child labour. Furthermore, the children are mostly silent leisters or non – leisters of the policies / programmes meant for them and hence, their problems are not properly

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In many cases, school is also physically inaccessible and or lessons are not taught in the child’s mother tongue. As well as being a result of poverty, child labour also perpetuates

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