Child Labor In The 1800s

Child Labor Reform At the beginning of the Industrialization in the 1800s children started to work in the factories. “In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16 (Windham).” They performed hard labor for low pay. Many times committees and legislation tried to reform this issue. States would pass acts, but there were always loopholes for factories. No real defying law was passed until 1938, limiting child labor. Children were allowed to work in atrocious conditions for around 130 years (“Childhood Lost”;Hansan;Windham;Yellowitz). Through those years, children could not go to school because they were too busy providing for their families, and so the cycle of poverty and unskilled work could not be broken (Windham). The

“In 1870, the first U.S. census to report child labor numbers counted 750,00 workers under the age of 15, not including children who worked for their families in businesses or on farms (Hansan).”`The child labor law of 1802 in Britain was not fully carried out until 1833 (Windham). The British acts against child labor in 1840 only prevented children from industrial labor and not agricultural work (Bentley et al. 683). The law passed by Massachusetts in 1836 was not enforced because the destitute families relied on the money their children made. Child Labor laws passed by the U.S. Congress were only lasted for two years because in 1918 they were ruled unconstitutional by the Supreme Court (Windham). The first child labor law passed by Congress to prevail was the Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938, which is still in effect

Either they were not enforced or they contained gaps. Children continued to perform cruel labor even though there were reforms. The money children provided their families was so desperately needed that they had to keep working. Children endured the harsh conditions because if they did not they would starve. Even though there were plenty of reforms passed in the 1800s through the 1900s child labor existed up until 1938. “By 1911, more than two million American children under the age of 16 were working- many of them 12 hours or more, six days a week (Hansan).” It took around 130 years to finally end child labor, and it only really ended because men needed jobs and better machines replaced the work the children did (Yellowitz).

Work Cited
Bentley, Jerry H, et al. Traditions & Encounters: A Global Perspective On The Past. 6th ed., McGraw-Hill Education, 2017.
“Childhood Lost - Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution.” Eastern Illinois University, Eastern Illinois University, www.eiu.edu/eiutps/childhood.php.
Hansan, J. “Child Labor.” Social Welfare History Project, VCU Libraries, 2011, socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/child-labor/.
Windham, Lane. “Child Labor.” World Book Advanced, World Book, 2017, www.worldbookonline.com/advanced/article?id=ar110760&st=child%2Blabor#tab=homepage.
Yellowitz, Irwin. “Child Labor.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2009,