Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
An estimated 152 million children around the globe are doing work that prevents them from getting an education or that's harmful to their health.The history of child labor is important in how it is today. How it is today is important because it can affect us greatly. How it affects people is important because it can change people's lives and their families very greatly. Child labor is wrong because they can get hurt and their education can be taken away.
“In 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16”(IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “The educational reformers of the mid-nineteenth century convinced many among the native-born population that primary school education was a necessity for both personal fulfillment and the advancement of
…show more content…
Boys customarily began their apprenticeship in a trade between ages ten and fourteen” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “Both types of child labor declined in the early nineteenth century, but factory employment provided a new opportunity for children” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). Children worked in a few places based on the time they were working in. They started at farms then they moved to factories as they industrial revolution happened.
“In colonial America, child labor was not a subject of controversy. It was an integral part of the agricultural and handicraft economy” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). “During the Great Depression, Americans wanted all available jobs to go to adults rather than children” (IRWIN YELLOWITZ). They had child labor to help support them when it first started in America. But when it ended in America the adults just wanted all the jobs just to go to them.
“Over 100 million children around the world work in hazardous conditions in agriculture, mining, domestic labor, and other sectors” (HRW Staff). “ On tobacco farms, children work long hours in extreme heat, exposed to nicotine and toxic pesticides that can make them sick. In Africa, Asia, and Latin America, child laborers in artisanal and small-scale gold mines work underground in pits that easily collapse and use toxic mercury to process the gold, risking brain damage and other serious health conditions” (HRW
…show more content…
That's almost 1 in 10 children worldwide” (Nurith Aizenman). “It's worth noting that these statistics only cover children who are doing work that is hazardous to their health or that prevents them from attending school full time because of the hours involved or the nature of the job. So it does not include, for instance, 12- to 14-year-olds doing nonhazardous, "light" work for fewer than 14 hours a week” (Nurith Aizenman). It shows that there are a lot of kids working in hazardous conditions at a young
Children as young as young as five or seven years old worked in dangerous factories. Many times if the children fell asleep while on the job, they would slip and get stuck in the machines, resulting in death. Child labor in the late 1800’s was very unsafe and put the lives of young children in danger. The children worked in very dangerous conditions, most of the time it was factories. The conditions were very poor, the factories were dirty and unsafe for children. The children would work for up to sixteen hours with little to no pay.
The labor conditions that children faced were very demanding for a human being from such a small age. For example “In the Manayunk district of Philadelphia, children as young as seven assisted in spinning and weaving of cotton and woolen goods” (Wolensky 2). The children working in the factories had their childhood freedom taken away from them. “In 1830 in a sample of 43 Manchester mills, 22.3% of the workforce was under 14 and 32.4% under 16” (Cunningham 412). This means that about 50% of the workforce in the mills were made up of children under the age of 16 and in today in the United States, a person cannot work until the age of 16. “And it is a hard thing for small children to be confined in a tight close room all day long. It affects their growth, makes them pale and sickly” (Nason). The time these children spent in the factories prevented them from spending time with their neighbors, friends, and family. The fact that young children had to work in these textile mills, created changes to American culture on how childhood years are supposed to be spent.
Child labor is using an adolescent to work with minimal to no pay. In today’s society it is considered immoral, but that was not the case in the 1920s. In that time period child labor was very prevalent. Children of all ages would engage in this without a choice. One issue with this is the child never gets the proper education to prevail and get a well paying job. This was not just a job on the farm, there were many forms of labor such as factory work, agricultural work, and domestic work. The conditions were not fit for working, and the children were paid the bare minimum. Further, it was realised that child labor was harmful to the well being of the child. As a result, there were laws created to abolish it. Child labor
The two factors led to a rise in the percentage of children ten to fifteen years of age who were gainfully employed. Although the official figure of 1.75 million significantly understates the true number, it indicates that at least 18 percent of these children were employed in 1900.(History)
Throughout time children have worked myriad hours in hazardous workplaces in order to make a few cents to a few dollars. This is known as child labor, where children are risking their lives daily for money. Today child labor continues to exist all over the world and even in the United States where children pick fruits and vegetables in difficult conditions. According to the article, “What is Child Labor”; it states that roughly 215 million children around the world are working between the ages of 5 and 17 in harmful workplaces. Child labor continues to exist because many families live in poverty and with more working hands there is an increase in income. Other families take their children to work in the fields because they have no access to childcare and extra money is beneficial to buy basic needs. Although there are laws and regulations that protect children from child labor, stronger enforcement is required because child labor not only exploits children but also has detrimental effects on a child’s health, education, and the people of the nation.
Throughout history, children have always worked, either as apprentices or servants. However, child labor reached a whole new scale during the time period of the Industrial Revolution. Throughout the time frame of late 1800s-early 1900s, children worked long hours in dangerous factory conditions for very little wages. They were considered useful as laborers because their small stature allowed them to be cramped into smaller spaces, and they could be paid less for their services. Many worked to help support their families, and by doing so, they forwent their education. Numerous nineteenth century reformers and labor groups sought to restrict child labor and to improve working conditions.
“Child labor is work that harms children or keeps them from attending school.” Back then in the U.S., children were working between ages 5 to 17. Between the 1800s and 1900s, many children worked in agricultural fields, fishing, mining, manufacturing, and even drug trade and prostitution. Even though child labor laws are still avoided around the world, the effects on child labor in the US, before, was unbelieveable. Children were suffering from health issues, reform movements grew and other countries followed enforced child labor too.
The period immediately following the American Civil War is a period often associated with industrialization and sweeping reforms. It is also a period where millions of immigrants made their way to the United States in search for a better life. However, after being pushed to accept poor living conditions and low wages, some families, both domestic and immigrant, were forced to send their children into the workforce just to be able to have enough income to survive. With the presence of children becoming increasingly common in the workforce during this time, things began to decline as far as the conditions they were forced to work in, as well as the rights that they were allowed as workers. Children during the Gilded Age and the Progressive Era
Many businesses and factories hired children because they were easier to exploit; they could be paid less for more work in dangerous conditions. Plus, their small size made many children idea for working with small parts or fitting into small spaces. Children as young as four could be found working in factories, though most were between eight and twelve. Despite the economic gains made by the business that employed them, many children suffered in the workplace. The industrial setting caused many health problems for the children that, if they lived long enough, they would carry with them for the rest of their lives. Children were also more likely to face accidents in the workplace, often caused by fatigue, and many were seriously injured or killed. Despite efforts by reformers to regulate child labor, it wasn’t until the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938 that children under 14 were prohibited from
Child Labor in the Modern Era has tougher working conditions then Child Labor in the Industrial Era because children now have to face the fact that they are not given a choice in attending a school like us instead they are forced to work for long shifts and in unsuitable conditions. In the article “How the iPhones Help perpetuate Modern-Day Slavery” by C. Robert Gibson clarifies the age the underprivileged children start working and the disturbing working conditions they are put and the life they put in danger in order to receive 2 dollars a day. Gibson illustrates “They wear no safety protection carry store-bought, battery-powered flashlight, and often die from brutal working conditions that result in suffocation cave-ins, and death from
Child labor is nothing but cheap labor. The big companies loved cheap labor because then they could make an item for not very much money, and make a huge profit margin. Fried continues to state how cheap the labor was, “One glass factory in Massachusetts was fenced with barbed wire ‘to keep the young imps inside.’ These were boys under 12 who carried loads of hot glass all night for a wage of 40 cents to $1.10 per night.” Unlike, children today who are in bed sleeping by 8 pm each night, these children had to stay up all night working to make just enough income for their families.
The kids under the age of fourteen were sent to go assist with the textile workers. They then would beat and verbally abuse the child. And if children would show up late, they would be weighted. Weighted means to put a very heavy weight on the child's back and have them walk up and down the factory aisles for hours, so other children can learn from it. This then resulted in back and neck injuries. (“Child Labor in Factories”) While this all seems really cruel, there were many positives that came out of child labor. Children were still able to contribute to their families. Money was a big struggle, and it had a major impact for poor families. Children were also getting a wide range of opportunities and work experiences for the future ahead. Although it might not be the best way to get experience, they were still helping out there families and showing respect towards them. This shows that during the Industrial Revolution, children were used harshly for labor, and the positives and negatives out of
Child labor has been around for hundreds of years. “Children of poor and working-class families had worked for centuries before industrialization” (Tuttle 1). Before children were needed in factories they worked on family farms tending the fields or animals, as time went on families moved from farms to the cities where children were still required to work. Children worked for numerous reasons some were that their parents couldn’t work so the responsibilities were passed to the children; others included the simple need for more money to feed the entire family. Large businesses welcomed the increasing number of child workers, for the business it meant cheap labor and cheap laborers that could be replaced easily. The exact number of child workers is unknown and has been estimated as stated in multiple articles such as this, “By 1900 over two million children, mostly immigrant children under the age of sixteen, were employed” (Wagner 1). Parents wanted their children to work as soon as possible so they could get as much income as possible, parents often did illegal things to get their children to work, “Boy’s parents often presented a fake birth certificate with an altered date o...
From the late 18th century to the mid 19th century, the economy in England was transformed from an agricultural to a manufacturing –based economy. In 1801, agriculture provided employment for 36% of the British population. By 1851, only 10% of the British population was employed in agriculture, while over 40% was employed in industry (Hopkins, 36). As a direct result of this transformation, a surplus of jobs were created and displaced farming families moved in to fill them. Factory and Mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. Industry profited from this arrangement by saving money, since child labor was more “cost effective”. According to one historian, Clark Nardinelli, “in 1835 56,000 children under the age of thirteen were working in textile factories alone. By 1874, the number of child laborers in the market hit its peak with over 122,000 children between the ages of 10 and thirteen working in textile factories (4).”
Child labor is a world-wide issue that is affecting the mentality of millions of children. While some forms of child labor are traditional like working on family farms or factories, many other children are forced into it, in an abusive matter and some of the conditions are unbearable. There are many different practices of child labor: Agricultural (plantations and farms), domestic work (in homes), Manufacturing, and Mining and quarrying. There are many solutions to this problem and one of them is getting the government involved and creating a law to stop it.