Up until the 19th century, Great Britain had been a primarily agricultural-based country, with a small amount of domestic industry mixed in. Great Britain developed the enclosure movement to better raise animals and the cottage industry to help supplement the income from farming. This system changed when James Watt perfected the steam engine and the factory system was created to increase production. The Industrial Revolution did not improve life for the people of Great Britain as the majority of people were not wealthy. Lower class children was forced to work in factories at a price set by the factory owners and in conditions chosen by the owners, lower class people could not afford to pay for the advancements in transportation, and were forced …show more content…
The lack of regulations allowed the owners to employ who they wanted, pay what they wanted, and maintain whatever working conditions they wanted. This usually led to factory owners hiring children as they could pay them less and work them more. There were “great abuses in many establishments in which children [were] employed” (Doc 7). Due to a lack of safety concerns during this time, children would sometimes lose hands, feet, arms, and potentially legs working with the newly designed machines. The owners did not care, they would just hire another child in the interest of greed. Some children were forced to work at a very young age to help support their family, such as Joseph Hebergam in Document 6, who said he began work at “seven years of age” and had to work “from five in the morning till eight at night.” Lower class children had no choice but to accept these conditions even though they were probably paid less than a pound an hour because otherwise their family would not be able to afford …show more content…
This was not the case for the lower classes. The people of the lower class would have been forced to live as close to the factories as they could to maintain a job. The factory districts were so full of “heaps of debris, refuse, and offal” that it made “it impossible for a human being in any degree civilised to live” there (Doc 4). Although there were improvements in sanitation during this time period, they would have mainly been centered around where the rich lived, not around the factories were the poor usually lived. This made it so that the poor people were surrounded by refuse and there was nothing they could do about. They could not even move, as they were forced to stay close to work out of
The lives of large section For the first time in history children were an important factor of the economic system, but at a terrible price. The master of the factories employed children for two reasons. One, because of their small body which can get inside the machines to clean it and use their nimble fingers. Second, the masters use to pay low wages to the children who could be easily manipulated. The average age for the parents to send their children to work was ten.
A Lot of machines didn’t have any safety precautions this lead to a lot of injuries and death in factories. Breaks weren’t being given much to the employees and men were being paid about 10 cents per hour or maybe even less for hours worth of work. Women would make almost half of that. Children were paid less than 10 cents an hour as well for fourteen hour days of work since they were doing less complex work that didn’t take much skill. Cording to this article many children had physical deformities because of the lack of exercise and sunlight. Because of the mistreatment of children during that era the labor union was form
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.
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.
These comforts and conveniences included better and more developed homes, cheaper clothes, more tools and utensils to work with, and faster and cheaper travel. One of the most important concerns of this time period is the effect of child labor. Document 7 states: Large machines and rising demand for products quickly led to the growth of the factory system. The building of these factories led to the hiring of massive numbers of child workers, the youngest at 11 to 12 years old.
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
The Industrial Revolution began in England during the late 1700s, and by the end of its era, had created an enormous amount of both positive and negative effects on the world in social, economic, and even political ways. The revolution began to spread across the world, raising the standard of life for the populations in both Europe and North America throughout the 1800s. However, even with all of its obvious benefits, its downsides are nonnegotiable, forcing workers into horrendous living and working conditions, all inside of unkempt cities. While some might argue that Industrialization had primarily positive consequences for society because of the railroad system, it was actually a negative thing for society. Industrialization’s
The impact of the Industrial Revolution was a positive experience for some, but it was a great difficulty for others. Because of the demands for reform and protection for workers arose, government and unions began to take place. That was how the evils of the Industrial Revolution addressed in England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
According to the article “A History of Child Labor” reviewed by Milton Fried, a child could work as long as six days a week for up to 18 hours a day, and only make a dollar a week. Child labor was 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. Sadly, the children had no choice but to work for very little pay. Their mothers and fathers made so little money in the factory system that they couldn’t afford to let their children enjoy their childhood: “Other working children were indentured—their parents sold their labor to the mill owner for a period of years. Others lived with their families and worked for wages as adults did, for long hours and under hard conditions” (Cleland). The child had no other choice, but to work for these big
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
Imagine waking up at five in the morning to walk over a mile to a factory where you work until noon where you get a half hour break for lunch, then it’s back to work until nine or ten at night, when you are finally allowed to go home and you are only eight years old. Today that seems unimaginable, but during the early 19th century it was the everyday life of thousands of children whose ages range from as young as five until you died. During the Industrial Revolution many children were required to work dangerous jobs to help their families.
In the United States of America 750,000 children were under the age of 15 in 1830. Britain had 50% of the worker who worked in factories were under the age of 14. Some children would also work in coal mines, from as young as six years old. Children would do all sorts of jobs like chimney sweeps, selling newspaper on the street corner, and working on machines in factories were just some of the jobs children would be assigned to do. Children would make money for performing these jobs but they would work for little pay.
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).” ... ...
The factory masters quickly realised children were ideal employees, as they were cheap and did not need as much money as adults; indeed, some masters got away with not paying them at all. < http://www.skwirk.com/p-c_s-14_u-424_t-1100_c-4255/child-labour/nsw/child-labour/the-industrial-revolution/the-impact-of-the-industrial-revolution> They were also useful as "piecers" and "scavengers", the latter especially suited to the smaller children. A scavenger's job was to crawl under the machine collect the cotton and other materials which fell from it onto the