Florence Kelly's Speech On Child Labor

641 Words2 Pages

In Florence Kelly’s child labor speech she expresses her discontent with child labor, an and the lack of humanity our nations country have because it hasn’t ended. In her time period. In the beginning of the essay she gives a vague image of the lifestyle american kids had: “We have in this country 2 million children under the age of sixteen years who’re earning their bread.” Not only does she inform us of the country’s status but she also uses the phrase “earning their bread to depict how the children are working for survival. “earning bread” is a symbol of survival. She introduces the problem at hand which is child labor. She then adds more information of who it affects more: “...but no contingent so doubles from census period to census period...as does the contingent of girls between twelve and twenty, years of age.” But of course doesn’t …show more content…

“Tonight while we sleep, several thousand little girls will be working in textile mills, all the night through…” She makes the reader and listeners feel guilty for sleeping nonchalantly as girls do rigorous work. By appealing to emotion, she hints how troublesome and inhumane child labor really is. Not only are the girls working rigorously but they’re working to make things that really aren’t needed: “...weaving cotton and wool silks and ribbons for us to buy.” The small detail also expounds at how unnecessary child labor really is. She continues to produce facts of how child labor is all over the country: “Alabama limit the children’s work at night to eight hours, .. . New Jersey permits [children working] all night long.” Despite the advantages children could have while

Show More
Related

  • Summary Of Camelot On The Lowell Textile Mills By Stephen Yafa

    562 Words  | 2 Pages

    What would one expect to be the sentiment of a young women who worked in the Lowell textile mills? It is just such a depressing story; and the sad heroines are the young women of Lowell - Lucy Larcom- who Stephen Yafa portrays in his excerpt “Camelot on the Merrimack.” A perception through the eyes of a thirteen-year-old Lucy Larcom reveals that, “For her and the other young girls, the long and tedious hours they spent tending to demanding machines robbed them of their childhood.” The imagery in “Camelot on the Merrimack,” from Big Cotton by Stephen H. Yafa disclose the working conditions in those sordid mills.

    Read More

  • Florence Kelley Rhetorical Analysis

    581 Words  | 2 Pages

    During the early 20th century in the U.S, most children of the lower and middle class were workers. These children worked long dangerous shifts that even an adult would find tiresome. On July 22, 1905, at a convention of the National Woman Suffrage Association in Philadelphia, Florence Kelley gave a famous speech regarding the extraneous child labor of the time. Kelley’s argument was to add laws to help the workers or abolish the practice completely. Kelley uses pathos to highlight the need for change and diction get her point across to the audience.

    Read More

  • Locavore Movement Outline

    704 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Florence Kelley’s 1905 speech to the Philadelphia convention of the National American Women Suffrage Association, she accentuates the obligatory need to reform the working conditions for young children.

    Read More

  • Florence Kelley Child Labor

    532 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Florence Kelley’s speech, she discusses her anger about child labor. She gives numerous examples of how child labor is immoral and wrong, which creates a vindictive and scolding tone. Primarily through imagery, parallel structure, and exemplification, Kelley calls attention to the horror of child labor.

    Read More

  • Florence Kelley: Championing Against Child Labor

    655 Words  | 2 Pages

    Florence Kelley’s speech enlightened her audience, the National American Woman Suffrage Association, along with all other Americans, of the severity of child labor, convincing them to take action and fight for a change. In conclusion, the use of repetition, imagery and oxymorons in such a well-constructed speech is what enabled her to effectively communicate this message and heavily influence the ending of child labor laws and the beginning of a more honorable

    Read More

  • Children In The 1800s

    1342 Words  | 3 Pages

    Compared to people in the twenty-first century, with all their modern conveniences and technological advances, the life of any early-American seems difficult. However, the lives of children were among the most arduous. Linda Pollock states in her book Forgotten Children that between 1660 and 1800 families -and society in general- became more affectionate, child-oriented, and permissive of uniqueness and unstructured time (67). Although this may be true, many other sources depict the lives of children as taxing and oppressive at best. Children of the time were either forced to abandon education for their family contributions, or had to balance school with a full day's work ("Education"). Even when they were not in school or doing manual labor, their day-to-day lives were uncomfortable and harsh (Kids). Social status, as is expected, was a key factor in determining how hard a child's life would be (Murray 9). Although many children at the time had it easier than others they were all asked at an early age to take on adult responsibilities. The lives of all children in 1800 were mundane and difficult due to family and societal expectations for labor, schooling, and maturity.

    Read More

  • Florence Kelley Ap Language Essay

    1016 Words  | 3 Pages

    Florence Kelley’s address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association (1905) touches upon both the social and political aspects of the need for reform regarding child labor laws. By revealing the shocking truth about how young children around the country work for long hours in inappropriate conditions, Kelley is able to emphasize the urgency of this situation. Simultaneously, she defends women’s suffrage by presenting the logical statement that there would be laws to prevent extreme child labor if women had the right to vote; more progress could be made if women and men worked together, starting with women’s right to vote. In her address to the National American Woman Suffrage Association,

    Read More

  • Ap Euro Dbq Industrial Revolution

    1183 Words  | 3 Pages

    The poem “My Boy” shows how long the work hours were by saying, “[Before] dawn my labor drives me forth. Tis night when I am free; A stranger am I to my child; And he one to me.” (Document 2) From dawn to night was a normal time period that people would work and she would come home to her family where they were strangers. The long hours were not only tiring on the body, but also put a strain on the quantity and quality of time spent with family. The hours were not easy labor either, the testimony of Elizabeth Bentley shows that labor was difficult and the bosses worked the employees

    Read More

  • Kelley Rhetorical Analysis

    518 Words  | 2 Pages

    In Florence Kelley's speech to the people attending the NAWSA convention, she uses emotional appeal to motivate her audience to convince their male counterparts to legalize voting for women, and also to persuade the males to help put an end to child labor.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Florence Kelly's Child Labor Speech

    203 Words  | 1 Pages

    During Florence Kelly’s child labor speech she uses many different rhetorical strategies to express her feelings on child labor laws and conditions to working for women in different states . The strategies she uses are purposefully meant to affect the audience’s view on child laws and working women in order to achieve her goal.

    Read More

  • Child Labor

    1721 Words  | 4 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Child Labor In The 1800s Essay

    1934 Words  | 4 Pages

    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 businesses.

    Read More

  • Harvest Of Shame

    839 Words  | 2 Pages

    The movie opens up with rural images of thousands of migrant workers being transported in trucks with a short introduction by Edward Murrow and some occasional interventions of parts of an interview made to the secretary of labor after he saw the impacting images, and to the different people who have seen the lives the workers lead. Most of the secretary’s commentaries depict the exclusion that these people have since they are basically people who are silently crying out for assistance to stop harvesting the fields of their shame, or at least to hope for potential raises and better work conditions. From Florida to New Jersey, and from Mexico to Oregon, these people including women and children travel around the states following the sun and the demand from the seasonal goods while working around a hundred and thirty-six days earning and average of nine hundred dollars a year.

    Read More

  • Rhetorical Analysis Of Speech By Florence Kelley

    306 Words  | 1 Pages

    On July 22, 1905 Florence Kelley gave a powerful speech on child labor. She used her strong language and passionate tone to help get her point across to the National American Women Suffrage convention in Philadelphia.

    Read More

  • The Chimney Sweeper Analysis

    924 Words  | 2 Pages

    ...18), are all metaphors for what their life should be, not what they have been condemned to. In waking, Tom finds comfort in his dream and is finally at peace with his forced existence. “And so Tom awoke; and we rose in the dark, /And got with our bags & our brushes to work” (21-22). Reality has returned, the dark is back but a newfound acceptance and hope has replaced the despair. “Tom was happy & warm; / So if all do their duty they need not fear harm”, (23-24). These lines infer that there is still hope that society will see the error of their ways and put an end to their suffering and if not, they will be released to a better place in death. Society will someday realize that what they robbed these children of was immoral and wrong and they will stop the injustice and put an end to child labor.

    Read More

More about Florence Kelly's Speech On Child Labor

Open Document