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Child labor and the industrial revolution
Child labor and the industrial revolution
Child labor during the industrial revolution
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Working Conditions for Children in Textile Mills in the Late Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries
In this essay I am going to write about and explain what working
conditions were like for children working in textile mills in the late
18 and early 19 centuries. I will examine and discuss the working
conditions at Quarry Bank Mill and compare them with the other
sources. The sources are paragraphs containing information about other
different mills around England. I will write about the context of the
sources, are they primary or secondary, are the sources reliable or
biased, do the sources give evidence etc.
Source A is a paragraph of an eyewitness account of a visit to Quarry
Bank Mill which was taken from the book “The Conditions of the Working
Class in England” written by Frederick Engel in 1845 who was a
campaigner for the rights of factory work, who visited the mill. In
side the mill Engel describes the condition as lofty airy rooms with
fine machinery and healthy looking workers. He describes the workers
condition as being comfortable and that they were well paid, this
evidence is less reliable because there is not enough information to
show what working conditions were like for children. This shows that
Greg was good to his workers. Frederick Engel thought that he would
see misery and starvation and that the workers hate the manufacturers,
but he dose not see that here in the present of Mr Greg. The workers
were limited to read newspapers or else they were sacked, this gives
evidence that Greg is very domineering, dictated to what they could or
could not do and is very much in control. Source A doesn’t say that
Engel did actuall...
... middle of paper ...
...uarry Bank Mill was used as a ‘typical
example’ of a mill as it showed the industry in a good light. Looking
from the sources most of them are reliable and useful and looking from
the sources it still gives you an idea that the conditions at Quarry
Bank Mill are better then other mills. But I don’t think that you can
use this information and go far with it to really show what children
working conditions were really like at Quarry Bank Mill because source
C is just an extract and wasn’t written at the time children were
treated badly in mills, source E is just a picture which we hardly
know anything about, source D is Greg’s side of a punishment account
and A and B are taken from books. But basically all of the sources
evidence is not complete enough to say what working conditions were
really like for children in mills.
English textile factories were very bad for the health of the working class families. As Dr. Ward stated, “Last summer I visited three cotton factories with Dr. Clough of Preston and Mr. Barker of Manchester, and we could not remain ten minutes in the factory without gasping for breath...¨ This shows that the conditions were so bad that they had trouble breathing because how bad the air was. Dr. Ward also says, ¨Cotton factories are highly unfavourable, both to the health and morals of those employed in them. They are really nurseries of disease and vice. These factories were very unsafe and you could get many diseases and injuries, especially if you were a kid as a lot were. The kids were in many accidents in the factories, as Dr. Ward states,
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.
Look down at the clothes you're wearing right now, chances are almost every single thing you are currently wearing was made in a sweatshop. It is estimated that between 50-75% of all garments are made under sweatshop like conditions. Designers and companies get 2nd party contractors to hire people to work in these factories, this is a tool to make them not responsible for the horrendous conditions. They get away with it by saying they are providing jobs for people in 3rd world countries so its okay, but in reality they are making their lives even worse. These companies and designers only care about their bank accounts so if they can exploit poor, young people from poverty stricken countries they surely will, and they do. A sweatshop is a factory
these men are not going to be a blessing to him and Jim. Still, he never
Similarly, the change towards a factory-orientated nation was a harsh one for the industrialists. Many of the adult labor force had no training in how to use the machines and took awhile to pick up the new techniques (Basu and Van, 1998). It was more time consuming and costly to teach the adults than it was to hire children during this start of the revolution. Children could be molded into the ideal adult worker as they rose through the ranks in the factory. Studies indicate that about 50% of workers started working in the factories when they were less then ten years of age, from this overall amount 28% of these child workers started working when they were under the age of fourteen, while only 7.8% of workers started working in the textiles from the age of twenty- one or higher (Nardinelli, 1980). The aging of the generation of child factory workers improved the quality of adult factory workers and created a reserve pool of adults with factory experience. This pool of adults was particularly significant for men. As a child worker, they were exposed to many different positions and so learned a great deal amount of experience. Not only were the children fulfilling the basic factory needs but were creating a more work experienced labor force for the future. No longer where adults having to learn how to use machinery when entering the factory market but instead had worked in a textile during their childhood so had already obtained the human capital needed to work. The factory would then profit off of this future human capital and so keep on employing the massive amount of children in order to better themselves for the future while at the same time reaping the present value of cheap labor. With the underlying factors of cheap labor, inexpensive working conditions, and an ever-present labor market full of willing children, the industrial revolution had created a cost
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.
Poor Work Conditions in the 1850's Work is a very important part of everyone's life. Work leads to wages, which then leads to the lifestyle you may live. Between 1750 and 1850, work transformed greatly in Europe. It changed all types of aspects of work including where you work, what you do, and how much you may get paid for it.
In 1900, there were 1.75 million child workers in the United States alone, that was 18 percent of all American workers at the time. In southern cotton mills 25 percent of the employees were below the age of fifteen, with half of them being below the age of 3 (History.com). Child Labor is the the use of children in industry or business when considered illegal or inhumane. Child Labor is a social issue that was at its peak during the Industrial Revolution and still occurs today, but has declined drastically over the years due to the unions against it and laws put in affect.
phrase that Harvey said stuck with him his whole life. What that phrase means to him is to work
Today I have to wake up at 3:30 am in order to be at the factory by 4am. Then I found out that my mother had a cold over night and I have to look after her and do all the washing, cooking and cleaning. By the time I got to the factory it was 4:30. And when Mr. Bob sa...
In the late 1700’s and early 1800’s big business began to boom. For the first time companies were developing large factories to manufacture their goods. Due to the new mechanics and cheap labor, factory owners could now produce their goods at a cheaper rate. As big businesses brought wealth and capitalism, it also widened the gap between the wealthy elite and the poor. One class in particular was horribly affected by the growth of big factories. This class was the poor working class. According to the article “Child Labor in the United States” written by Robert Whaples, a big proportion of the labour work force was made up of children: “In 1820 children aged 15 and under made up 23 percent of the manufacturing labor force of the industrializing
Why Children from Workhouses Were Employed at Styal Mill Source A indicates that children appeared as the best and most suitable working force available for mill owners, such as Samuel Greg in the 1790's. According to Samuel Greg, child labour provided many significant advantages to the children, as well as Styal Mill itself. The source provides us with a list of factual reasons that help to explain why they favoured child labour. The attitude is explained using economic reason, as it was in Greg's own economic self-interest to employ children, as we can gather from reading Source A. Considering the majority of the children at Styal were healthy and in good shape, substantiates that they were physically fit and able to do the work.
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.
Child Labor and England’s Industrial Revolution. The Industrial Revolution in nineteenth-century England brought about many changes in British society. It was the advent of faster means of production, growing wealth for the Nation and a surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. Cities were growing too fast to adequately house the numerous people pouring in, thus leading to squalid living conditions, increased filth and disease, and the families reliance upon their children to survive.
He did not consider studying and readins as being “work”. He states: “Men like to work`.” (Lodge 126)