Cruelty of Child Labor Even though poor families would rely on the income of their children's labor as a supplement of income, child labor should not have been accepted during the 1900’s. Child labor effects malnutrition, children's health, premature ageing, and length of their life shortens depending on the job they have because children's brain development depends on interaction with other kids and learning about their environment and surroundings like attending school were they could learn instead of working in unsafe areas. Child labor was a big issue during the 1900’s, but not that many people were aware of it. That's why people like the muckrakers were helping society by spreading awareness. It states in the article Child Labor “it …show more content…
In this article it states “The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty with few toilet facilities. The machines and sharp tools used performing various jobs caused many injuries”(History of Child Labor in America). Working in factories was dangerous back then. Corruption and abuse towards workers was very frequent. The rich got richer and poor got poorer, barely any workers got out of poverty during that time. The workers had no voice in their work, they continued to live there poor repetitive lives over and over again. Injures were very common for children because factories were not safe and no one was taking care of them. It states that “Fatigued workers cannot do their best at work or school. Mill work was hazardous and among its dangers were splintered wood floors that could cause trouble for bare feet. Lint in the air was another problem. Breathed in, this lint could cause a fatal disease known as brown lung”(Child Labor and the Textile Mills). Children were very young when they started working. Instead of attending school many of them were busy working and helping their families. Factories employing children were often very dangerous places leading to injuries and even deaths. Machines were so fast in factories body parts could easily get stuck and cut off legs and arms like butter. Besides machines the environment was disgusting, the air was horrible for one's lungs and caused many other diseases which society did not know about. Especially for children, these nasty environment setting was bad for their development, malnutrition, and length of children shortened. As children continue to work during their life they end up with chronic diseases from the dirty factory
Factory workers worked twelve to fifteen hours a day in hazardous condition. There were no protective rules for women and children and no insurances for job-related accidents or industrial illness. The workers were obliged to trade at company store
Often, children were forced to work due to money-related issues, and the conditions they worked in were terrible. Children worked in coal mining, such as at Woodward Coal Mining in Kingston, Pennsylvania (Doc. 7). Children were used to make the process of producing products cheaper, and they were paid low wages; the capitalists hired children just to keep the process of making products going and to make profit. One cause of child labor in harsh conditions was the unfateful fire at the Triangle Shirtwaist Company factory in New York City in 1911. Teenaged immigrant girls that were employed there worked under sweatshop-like conditions. The building they worked in was inadequately equipped in case of a fire, for the doors were locked, leaving no exit for the girls, and the single fire escape collapsed with the rescue effort; as a result, when the fire started, they were unable to escape. 145 workers were killed, but the company owners were not penalized harshly for this tragedy. This further demonstrates that capitalists were able to get away with the harsh conditions that they put their laborers, especially child laborers, through for their own benefit, which is making more money and using any means to get it, even if those means are low wages and harsh working
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.
Many factories at this time were spend a lot of money on new and better machines to make production go faster, but they were greatly neglecting the care, health and safety of their employees. The neglect of the human factor is why so many preventable defects in factories were able to exist such as workshops with inadequate lighting, no provision for ventilation, little or no cleaning done, and with no ordinary comforts like washing facilities, water supplies, or bathrooms. Most industries did not include things that they felt weren’t necessary for production of what ever goods were produced in their factories, this lack of caring for their workers was the reason that occupational diseases and work related injuries occurred so often. There are still very few regulations on factory construction other than the building codes such as the width of the walls and the strength of the foundation. In that time and even now a days workers spend the greater part of their day working. Back then though most people spent that time in either a workshop or a factory, the proper sanitation of the workplace is therefore very important to the worker. Not long after these things really started to come to light did most people begin to realize that the factories sanitation was so closely related to the factories
One problem in the 1900s was child labor, which was not an uncommon sight in the factories. The children who worked in these factories would be exposed to harsh chemicals and could possibly
In the beginning of the Industrial Revolution had a considerable effect on the working conditions of workers. A large labor surplus led to very low wages, and intense competition lowered the profit boundaries of industrialists. Industries such as the cotton trade were especially hard for workers to endure long hours of labor. The workplace was very hot, and the steam engines contributed further to the heat. Workers were exposed to the moving parts of the machines while they worked. Children often had to move in between these dangerous machines while they worked because they were small enough to fit between the tightly packed machinery. This led to the kids being put in a great deal of danger, and the death rates were very high. Added to the dangers of the work was the length. It was common for workers to work 12 hours or more a day. Exhaustion made the worker sluggish, which made the workplace even more dangerous.
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
Firstly, were the children’s diminutive wages and long hours of working. The kids worked long, harsh hours every day with little breaks and little pay. In “Child labor in Factories During the Industrial Revolution”, the text states, “Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day with a one-hour total break”. The factory owners would push them to the extreme and sometimes get away with paying them nothing at all for all the hours they have worked. They would say that giving them food and shelter was good enough.
The kids were overworked, some worked from five in the morning up to nine or ten at night. Other days they worked from five in the morning till midnight. Due to the long hours that they had to work, they had no time to sit down and eat a meal properly (Birley, 1849). The workers’ meals consisted of water-porridge with oatcakes and onions for breakfast and more oatcakes with butter and milk for dinner (Birley, 1849). This made them weak because they didn’t have the right amount of food and the nutrients necessary. Also, they didn’t get enough rest, which caused more injuries due to oversights. In some textile factories, possibly not all, the owners would beat their workers, occasionally so harshly that they would become unconscious or they would be severely injured. This was the case of John Birley, who was once a textile worker, the son of the owner tried to hit his head, but “To save my head I raised my arm, which he then hit with all his might. My elbow was broken. I bear the marks, and suffer pain from it to this day...” As seen, the poor conditions and mistreatments that come along with working in textile factories cause the English workers to become sick, hurt, and cared for in an incorrect
12-14 hours of work was common for children. Large, heavy, and dangerous equipment was very common to children to be near and use. Children working in theses factories would be treated terribly. The people the children worked for would beat them, verbally abuse them, and not care about their safety at all. Both girls and boys were subject to these harsh forms of pain infliction.
They would work sixty-hour weeks for ten cents an hour. The factories often worked in were cramped and dangerous. There have been many stories about tragic accidents occurring in these factories, such as the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire that included child labor. As a result of this incident “141 young men and women, at least 125 of them mere girls, were burned to death or killed by jumping to the pavement below”. The fact that most of the people involved in this incident should’ve given a bad reputation to the factory owner during this time.
These factories were unhealthy and dangerous places in which to work (P, Thompson). It is important to recognize how bad the work conditions were bad for the people and why it was one of the reasons of
Child labor in early industrial work has become cruel and violent. Almost children were working in factory, which were harsh punishment and unhealthy, dangerous working conditions and inflexible work time. The work such as farming, cottage industries and house working has no longer received. However after James Watt has invented steam engine, things got worsted. The factory owner became to hire children from poor families to work in these factories.
In England during the industrial revolution there was a lot of poverty and pollution, especially in the main towns where the mass unemployment and people often had to go into the work houses. The conditions that they were made to work in were overcrowded. There was no sanitation or anywhere to clean, and there was a large amount of pollution. These all led to diseases among the workers. Some of the jobs that the children were made to do were chimney sweeping or selling matches. Adults had to do bone crushing for fertilisers, working in kitchens and doing the laundry for rich people.