Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

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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 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... ... middle of paper ... ...hildren becoming deformed. Stand for hours on end as caused the still growing legs, and spine to grow crooked causing lifelong pain. Working in the mills also led to missing fingers and limbs that could be caught in the constantly moving machines. Works Cited Wagner, Jennifer. “The History of Child Labor During the American Industrial Revolution.” IHS Child Slave Labor. 2002. October. Web. 2. April. 2014. Tuttle, Carolyn. “Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution.” EH.net. 14. August. 2001. Web. 2. April. 2014. “Child Labour.” Britannica School. 2014. Web. 2. April. 2014. “Child Labor in U.S. History.” Child Labor Public Education Project. 2011. Web. 2. April. 2014 Trueman, Chris. “Children in the Industrial Revolution.” History Learning Site. 2013. Web. 2. April. 2014. “Black Lung.” United Mine workers of America. Web. 30. April. 2014

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