Child Labor Laws Essay

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Children have been used for many dangerous and inappropriate things throughout history, but child labor laws took that to the extreme. Child labor is the use of children in an industry or business, usually used illegally or inhumane. It started around the same time as the Industrial Revolution. In 1810, around 2,000,000 children in the United States would work between 50-70 hours a week and earn as little as one dollar. Children that worked in these factories could be as young as 4-5 years old. Child labor laws fully went into effect in the 1900's. The reasons that children were chosen more often than adults is because they were easier to manage, they were cheaper, and they were less likely to strike. The machines that the children would operate didn't require adult strength so their size meant that they could fit and move around in smaller places, unlike an adult. One of the reasons that child labor became so popular is because so many families were poor and needed the money. Sometimes parents had to turn their children over to mills or factory owners because they weren't able to s...

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