Child Labor During the Industrial Revolution

Background In the early 1800’s, when the growth of factories began to rapidly accelerate, business owners relied heavily on cheap labor in order to keep up with demand. In order to maximize profits, these owners would often pay women and children to work for much less than their male counterparts.

Background Cont… In addition to long hours and low pay, working conditions during the Industrial Revolution perpetuated poverty, led to many fatal accidents, and lowered life expectancy for people living in urban centers. Child Labor became a huge problem that wasn’t addressed until 1837 in the British House of Commons. Soon after, many laws were passed that forced business owners to improve the quality of working conditions for all

Child Labor Cartoons