Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution Sheldon 11/14/09 English "There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work." -- Lewis Hine, 1908

Facts During the Industrial Revolution children as young as four years of age were forced into labor Many children of poor families were expected to go into work to help the families’ income - they often worked at dangerous jobs with very low pay In Lancashire cotton mills, children worked 12 to 16 hours a day; children here began work at age 6 or 7

Facts Children were beaten to stay awake- some even killed because they kept falling asleep At coal mines children began work at age 5 and most died before they reached 25 In 1900 there were 1.7 million children in America working under the age 15 - this grew to 2 million in 1910

Facts Many families lived in company owned houses in company owned villages- their lives were completely controlled by the company Most local child labor laws were ignored In the 1830’s many states passed laws against child labor; but in rural cities, where child labor was common, children working in factories and mills was not a concern Children working in factories suffered many problems such as: stunt in growth, a curved spine, malnourishment, tuberculosis, bronchitis, and physical and mental fatigue from their long work hours

Facts Children were paid a fraction of what adults were paid – sometimes they were paid nothing Children had very few brakes during their long days Children ate while they were working - this caused their food to become covered with dust and dirt Children who worked in factories rarely had time to have fun “Our regular time was from five in the morning till nine or ten at night; and on Saturday, till eleven, and often twelve o'clock at night, and then we were sent to clean the machinery on the Sunday. No time was allowed for breakfast and no sitting for dinner and no time for tea.” – John Birley “ We had to eat our food in the mill. It was frequently covered by flues from the wool; and in that case they had to be blown off with the mouth, and picked off with the fingers, before it could be eaten.” – Matthew Crabtree

Life at Home Most children whose families worked in the mills and factories lived in dirty and cramped homes The houses were built fast and cheaply There was no running water or toilets – a whole street shared an outdoor pump and a few toilets outside The houses were built back to back – they had no yards and the sewer ran down the middle of the street Families threw their trash into the middle of the street The conditions they lived under caused diseases to spread and develop quickly This is a picture of a house most families who worked in the mills and factories lived in; they normally had 2 – 4 rooms. Most families in this time period had 4 to 5 members living together, so it was very crammed inside.

Treatment of Children The treatment in factories was cruel, and protection of children was of no concern to the people who ran the factories Both boys and girls in factories were beaten physically and abused verbally A common punishment for being late was “being weighted” – the overseer would tie a heavy weight around the worker’s neck and make him/her walk up and down the factory so other children would learn to be on time -this sometimes lasted for an hour Being “weighted” caused severe back and neck problems

Why Child Labor Was in Demand Children were cheap source of labor and this allowed factories to stay competitive Children were obedient and they could be bossed around They were small and could go in places grown men couldn’t - they could fit under the machines and push coal carts through the small passages They had small fingers and could change out the spools in the factories quickly This is a picture of a young boy changing out the spools or bobbins in a factory. Many young children did this, including Grace in Counting on Grace. This is a spool or a bobbin.

The Dangers of the Job In coal mines, the roofs would cave in and explosions would occur – causing serious injuries In cotton mills, such as the one Grace worked in, children got scalped when their hair got caught in the machines, they were killed when they went to sleep and fell into the machines, their hands and feet were crushed, etc. This is a picture of a child carrying coal through a tunnel. They were known as “coal bearers”, and many children were used for this job because of there small size. This was a typical cotton mill. The machines were much larger compared to the children who worked there.

Movements Against Child Labor The National Child Labor Committee was founded in 1904 to work for child labor reforms Not until 1938 was it illegal for a child under 16 to be forced into labor in dangerous factories- this was under the Fair Labor Standards Act The United States Children’s Bureau was passed in 1912 under President William Howard Taft This was made to investigate and report all matters about child labor, orphans, child abuse, dangerous occupations, etc.. This picture shows two girls protesting against child slavery in 1901, during the labor parade in New York City.

Child Labor Today America and Europe passed laws preventing the force of child labor and protecting children against abuse; we are very lucky to live where child labor does not exist. There are parts of this world that still use child labor, such as: Asia, Africa, and Latin America. Children still are forced into jobs because of their extreme poverty Children are forced to work polishing shoes, laboring in factories, mining, recycling garbage, serving in homes as maids, picking cotton, cleaning, etc. There is an estimated 158 million children between 5 and 14 in child labor around the world

Today’s Child Labor Statistics 126 million children are forced into dangerous work 73 million children in child labor are under the age of 10 Every year 22,000 children die from work related to child labor 1.2 million children have been bought and sold "It was like a prison, we were locked inside. We worked from 5 a.m. until midnight making carpets and we slept among the machines." Kumar, child laborer