Preview

Essay On Child Labour During The Industrial Revolution

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
733 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Essay On Child Labour During The Industrial Revolution
During the Industrial Revolution, the use of child labour was very common. Most families did not have enough money and so, their children had to work to bring money into the household. They had to work long hours in dangerous conditions getting little to no pay. Children were useful in the workforce because of their size allowing them to fit in small spaces in mines or factories where adults couldn’t fit. Working conditions were harsh, they would have to wake up very early and then work for as long as nineteen hours a day. Children were deprived of an education simply because their families just did not have enough money.

Their lives revolved around work, they hardly got to see much of their families. “Very often the children are woken at four in the morning. The children are carried on the backs of the older children asleep to the mill, and they see no more of their parents till they go home at night and are sent to bed.” Richard Oastler, interviewed in 1832.

Children worked as street cleaners, sold products on the streets, worked in the match factory, cotton mills, shipyards, construction sites, chimney sweeping and coal mining. Children were first being employed in cotton mills in the Industrial Revolution.
…show more content…
Child labour was mainly of benefit to factory owners and industrialists, they were able to get a large workforce at a low cost. The working conditions were dangerous where many injuries and even deaths occurred. The child labourers were seen as cheap, unskilled and easily replaced by their employers. There were various factors that served a role in ending child labour, adults were pushing for child labour to come to an end simply because many jobs were taken from them and given to children, along with laws being passed to change child labour. The factory owners just wanted to make a profit, their greed and capitalism put young children under dangerous

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Mill workers lived in small houses close to the factory work was dangerous jobs working for me. 'The Water Babies' by Charles Kingsley, tells the tale of a young sweep, Tom. Nonetheless were better than adults. As Gaskell shows, at least some major Victorian Britain, the cotton and wool industries employed thousands of workers, mostly in the north of England.…

    • 1014 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Child labor was a major issue in our nation’s history, from its founding through the early decades of the twentieth century. In 1900, United States census records counted at least 1.75 million children who were “gainful workers,” (that is, worked for pay), comprising six percent of the nation’s workforce. (Many others may not have been reported.) Most child laborers worked in agriculture, but many children did domestic work (such as preserving food, taking care of children, cooking, and cleaning) while others were employed in industrial situations (most commonly in the glass and textile industries, as well as mining) (History of Child Labor; Credoreference.com).…

    • 2263 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    During the Industrial Revolution, children were forced to work in the factories. Many kids had to stick their hands in a moving machine to get a loose bolt out of the gears, if the kids weren't fast enough they could get their hands cut off. Although many great inventions were created, the children were very mistreated. Young girls would die from the sulfur in the match factories. The boys who worked in the coal mines worked from 4am to 5pm. For many kids from the age of four and up they had to work. The work consisted of selling newspapers, working in match factories, coal mining, and any type of factories. Many kids wanted to learn but couldn't. Many kids did not know their ABC's, some didn’t even know how to spell their own name. The parents of the children fought for their kids to have an education. The protest turned into a fight. The military got into the protest many parents fought with the Armed Force’s, many parents were beat to…

    • 2126 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Child labor was a major problem during the industrial revolution. Kids as young as six years old worked during the industrial revolution they…

    • 476 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Dbq 13

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages

    During the Industrial Revolution, child labor became a serious problem. The modern discovery of children working during the revolution is probably what led us to scrutinize it so much. There are some that would argue that child labor is down right wrong but there are also some that would say child labor was beneficial and harmless. In document 1, an excerpt from William Coopers testimony before the Sadler Committee has William Cooper admitting that he began working in the mills at the age of ten. He claimed that they working 16 hour shifts and were only allowed one 40 minute break for lunch. When asked about his education, it was found that Cooper can read but is unable to write due to lack of schooling. 16 hour shifts with only a short break and being deprived of an education may seem unfair but Document 3 argues differently. Document 3 is an excerpt from the Philosophy of Manufacturers by Andrew Ure and it states that of all the factories Ure had visited, he had never witnessed signs of beatings or exhaustion among the children. He claimed that children enjoyed the “light play of their muscles” and believes that children would thrive better in modern factories today than in schooling. This is a fairly unpopular opinion on child labor. People are quick to agree that child labor was bad but you must look at both sides. Yes they were worked hard, but would we have Industrialized if they hadn’t been?…

    • 701 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nowadays, child labor laws are very strict, but during the industrial revolution, child labor laws did not even exist. As a result, there were few to no protections concerning the children of the time. To begin, children had to work for extremely long hours with very little sleep. Children who worked in factories, as fork grinders, had many serious accidents. For one, these children were only of age eight or older. This was very dangerous because they would not have the sense to get out of the way if a stone or object flew out at them. Another concern was the amount of dust in the…

    • 1057 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    segment one study guide

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Health hazards in the industrial revolution were great as people often lost fingers and hands. Some children also were killed by the machines. It was also hazardous because the people were more packed than a can of sardines which made space to work awful increasing the chances of injury. This soon became such an important issue that in 1833 a factory act was made stopping children from under 9 from working, children 9-13 could only work 8 ho8urs per day, ages 14-18 could not work more than 12 hours per day. Also all children were to go school for no less than 2 hours a day. In 1912 America made the children’s bureau and this made it the government’s responsibility to monitor children’s labor.…

    • 478 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the 18th hundredths to the 19ths hundreds, the industrial revolution was starting to be set into activity. Poverty was at a large level, to advance up the building of the industrial revolution, an approach was rooted, to tell children to work for them. The industrial revolution was profitable for most but came with downs , the rich got richer, the poor got poorer, and the middle-class grew. The industrial revolution took advantage of the poor. Before the industrial revolution began, children/families in poverty served in agricultural work, but when the industrial revolution sprang. It was believed that working in factories won’t be as much as unpleasant as working in the corn fields etc. Women and children decided to work in the factories…

    • 192 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Industrial Revolution is synonymous with Mechanization, or exchanging human labor for machine labor. During the first Industrial Revolution, child labor was a common theme in both Britain and the U.S. due to the great demand for labor. Looking for work families left their farms to travel to cities that were becoming industrialized. Upon arrival, they found desperate situations that forced all family members into the factory situations just to survive. Often treated to cruelly, children were cheap labor and typically forced to work for twelve to fourteen…

    • 721 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    During the Industrial Revolution children worked extreme hours in very bad working conditions for very low pay, even less than what adults were paid. The Idea was that children were useful as laborers because of their usually small size. It allowed them to move in small spaces in factories or mines where most adults wouldn’t fit. They were easier to control and manage compared to adults. These children were most likely working to help support their families…

    • 161 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    “Children as young as four years old worked long hours in factories under dangerous conditions. The practice of child labor continued throughout much of the Industrial Revolution until laws were eventually passed that made child labor illegal.”…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Industry was thriving throughout the 19th century; farms were transformed into cities and work places which created a large work force- that even children as young as six was employed to work in mines and factories. There were a couple major problems that came with the idea of child labor. First, they were given empty promises to convince them to work in the factories. The children were promised good food, shelter, given better education, and a better living standard, but they were simply tricks to lure the kids in to work for them. Secondly, the children were underpaid.…

    • 554 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    The Industrial revolution is perhaps the most significant period of change in modern history. It took place from the 18th and 19th century and was the start of a technological revolution that primarily affected rural societies in Europe and America. During the Industrial Revolution, there was a great demand for labor. Families in rural areas quickly migrated to industrialized cities to find work. Families had to submit all members for the survivability of each other even children. As a result of this, child labor became a major social issue considering that children weren’t paid, overworked and weren’t treated well for a long time before anyone tried to change anything.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    During the Industrial Revolution, many children regardless of age were used for their labor. “Although children had been servants and apprentices throughout most of human history, child labor reached new extremes during the Industrial Revolution” . This worsened as more groups began to migrate to America. Children faced unfair and unhealthy working conditions, often having to neglect their education to make money with their families and being paid less than adults. With the turn of the 20th century, educational and child labor activist groups began to form and strengthen.…

    • 1855 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Children were used for cleaning tight spaces and doing repetitive tasks such as, using simple machines. In one case, a factory had children employed as more than two thirds of its workers. Children were also favoured for jobs because they would not go on strike or join workers' unions. Children that had to work from young age did not get any education or time to be "children". Child Labour influenced adults as well, because children would take up all the jobs, meaning that adults were often unemployed, leading to less wages paid which would result in an even bigger split between lower and upper class. There fore child labour had a major influence on the British people during the Industrial Revolution, affecting wages and home life, and making…

    • 136 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays