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1800's Child Labor in America
This article provides facts and information about
child labor in America during the 1800's. This was the time when the
Industrial Revolution and the process of Industrialization
transformed America from a rural, agricultural to a city based
industrial society that resulted in a massive increase in child
labor during the 1800's.
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Causes of Child Labor in the 1800's
Many factors and causes contributed to the
rise of
Child Labor in America during the 1800's. Enormous
wealth was accumulated due to the Mines and the Mining Industry and
the establishment of the Factories and the Factory System.
The rise of Big Business and
Corporations saw the emergence of the ruthless Robber Barons who
motivated by greed and money, exploited workers and used child labor
to increase production and profits. The causes of child labor in
America during the 1800's include the following:
Child Labor Causes in the 1800's
Child Labor
Causes in America:
Inventions and new technology of the Industrial
Revolution
Child Labor
Causes in America: The Process of
Industrialization and the mechanization of industry that
led to the building of factories and the factory system
Child Labor
Causes in America: The
Rise of Big Business and Corporations
and the emergence of the ruthless
Robber Barons whose unethical, uncaring working
practices led to mass production and the
depersonalization of workers
Child Labor
Causes in America: The need
for cheap labor - the power driven machines could be
operated by children
Child Labor
Causes in America:
Urbanization, the movement of millions of people from
rural locations to the cities made possible by new
transportation systems
Child Labor
Causes in America: Poverty
- children were forced to work to help their families
Child Labor
Causes in America: Labor Shortages -
the massive influx of immigration in the 1800's fed the
demand for labor including the extensive employment of
immigrant children
Child Labor
Causes in America: Lack of government
regulation to enforce safety standards, working
conditions and working hours. A variety of laws differed
from state to state
Child Labor
Causes in America: The opposition to
Labor Unions prevented workers from protecting children
and making it more difficult to improve labor standards
and living standards in order to eliminate child labor.
Child Labor
Causes in America: Reform movements,
who worked to abolish child labor, did not emerge until
the 1890's with the start of the
Progressive Movement
and
Progressive Reforms.
Child Labor Causes in the 1800's
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Wages and Hours of Work
During the period of Industrialization child labor was the norm.
Child labor made up 20% of the workforce. Their parents had no
choice to send them to work as their meager wages helped to support
the families. The working children had no time to play or go to
school, and little time to rest. The prevalence of child labor in
America meant that the poor could not receive an education to enable
them to get better, skilled jobs. Children were deprived of a decent education and entered the
spiral of poverty from which there was no escape for the growing
number of unskilled and
uneducated workers.
● How long did children work and
what were they paid? The typical hours of work lasted from
sunrise to sunset, 11 or 12 hours per day, six days a week. They
had less than one hour break in their working day.
● How much did they earn?
They earned an average weekly
wage of one dollar.
● How old were the children? Some
were employed in child labor as young as five years old and were
paid low wages until they reached the age of sixteen
● According to the 1900 US Census,
a total of 1,752,187 (about 1 in every 6) children between the
ages of 5 and 10 were engaged in "gainful occupations" in the
United States of America.
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Types of Jobs
In the early history of child labor in America all but the
privileged few were expected to work. Child labor was more
manageable and cheaper than adult labor and children were
less likely to strike. Children were employed in the whole range of
American industries and their working conditions varied according to
the jobs they were expected to undertake. Children had no choice in
the type of jobs they did, it depended on what was available in the
location they were raised in.
What kind of jobs did Children have in America in the 1800s for
child labor? The following table describes the types of jobs and
work that employed Child labor in the 1800's.
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Types of Jobs and Work
Child Labor
jobs and work: Agricultural Industry
- Jobs included chasing away birds,
sewing and harvesting the crops.
Child Labor
jobs and work: Textile Industry
- Children worked spinning and weaving
cotton and woolen goods in the mills. Bobbin boys were
employed in the textile mills bringing bobbins to the
women at the looms and collecting the full bobbins.
Child Labor
jobs and work: Mining Industry
- The mining industry was an extremely
dangerous, unpleasant and filthy occupation. Young boys
called "Breaker Boys" processed raw coal by breaking it
into various sizes for different types of furnaces.
Other children were employed as coal bearers, carrying
coal in baskets on their shoulders. The smaller children
worked as "trappers" who opened trap doors in the mines
to move the coal.
Child Labor
jobs and work: Manufacturing Industry
- The factories were often damp, dark,
and dirty with few toilet facilities. The machines and
sharp tools used performing various jobs caused many
injuries. Glass factories were notorious and boys under
12 where expected to carry loads of hot glass
Child Labor
jobs and work: Laboring work
- Children were also employed to help
the laborers engaged in construction and transportation
projects including the railroads and canals. Water Boys
were employed to carry water to workers who dug canal
beds and railroads
Child Labor
jobs and work: Domestic Work
- Children performed domestic work in
large houses up to 16 hours per day, seven days per
week. The hall boys, scullery maids, kitchen girls or
drudges performed the worst jobs such as emptying
chamber pots. .
Child Labor
jobs and work: Sweatshops
- Children worked in the dirty tenement
sweatshops making clothes and other small items
Child Labor
jobs and work: Street Work
- Children performed a variety of jobs
on the streets and sewers. Ragpickers made a living by
rummaging through refuse in the streets collecting items
and scraps for salvage including cloth, paper, broken
glass and even dead cats and dogs could be skinned to
make clothes. Other street jobs included delivery boys
and shoeshine boys
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Types of Jobs and Work
1800's Child Labor in America for kids: Deaths and Injuries
The children worked
in dangerous conditions. According to statistics in
1900 there were 25,000 - 35,000 deaths and 1 million
injuries occurred on industrial jobs, many of these
victims would have been children.
● Children had
higher rates of injury and death at work than
adults and over 50% of child labor was involved
in hazardous and dangerous work.
● Many worked in
confined spaces and underground in unhealthy
environments.
● They were exposed
to extreme heat and cold.
● There was no
government regulations for health and safety and
no state safety regulations existed.
● There were some
safety instructions on factory machines but as
most workers were completely illiterate these
were as good as useless.
● The causes of the
most deaths were fires, explosions, cave-ins and
train wrecks.
● The main causes
of injuries were the factory machines and sharp
tools. Children lost fingers, hands were mangled
and some were scalped when hair that got caught
in the machinery.
● Some children
were killed when they fell asleep and fell into
factory machines.
● Carrying heavy
loads caused lifelong deformities and handicaps.
● Children not only
suffered from physical stress they were also
subjected to mental stress due to appalling
working conditions.
● The health of
children suffered working in back-breaking jobs
in dark, gloomy environments with poor
ventilation. They suffered from lung, ear and
eye infections and unsanitary conditions led to
terrible diseases and illnesses such as cholera,
bronchitis and tuberculosis
Child Labor Laws in America for kids: Progressive Reforms
The
1916 Keating-Owen Child Labor Act was a federal
law passed limiting how many hours children were
allowed to work, prohibiting the employment of
children under the age of fourteen in factories
producing goods for interstate commerce.
1800's Child Labor in America for kids:
United States History for Kids - Video of US Presidents
The article on
Child Labor in America provides detailed facts and a summary of the
most important inventions and innovations during the history of the
United States
- a crash course in
American History. The following video will
give you additional important facts, history and dates about the
personal and political lives of all the US Presidents.
1800's Child Labor in America
● Interesting Facts about Child Labor in America for kids
● Summary of Child Labor in
America
● Child Labor in America, a major
event in US history
● Causes of Child Labor in
America
● Fast, fun facts about Child Labor in America
● Mines and the Mining Industry, Factories and the Factory
System
●
Child Labor in America
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