During the 19th century, the increase of labor grew, men, women, and even children worked. But, what happened to America to accepted the usage of child labor? Simply, The Industrial Revolution. Moreover, with the economy moving from farming to manufacture based, families began to struggle financially, parent were not able to support their families, leading to have their children to help out. It was quite common for families to have their children to work, instead of pursuing an education. Furthermore, according to the Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, with the widespread of child labor in the United States, it resulted with, “children constituted 5.92 percent of the total workforce in 1870” (Hindman 32). The
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These factories were mainly staffed by women and children, because they were a source of cheap labor. Additionally, with children being small, they were more useful having the ability to fit in places where other adult could not. The women and children, who worked in the Lowell textile factories were referred to “Lowell Girls”, they had to work in factories with strict rules, long hours, continuous labor, and work in bad air and dangerous conditions. According to Child Labor: An American History, “When performed for ten, eleven, or twelve hours per day, work as a spinner was quite physically and mentally demanding” (Hindman 162). Furthermore, these employees would only earn cents a day, “the factories paid the girls six cents a pound” (Gourley 39). Not only was this work exhausting, but dangerous, Mary Paul describes the dangerous conditions, “Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck, which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down, it being very icy” (The Mill Girls of Lowell). Similarly, a girl named Maria Van Vorst, mentions how she worked in the Excelsior cotton mill, she describes the other girls’ skin as “sickly, sallow paleness”, the employees were always coughing and clearing their throat (Gourley 69). You would think why didn’t …show more content…
Just like the girls, working in the mining or glass manufacturing industry, it was as dangerous, or maybe more. Moreover, 18,000 people that work in the coal mines were children., primarily boys (Markham, Lindsey, and Creel 110). In the coal mining industry boys who worked there were referred to “breaker boys” their duties involved picking slates and other trash from the coal before it was shipped off. (Hindman 91). These breaker boys had to work in an environment that was filled with coal dust, resulting in the boys coughing up black dust, this lung disease was irreversible, leaving the boys to live with this disease their whole life. Furthermore, with the constant picking in the coal for slates and filths it caused their fingers to be repeatedly be cut. Lewis Hine, an investigator of one of the coal mining, reported of a fifteen-year-old Dennis McKee, fell into the coal and carried by a car below. It was later revealed that he just turned fifteen couple of days before his death (Hindman 91). Even with laws of no child to work under the mines of under the age of fifteen, the owners never required some type of identification to show their age. With the lack of law enforcement or attention of the owner it allowed the boys to easily work in the mines, even with the requirement of being fifteen. Similarly, according to John Spargo in
These factories were mainly staffed by women and children, because they were a source of cheap labor. Additionally, with children being small, they were more useful having the ability to fit in places where other adult could not. The women and children, who worked in the Lowell textile factories were referred to “Lowell Girls”, they had to work in factories with strict rules, long hours, continuous labor, and work in bad air and dangerous conditions. According to Child Labor: An American History, “When performed for ten, eleven, or twelve hours per day, work as a spinner was quite physically and mentally demanding” (Hindman 162). Furthermore, these employees would only earn cents a day, “the factories paid the girls six cents a pound” (Gourley 39). Not only was this work exhausting, but dangerous, Mary Paul describes the dangerous conditions, “Last Thursday one girl fell down and broke her neck, which caused instant death. She was going in or coming out of the mill and slipped down, it being very icy” (The Mill Girls of Lowell). Similarly, a girl named Maria Van Vorst, mentions how she worked in the Excelsior cotton mill, she describes the other girls’ skin as “sickly, sallow paleness”, the employees were always coughing and clearing their throat (Gourley 69). You would think why didn’t …show more content…
Just like the girls, working in the mining or glass manufacturing industry, it was as dangerous, or maybe more. Moreover, 18,000 people that work in the coal mines were children., primarily boys (Markham, Lindsey, and Creel 110). In the coal mining industry boys who worked there were referred to “breaker boys” their duties involved picking slates and other trash from the coal before it was shipped off. (Hindman 91). These breaker boys had to work in an environment that was filled with coal dust, resulting in the boys coughing up black dust, this lung disease was irreversible, leaving the boys to live with this disease their whole life. Furthermore, with the constant picking in the coal for slates and filths it caused their fingers to be repeatedly be cut. Lewis Hine, an investigator of one of the coal mining, reported of a fifteen-year-old Dennis McKee, fell into the coal and carried by a car below. It was later revealed that he just turned fifteen couple of days before his death (Hindman 91). Even with laws of no child to work under the mines of under the age of fifteen, the owners never required some type of identification to show their age. With the lack of law enforcement or attention of the owner it allowed the boys to easily work in the mines, even with the requirement of being fifteen. Similarly, according to John Spargo in