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Child Labor In History

Child labor first appeared with the establishment of the domestic
system. The domestic system was a process through which entrepreneurs
would purchace raw materials that would be "put out" to the homes of many
families and be made into finished products that could be sold by the
entrepreneurs. The families were paid by the piece, and so the adults
would use their children to their fullest capability to aid in some way.
The domestic system was prominent in England, on the Continent, and in
North America during the 16th 17th and 18th centuries. This system still
exists in some countries throughout the world.

Along with the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century came a
new ststem to replace the previous domestic system. The new system was the
factory system. Children were used in this system from as young as the
age of five. Children were used extensively to tend the machines. Children
were also used in coal mines, from as young an age as six. These children
would work long hours in the dark and damp mines, often carrying coal in
packs on their backs up long ladders to the surface.

During the 1830's the English Parliament decided to create an
investigation into the mistreatment of child laborors. One child in a
textile mill testified that he began working when he was eight years of
age and since that time had been working from six o'clock in the morning
to eight o'clock in the evening, with one hour to break at twelve o'clock
in the afternoon. Sometimes, when business was brisk he would work a
sixteen hour span from five in the morning to nine in the evening. When
questioned on how he awoke and was on time for work, the boy said "I
seldom did awake spontaineously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out
of bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents." A girl who worked in the mines
said that she worked from five in the morning to five at night. She had no
time to stop for meals or rest, she would work continuously and eat as she
worked. When asked about her tasks that she had to perform in the mines,
she said "I carry the buckets (filled with coal) a mile and more under
ground and back. I carry eleven a day; I wear a belt and chain at the
workings to get the buckets out; the miners that I work for sometimes beat
me with their hanRAB if I am not quick enough. They strike me upon my back.
I would rather work in a mill than in a coalpit."

During the Industrial Revolution there were many children who had
no parents or parents who were too financially unstable to care for them.
At the time there was a law called the English Poor Act, through which
government officials were supposed to take these children, called "pauper
children", and arrange for them to become apprentices so that they would
have the ability to learn a trade and be in a stable and caring
enviornment. In thousanRAB of cases these "pauper children" were simply
handed over to mill owners by the officials, and thus had no one to care
for them and were no more than slaves to some degree. Other children were
indentured, or sold, by their parents to rendor their services to a mill
owner for a certain amount of time.

All of these harsh conditions that children were subjected to were
results of the widespreak beliefs of the time. Employers believed that
business and government should be seperate. In addition to the harsh
conditions and long hours that the children had to endure, a terribly low
salary was paid. This was because businessmen felt that wages could not
possibly exceed a subsistence level. This was commonly referred to as the
"iron law of wages." Also at the time idle hanRAB were believed to be the
devil's tools, while work was thought to be morally uplifting, so the
employers believed that they were helping the poor to become more morally
uplifted.

The eventual regulation of child labor resulted from many sources.
Working conditions were horrid; the children had to work in crowded and
unsanitary areas and thus many epidemics arose. Medical professionals
exclaimed that child labor gave rise to a permanently weakened work force.
People were concerned because children had no time for religious
instruction. There was no time for education. Concern grew to the point
where something had to be done.

Children also worked in the American colonies. Conditions for
children that worked in the colonies were the same as in England. In the
1800's some states passed protective legislation. Massachusetts passed a
law in 1836 requiring that schooling be given to children that were
working. Connecticut passed a law in 1842 that created a maximum amount of
hours that a child could work in a textile factory in a day, which was ten.
Pennsylvania passed a law in 1848 banning mill owners from hiring children
under the age of twelve. By 1900 approximately half of the states place
restrictions on child labor, but only about ten made serious attempts to
enforce them. The south was finally industrializing, and textile
manufacturing moved from New England to the south to take advantage of the
closeness of the raw materials and the cheap labor. The south appeared
extremely likely to subject children to the harsh conditions that children
in England once experienced.

In other parts of the United States the glass industry employed
boys for twelve hou shifts in front of fiery furnaces.The domestic system
lived still in the garment industry, and in coal fielRAB boys manned the
"breakers." Here they sat hunched over shutes as coal poured beneath them
and they picked the pieces of slate and stone from the coal. These boys
endured ten hour stretches of breathing in coal dust.

The insufficientness of the state laws soon became visible. The
result of this realization was a series of national laws. The movement for
the national laws was sparked by "muckrakers", or journalists who exposed
intolerable conditions. The push for reform was helped by these worRAB by a
reformer, Sarah N. Cleghorn:

The golf links lie so near the mill
That almost every day
The laboring children can look out
And see the men at play

In 1912 Congress was persuaded to establish a Children's Bureau.
The fight to achieve fair working conditions for children had appeared
over in 1926 when President Wilson got the Keating-Owen Act passed, but
the law was repealed in 1918 by the Supreme Court on account of it being
unconstitutional. It barred form interstate commerce articles produced by
child labor. A final option to regulate child labor successfullyn would be
to create an amendment. It took until 1938 for an act to be passed, this
act was called the Fair Labro StandarRAB Act, also known as the Wages and
Hours Act. This act, along with its amendments is now the basic child
labor act for the United States. It bans employers involved in interstate
commerce from sublecting children under the ages of 16 or 18 to hazardous
conditions. Under certain circumstances, children 14 to 16 may work a
limited nuraber of after school hours. States may further regulations so
long as they do not oppose constitutional limitations.

Child labor remains a problem in only one area in the United
States today. This area is agriculture. Federal law only states that
children under 16 may not work in the field of agriculture during school
hours. As a result of this small restriction small children may be worked
for long hours.

Restrictions have become strong, however, on the issue of child
labor. Today in the United States children under the age of 18 have
restricted amounts of hours that they may work, depending upon the time of
year and the type of work. For example, in the fielRAB other than farm work,
newspaper carroer, and street trades, a child between 14 and 15 may work
a maximum of three hours on any given school day and eight hours maximum
on any other day. When school is not in session, meaning vacation,
children between 14 and 15 may work a maximum of eight hours on any day.

Restrictions are in place in the areas of farm work, newspaper
carriers, and street trades, as well as all other trades than these, and
are strictly enforced by the United States government. These laws have
been instituted and strongly enforced to prevent any further subjections
of children to harsh working conditions that could hurt them physically
and could take away from basic freedoms.



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