Children of the World

Child labor is something that has existed for nearly as long as human civilization has so placing the exact moment when it began is nearly impossible. However in today’s modern world child labor can be traced back to one event, the industrial revolution. Between 1876 to the 1900’s countries were industrialized here in the United States it came at the end of the civil war and had the promise to give everyone if not riches then comfortable lives. This pushed many foreign men to bring their families over to the United States to pursue the American dream, which they found out the hard way was a lie for most.

Once here in the States these men were working in harsh conditions for long hours with minimal pay which was not enough for them to survive. This is when they would send their children to work as well, in fact often times these children working in dangerous environments were merely three years old. These kids mostly worked in factories like their parents the shifts ran from ten to fourteen hours long with few if any breaks were given. These types of factories which only adults work in are still hard and dangerous labor now for a child it may have been a death sentence. The moving parts in the machinery which an adult may get a finger or two stuck could catch a child’s arm or leg easily; if not enough the fumes and chemicals used were often toxic all these would lead to serious injury, disease, and death. Even though these kids were not being forced to work they may as well have been because even with every able bodied man in the house working it was not enough to survive, every able bodied person whether it was men, women, elderly, or children was working and even then it was barely enough. Now it was not just families who lived in the big cities and near factories that had to subject their children to harsh labor it was also rural families who owned small farms or worked for large land owners. What these kids faced could be considered worse, in factories there was at least minor regulations but in fields there was none it was not considered dangerous work for children. Because of that these kids worked in extreme temperatures for long hours working hard manual labor that would often lead to dehydration. Children knew nothing but work from a small age the only thing they ever learned was to walk, talk, and do their job there was not enough money to send their kids to school and from this came the idea that work and supporting the family was more important than an education.

Now children were not forgotten several people/activists fought on the side of children who could not do so on their own these people were but are not limited to Grace Abbott, Jane Addams, and Lewis Hine. Grace Abbott was exposed to activist and political issues from an early age her mother participated in the Underground Railroad and women’s suffrage while her father was involved in state politics. In 1917 Abbott joined the department of labor where she was assigned to the Children’s Bureau there her and others attempted to pass laws and regulations monitoring child labor however the Supreme Court struck down the legislation in 1918. Jane Addams was inspired to help children and the poor when she visited Toynbee Hall in London however it was not until she returned to Chicago that the inspiration would turn into the will to fight. She founded the Hull House and at the centers first Christmas party she was shocked when little girls refused to eat candy because they worked long hours at a candy factory, this was the final push for her an others at Hull House to push for child labor laws. Finally Lewis Hine was a teacher however he left that job and joined the National Child Labor Committee where he would conduct investigations and photograph the conditions these children were working in.

            However Child Labor is now an international issue, one that supports many economies. It is important to understand how child labor rises and what can be used to get rid of it because an abrupt and poorly thought of strategy would devastate many families economic standings leading to starvation, homelessness, and ultimately death of these children and their families.

 

http://www.eiu.edu/eiutps/childhood.php

 

http://wber.oxfordjournals.org/content/17/2/147.short?rss=1&ssource=mfr