United
States Child Labor:
Of
the 19th
and
20th
Century
Liza
Brody
April
12, 2013
In
the late 1800s, the United States population amplified due to
immigration and a decreased death rate. During this time the
employment of young children to significantly increase. IN both the
19th
to 20th
centuries child labor became a topic of controversy for United States
citizens, especially parents of child laborers. “The Social Welfare
History Project states that historically child labor is defined as
work that deprives children of their childhood, their potential and
their dignity, and that is harmful to physical and mental
development”.i
Child labor involves at least one of the following characteristics:
it violates a nation’s minimum age laws; threatens children’s
physical, mental, or emotional well-being; involves intolerable abuse
(such as child slavery, trafficking, debt bondage, forced labor, or
illicit activities), prevents children from going to school; or uses
children to undermine labor standards.ii
Still, in the late 1800s, the strong demand from factories, as well
as mining and agricultural trade on children to work had developed
concerns of children not receiving a proper education including
crucial job skills, and training. America’s economy caused many
people to endure poverty and indigence. It became necessary for
children to work in order to contribute to the family’s income.
In
the 1900’s, children were employed in many various trades such as
agriculture, domestic work, industrial labor, and mining. “According
to William Willoughby the, great mass of children who work at home in
miserable tenement houses, in most cases not receiving wages, but
merely helping their fathers and mothers in their work”.iii
Other children sold cheap items like soaps, newspapers and matches.
As
industrialization moved workers from farms and home workshops into
urban areas. Factory owners preferred to hire children because they
were more manageable, cheaper laborers, and less likely to strike.iv
The Child Education Labor Project says that younger children were set
to work, and that factory owners occasionally would give work to
children as young as 4 years old.v
A child being a small size was very desirable in the workplace
especially in factories and in coal mines. Children could easily fit
in mines and tunnels that adults could not and between machines in
factories.
What
were the statistics of child laborers?
The
western half of the United States had less children employed,
therefore child labor was more prevalent in eastern states. An 1870
census of the entire nation had determined that approximately
1,120,000 children ages ten to fifteen were employed, that’s an
average of one child out of every sixteen employees. The child labor
demand was higher in certain trade industries. From 1870-1880 the
number children employed in agriculture increased sixty-six percent
while the number of adults employed only increased by forty-seven
percent. Another significant increase was in the manufacturing,
mechanical and mining trades where the number of employed children
increased ninety-eight percent while adult employment increased at a
much lower forty-two percent. Surprisingly, research states that the
largest rise in child employment didn’t begin until 1880.vi
In 1880, children mostly worked in cotton mills. One out of six of
those employed in these cotton mills were children under fifteen
years old, while in mining trades statistics showed a ratio of one to
twenty and in tobacco trades, one to twelve. In Chicago, The Factory
and Tenement-house Inspectors of that city in 1881 reported 4,600
boys and girls of fifteen and under in the factories and workshops.vii
Investigators in Pennsylvania discovered that 24,000 boys fifteen and
under were at work on coal mines throughout the state.
What
are the negative effects of child labor?
Children
were forced to work in disgusting environments under horrendous
conditions. Young girls who would work in factories, and mills and
were at continuous risk of their hair being caught by the machines
and scalping them, or falling and breaking or losing a body part.viii
Many local, state, and federal departments and agencies have
conducted investigations regarding these circumstances of the
children’s workplace. When questioned, factory owners denied
answers concerning any accusations. Employers had issues
understanding that a child’s working conditions are more sensitive
than those of an adult’s. Children are in the process of growing in
which they require more food and rest, while their tissues and organs
and bones are rapidly developing. Children also, have a lowered heat
tolerance, higher chemical absorption rates, and a higher risk of
hearing loss. These are quite significant risk factors for child
laborers. The unconditional worst forms of child labor (e.g.,
slavery, soldiering, prostitution, drug trafficking) may have
traumatic effects, including longer term health and socioeconomic
effects.ix
Studies show that about twenty-five percent of child laborers become
experience illness or injury while at work, and each year,
approximately three million of these children die. Most deaths and
injuries occur in the agricultural trade. A handful of issues that
contributed to these injuries, illnesses, and deaths was the exposure
to pesticides, working with heavy machinery and sharp tools, working
at a very early age, reduction of clean water, places to hand wash,
and bathrooms, and also agricultural working environment’s
standards were much less imposed. Investigations show that work
places which employed more children were more likely to be risky,
dangerous and unsafe conditions to work in. Most workplaces did not
provide new hires with proper training for the position which
additionally contributed to injuries that occurred on the job.
“The
Social Welfare History Project writes that what is to be prevented is
child labor in its most extreme form: Children being enslaved
separated from their families, exposure to serious hazards and
illnesses and/or left to fend for themselves”.x
Local and state agencies developed laws in attempts to prevent
abusive child labor (also referred to as extreme child labor). These
laws and codes of enforcement would vary from state to state, all
dependent upon them having any type of child labor conduct. At this
time the number of children working started increased. In the state
of Massachusetts in 1836, the first child labor law was passed
enforcing that children under fifteen years old must attend school
for at least three months a year in order to maintain employment in a
factory. Later in 1842, Massachusetts State passed another law
stating children can work a maximum of 10 hours per day. In 1876, the
working men’s capitalist party suggests the prevention of those
less than fourteen years of age from becoming employed. Then, in
1881 the newly formed American Federation of Labor supports minimum
age law, which was the first national convection of the AFL passes a
resolution calling on states to ban children under fourteen from all
gainful employment.xi
Lastly, in 1892, politicians finally agree to labor unions’
proposals to ban factory unemployment to those under fifteen.
During
the 20th
century, the number of employed children had drastically increased.
Finally, after many failed attempts to implement laws, and
amendments, the United States really began to set firm changes to
child labor. On April 25, 1904 men and women congregated at Carnegie
Hall in New York City angry, worried and ready to make serious
changes to the current child labor situation of the United States. On
that day, these people formed a committee called the National Child
Labor Committee and very shortly after formed an organization to gain
support of fellow Americans and begin research to develop accurate
knowledge of the United States’ child labor issue at hand. “The
National Labor Committee reports that in 1907, their committee was
charted by an Act of Congress, which immediately began to garner
support and move towards action and advocacy”.xii
A man named Lewis W. Hines left his place of employment as a teacher
to conduct investigations with the NCLC in reference to situations of
extreme child labor. From the years 1911 until 1916 Hines traveled
across the United States secretly taking pictures of children at work
in various environments. In 1916 President Wilson had put the
Keating-Owen Act in affect which prohibited child labor from being
sold in the country’s industry. Shortly after Hines’ efforts had
paid off the Supreme Court demolished the act declaring it as
unconstitutional in the year 1918. After the Great Depression of
1929, outlooks seemed to have changed and President Franklin D.
Roosevelt’s New Deal made politicians take a look at conditions of
extreme child labor. About a decade later, in 1938 the Fair Labor
Standards Act was put into effect. This act declared that the minimum
working age for the agricultural trade is sixteen to work during
school hours, and fourteen to work before, or after school hours. In
other, non-agricultural trades, the minimum age was sixteen during
school hours. Any occupation that was deemed dangerous you were
required to be at least eighteen years old.
Unfortunately
today, extreme child labor still occurs all over the world in
addition to the United States, also in Europe, Asia and Africa. The
rate of children employed has decreased the most in recent years.
Currently, in the United States there are three basic laws of child
labor still imposed. These laws are as follows; children younger than
twelve are not to be employed (unless they are working under special,
specific conditions), children between ages twelve and sixteen can
work a limited schedule in safe occupations during non-school hours
(or work approved hours), and children between ages sixteen and
eighteen may work unlimited hours in declared safe occupations. These
laws were place in effect to ensure that children are protected in
their workplace and are also attending school, receiving a formal
education.
Notes
ii
University of Iowa Labor Center, What
is Child Labor-The Child Labor Education Project,
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/what_is_child_labor.html
(July 2011)
iii
William F. Willoughby, Child
Labor:
Publications
of the American Economic Association (American
Economic Association: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2485611;Vol.
5, No.2, March 1890),
154
iv University
of Iowa Labor Center, Child
Labor in U.S. History-The Child Labor Education Project,
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html
(July 2011)
v
Child Labor Education Project, What
is Child Labor,
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/what_is_child_labor.html
(July 2011)
vi
William F.
Willoughby, Child
Labor:
Publications
of the American Economic Association (American
Economic Association: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2485611;Vol.
5, No.2, March 1890), 25-40
vii
William F. Willoughby, Child
Labor:
Publications
of the American Economic Association (American
Economic Association: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2485611;Vol.
5, No.2, March 1890), 25-40
viii
Kelley, Florence,
The
Working Boy: American Journal of Sociology,
http://www.jstor.org/stable/2761630
(The University of Chicago Press, November 1896), 358-368
ix
University of Iowa Labor Center, Health
Issues-The Child Labor Education Project,
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/health_issues.html
(July
2011)
xi
University of Iowa Labor Center, Child
Labor in U.S. History-The Child Labor Education Project,
http://www.continuetolearn.uiowa.edu/laborctr/child_labor/about/us_history.html
(July
2011)
xii
National Child Labor Committee, About
NCLC- About us,
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