"Child labor is the employment of children under the age of physical maturity in jobs requiring long hours." In the late 1700's and the early 1800's child labor was introduced, during the Industrial Revolution. This period in history changed the views of many Americans, it was a transformation of people's exsistence and work efforts. Families moved from rural areas, to large cities in order to provide for the families. But it wasn't exactly just the parents working, this time it was children. Factory owners found a new source to run their machines, children, because they were cheap and lease likely to protest against.
One mans opinion on child labor:
“There is work that profits children, and there is work that brings profit only to employers. The object of employing children is not to train them, but to get high profits from their work.”
-Lewis Hine, 1908
Young innocent children struggled to provide for their families and themselves as well, taking away the advantage of an education. The only children who were educated were the children who came from wealthy families, who were not a part of the struggle. Children had always worked in the past but not in such conditions like these, they worked around the house and other small family related jobs. Nothing compared to the factory and mining jobs, children worked in harsh conditions, which were often labeled exploitative and extremely hazardous. They worked crucial long hours for low salaries in unhealthy conditions, often times children would end up with pneumonia, bronchitis and other critical conditions. Before child labor, children were viewed as innocent, youthful, joyful and playful. Could you imagine not having your youth and education?, its horrifying enough to even know this exsisted in history.
"Faces of lost youth"
The picture sets a mood of depression, young girls struggling to make it at such a young age. Their appearance resembles one of an older woman, mean while they are barely even teens.
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ReplyDeleteChild Labor in the US during the 1800s and early 1900s was horrible. I have several relatives who were working in shoe factories and mills at the ages of 10-17 in dangerous conditions. Many of them went to work in their bare feet. Their parents saved their only pair of shoes for church. These kids no childhood. Laws have been passed to prevent child labor in the US. Why is it in the 2010s there continues to be children working on farms, construction among other jobs. Has society simply looked the other way? It's distressing to read that kids are dying today while working. The child labor laws need to be enforced 100%! Any employer who tries to get around them and hire children needs to be prosecuted.
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