These jobs accepted children from ages three and up, work hours consisted of 10 to 14 hours with barely any breaks in between. Children's worked in mines, glass factories, textiles, agriculture, home industries, and the few lucky children had easier jobs such as newsboys, messengers, and peddlers. Since the children were very small, fragile, and underdeveloped they were easily injured on the job using heavy machinery. Work conditions that were considered “okay” or healthy for adults, in reality were not for children. Children are at higher risks and injuries may have a long term effect. The heavy machinery often lead to injuries in little fingers, arms and legs and sometimes resulted in death. In such factories such as match factories children were employed to dip matches in a chemical called phosphorous, the phosphorous caused their teeth to rot and others died from inhaling the chemical substance. Children who worked in coal mines were employed with one of the most dangerous work conditions, the mines often consisted of two different types of employees; the trappers who were the younger children, and the coal bearers. Employees who refered to as the trappers dealt with extremely small working spaces it was one of the easiest jobs but one of the loneliest, the coal bearers were loaded with heavy sacks of coal. Children who were coal bearers often suffered back problem such as scoliosis and it also delayed growth development. Often times the mines would collapse trapping the children in, there were also few safety rules in these mines.
The treatment of children in factories was often cruel and unusual it was very neglecting. The youngest children were often sent to be an assistant to textile workers because they were too young to work the heavy machinery. The children were often times beat, both physically and verbally. One common punishment for a child’s lateness was the act of tying a heavy object around the child’s neck and having the child walk around the factory all day setting an example for other children. Could you imagine your boss beating you physically or better yet even touching you? These conditions were terrible, and yet we take advantage of our current working conditions. It is amazing how conditions have improved over the past hundred years.
