Child Labor: The Industrial Revolution

1920 Words8 Pages
Child Labor Historical Europe along with several North American nations have gone through many altering phases. The most dramatic however, has to be the Industrial Revolution. Although many see the first Industrial Revolution as a start of a new era with innovated technology and glorious advances in society, the truth, is not everything in this time period was admirable. Child labor during the 18th and 19th century skyrocketed as new work opportunities flourish. The harsh effects of the labor life took its toll on its most vulnerable victims by depriving them of their childhood and exposing them to horrific conditions. By definition, child labor is work that harms or keeps children away from school. Throughout history, children have always…show more content…
And since the need for survival was stronger than forced work, restrictions on child labor were very narrow. In the start of the industrial revolution, children as young as 4 years old were already employed in factories. In coal mines for example, boys at the age of 5 were working alongside other adults and most of them didn’t live past 25. In addition to living past the poverty level, another cause of child labor was the lack of ambition. Children didn’t have another meaningful alternative rather than working. If school was affordable, it often meant it wasn’t a good quality education and when good quality education was looked at, it was too expensive to seek…show more content…
Web.). Boys and girls who worked in these settings were victims of beatings and other harsh forms pain infliction. For example, punishments for being late included being “weighted”. This punishment included a heavy weigh tied to a child’s neck. Then the child was to walk up and down an aisle of the factory to serve as an example to other children of what could happen to them. For those who worked in mills in the start of the 1760s, treatment was just as bad. Charles Dickens, who was also exposed to the conditions of child labor, describes the mills as “dark satanic mills” ("Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution." EHnet. Web.). E.P. Thompson also added his opinion on these mills by calling them “places of sexual license, foul language, cruelty, violent accidents, and alien manners” (“Child Labor during the British Industrial Revolution." EHnet.
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