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Child labor first appeared with the establishment of the domestic system. The domestic system was a process through which entrepreneurs would purchase raw materials that would be "put out" to the homes of many families and be made into finished products that could be sold by the entrepreneurs. The families were paid by the piece, and so the adults would use their children to their fullest capability to aid in some way. The domestic system was prominent in England, on the Continent, and in North America during the 16 th 17 th and 18 th centuries. This system still exists in some countries throughout the Along with the Industrial Revolution of the 18 th century came a new system to replace the previous domestic system.
The new system was the factory system. Children were used in this system from as young as the age of five. Children were used extensively to tend the machines. Children were also used in coal mines, from as young an age as six. These children would work long hours in the dark and damp mines, often carrying coal in packs on their backs up long ladders to the surface. During the 1830 's the English Parliament decided to create an investigation into the mistreatment of child laborers.
One child in a textile mill testified that he began working when he was eight years of age and since that time had been working from six o'clock in the morning to eight o'clock in the evening, with one hour to break at twelve o'clock in the afternoon. Sometimes, when business was brisk he would work a sixteen hour span from five in the morning to nine in the evening. When questioned on how he awoke and was on time for work, the boy said "I seldom did awake spontaneously; I was most generally awoke or lifted out of bed, sometimes asleep, by my parents. " A girl who worked in the mines said that she worked from five in the morning to five at night. She had no time to stop for meals or rest, she would work continuously and eat as she worked.
When asked about her tasks that she had to perform in the mines, she said "I carry the buckets (filled with coal) a mile and more under ground and back. I carry eleven a day; I wear a belt and chain at the workings to get the buckets out; the miners that I work for sometimes beat me with their hands if I am not quick enough. They strike me upon my back. I would rather work in a mill than in a During the Industrial Revolution there were many children who had no parents or parents who were too financially unstable to care for them.
At the time there was a law called the English Poor Act, through which government officials were supposed to take these children, called "pauper children", and arrange for them to become apprentices so that they would have the ability to learn a trade and be in a stable and caring environment. In thousands of cases these "pauper children" were simply handed over to mill owners by the officials, and thus had no one to care for them and were no more than slaves to some degree. Other children were indentured, or sold, by their parents to reader their services to a mill owner for a All of these harsh conditions that children were subjected to were results of the widespread beliefs of the time. Employers believed that business and government should be seperate.
In addition to the harsh conditions and long hours that the children had to endure, a terribly low salary was paid. This was because businessmen felt that wages could not possibly exceed a subsistence level. This was commonly referred to as the "iron law of wages. " Also at the time idle hands were believed to be the devil's tools, while work was thought to be morally uplifting, so the employers believed that they were helping the poor to The eventual regulation of child labor resulted from many sources. Working conditions were horrid; the children had to work in crowded and unsanitary areas and thus many epidemics arose.
Medical professionals exclaimed that child labor gave rise to a permanently weakened work force. People were concerned because children had no time for religious instruction. There was no time for education. Concern grew to the point where something had to be done. Children also worked in the American colonies. Conditions for children that worked in the colonies were the same as in England.
In the 1800 's some states passed protective legislation. Massachusetts passed a law in 1836 requiring that schooling be given to children that were working. Connecticut passed a law in 1842 that created a maximum amount of hours that a child could work in a textile factory in a day, which was ten. Pennsylvania passed a law in 1848 banning mill owners from hiring children under the age of twelve. By 1900 approximately half of the states placed restrictions on child labor, but only about ten made serious attempts to enforce them. The south was finally industrializing, and textile manufacturing moved from New England to the south to take advantage of the closeness of the raw materials and the cheap labor.
The south appeared extremely likely to subject children to the harsh conditions that children in England once experienced. In other parts of the United States the glass industry employed boys for twelve hou shifts in front of fiery furnaces. The domestic system lived still in the garment industry, and in coal fields boys manned the "breakers. " Here they sat hunched over shute's as coal poured beneath them and they picked the pieces of slate and stone from the coal. These boys endured ten hour stretches of breathing in coal dust. The insufficient ness of the state laws soon became visible. The result of this realization was a series of national laws.
The movement for the national laws was sparked by "muckrakers", or journalists who exposed intolerable conditions. The push for reform was helped by these words by a reformer, Sarah N. C leghorn: The golf links lie so near the mill The laboring children can look out In 1912 Congress was persuaded to establish a Children's Bureau. The fight to achieve fair working conditions for children had appeared over in 1926 when President Wilson got the Keating-Owen Act passed, but the law was repealed in 1918 by the Supreme Court on account of it being unconstitutional. It barred form interstate commerce articles produced by child labor.
A final option to regulate child labor successfully would be to create an amendment. It took until 1938 for an act to be passed, this act was called the Fair Label Standards Act, also known as the Wages and Hours Act. This act, along with its amendments is now the basic child labor act for the United States. It bans employers involved in interstate commerce from subjecting children under the ages of 16 or 18 to hazardous conditions. Under certain circumstances, children 14 to 16 may work a limited number of after school hours. States may further regulations so long as they do not oppose constitutional limitations.
Child labor remains a problem in only one area in the United States today. This area is agriculture. Federal law only states that children under 16 may not work in the field of agriculture during school hours. As a result of this small restriction small children may be worked for long hours. Restrictions have become strong, however, on the issue of child labor.
Today in the United States children under the age of 18 have restricted amounts of hours that they may work, depending upon the time of year and the type of work. For example, in the fields other than farm work, newspaper carrier, and street trades, a child between 14 and 15 may work a maximum of three hours on any given school day and eight hours maximum on any other day. When school is not in session, meaning vacation, children between 14 and 15 may work a maximum of eight hours on any day. Restrictions are in place in the areas of farm work, newspaper carriers, and street trades, as well as all other trades than these, and are strictly enforced by the United States government. These laws have been instituted and strongly enforced to prevent any further subjection's of children to harsh working conditions that could hurt them physically and could take away from basic freedoms.
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