Industrial Revolution 18 th and 19 th century

Industrial Revolution (18 th and 19 th century) Child Labor

�Time of great technological and social change. �Advent of faster means of production. �Surplus of new jobs for thousands of people living in poverty. �The agricultural system in England had become more advanced allowing farmers to produce more crops using less resources. �Farmers could now afford to buy more than just the ‘needs’, they could now get their ‘wants’ too.

�The farming advances and people moving towards the cities in search of work were early catalysis to the industrial revolution �Added wealth associated with the increased productivity of the agricultural sector increased the demand for manufactured goods. �The demand required record numbers of laborers to produce the necessary goods.

�Use of the steam engine in the mills allowed the mills to move into the cities and towns. �The increased work that could be done in the mills required more labor. �Open up work to more children. �Victorian England was a child-dominated society. �One out of every three was under the age of fifteen.

�Factory and Mine owners exploited the situation by offering families a means to make more money, by putting their children to work. �Child labor was more “cost effective”. �“Parish apprentice children” were some of the first children to be brought into the factory setting. �These were children who had been taken in by the government and placed in orphanages.

�Factory owners approached parish leaders with the idea of them taking in children and feeding, housing and providing for those children in exchange for the children’s work in their factories. �These children were not paid a wage for the work they did; the compensation in basic needs was considered enough.

�“Free labor children” �Families with many children could use any extra income possible. �Factory owners employed these children for extremely low wages, in some case a mere penny a day. �Children ages 5 to 18 worked fourteen hour days within the factory system, with the allowance of a one hour break.

�Deadliest working conditions were in the mines. �Mine accidents. �Working in the dark, no candles - expensive extravagance. �Entered mining pits by use of a cage lowered into crevices. �Many children found work above ground in homes as servants , and as chimney sweeps.

�Children exploited by the adults they worked for and neglected by their parents. �Some claim that the factory system was founded on the backs of its child laborers and that the “Industrial Revolution” could have never occurred without them.