Child Labor in Factories
Haley Byerly
Jobs Children did in the Factories
- Some children were sweepers, this job was what vboys had once they officially began working at the mill. Sweepers went from room to room around the mill with brooms in order to sweep up as much lint as possible.
- Spinners pieced any broken ends of a spinning machine.
- Doffers are boys around the age of seven who remove the spools filled by the spinning machine and replace them with empty ones.
- Some children were utilized as chimney sweeps to clean smokestacks clogged with coal and soot.
Hours,Food and Working Conditions
- Children worked 12-18 hours a day, and 50-70 a week.
- The working conditions were terrible, they were very unsanitary and a lot of accidents happened.
- Food was very unproptioned and that one meal had to last you the whole day!
- For only working 12-18 hours a day, and 6 days a week they only got one dollar.
Accidents that Often Happened
- Children often inhailed fumes and dust from under the machines.
- Kids also got caught in the spinning machines.
- Loud noises from the machines made the kids go deaf.
- Hands, arms, and fingers also got stripped down to the bones.
Punishments Children Faced
- Children often got whipped by the factory worker or the overlookers if they were late for their job.
- If the children were falling asleep they were taken to the cistern and held by there legs and dipped in it and went back to work.
- Children who were considered potential "run aways" were put in irons like a felon.
- Overlookers or factory owners were also cutting off the pride of a girl her hair.
Efforts to Improve/ Stop Child Labor (Groups opposed to/ Government Action (Laws)
- In 1832 New England Unions Condemed Child Labor The New England Association of farmers, Mechanics and other workingmen resolve that children should not be allowed to labor in the factories from morning till night without anytime from healthy recreation and mental culture, "for it" endangers their... well-being and health".
- 1938 federation regulation of child labor acheive in fairt labor standart act for the first time, minimum ages of employment and hours of work for children are regulated by federal law.
- Child labor declined.
- National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which shared goals of challenging child labor, including through anti-sweatshop.