Child Labor
Life as a child in the industrial revolution M.lane
Children at work
Children worked on farms, in factories, in mills, and even in coal mines. There jobs varied depending on where they were working. In this picture you see the children working in the mills on machines.
Jobs
- Children cleaned machines in the mills and factories as well as fix them to
- Children that worked in the coal mines had to sort the rocks they mined and some had to mine the coal
- Another job that had to be done by kids in mills were weaver and lace makers
- Children that worked on farms had to work the fields all day long with little breaks
Hours and working conditions
- Most children worked 10 to 14 hours a day and got a maximum of 30 minutes for a break
- Children were fed breakfast dinner and supper, there meals included gruel and oatcakes, and to drink they had beer or tea and yes the beer was for the kids to
- Children worked as young as 3 years old
- Even though they had breaks the machines never stopped someone was always working
Accidents
- Children often got fingers arms and even their legs cut up and even chopped off
- Some accidents ended in death
- Accidents also caused disease to set in
- Diseases like "rickets" effected so many children in factories. Its a lack of calcium in the bones and can make your bones soft
Punishments
- Children faced many harsh punishments for many things
- Children would be beaten if they even showed up even 5 minutes late for work
- If you were caught sleeping on the job you would be dunked head first in a barrel of water and be sent back to work
- Children were also whipped for not doing there job right or taking breaks
Efforts to stop child labor
- Laws were made at first to make a minimum working age for children
- Then laws were made to limit the working hours of children
- Eventually laws would be passed demanding kids to get an education
- Working women and middle class consumers set up unions to try and stop child labor