child labor and the american industrial revolution by dorothea stewart

Child Labor

and the American

Industrial Revolution

By Dorothea Stewart

22

City Population & Child LaborCity Population & Child Labor

0.77

1.75

0.000.200.400.600.801.001.201.401.601.802.00

1815 1860 1870 1900 1916

Mill

ions

0

10

20

30

40

50

60

perc

ent

Children employed in Industry City Population

At that time: An increase in city population is considered an increase of industrial employment. Farming occupation decreased.

33

What spurred the American What spurred the American Industrial RevolutionIndustrial Revolution

Mechanized cotton textile Mechanized cotton textile

factoriesfactories

Mechanical, labor-saving devicesMechanical, labor-saving devices

Discovery of coal depositsDiscovery of coal deposits

Steam engine and electricitySteam engine and electricity

Production of American ironProduction of American iron

National transportation systemNational transportation system

44

Agents of the American Industrial Agents of the American Industrial RevolutionRevolution

All these factors are interdependent:

Without the mechanized

production a greater scale of produced items would not have been possible. The use the steam

engine made it possible to improve and enlarge machinery for higher production.

Electricity made factories independent from rivers and streams.

The expanded national transportation system ensured to satisfy the demand for lower-priced goods throughout the country.

55

Thus: Thus:

Large scale production is unavoidable.

66

IndustrializationIndustrialization

cheapcheaplaborlabor

wanted

needed

used

77

Transformation of a SocietyTransformation of a SocietyFrom farming and the boat to the From farming and the boat to the

factories:factories:

88

MigrationMigrationFarming families moving to Farming families moving to

industrial centersindustrial centersFarming that depended on one

crop was not viable

Often times, the father remained on the farm while

women and children, as less efficient farm workers, went into industrial employment.

Steady employment was more viable and lucrative than toiling on a worn out farm

99

ImmigrationImmigration

From the boat to industrial employment:

5.6

10.3

13.5

0.002.004.006.008.00

10.0012.00

14.00

Millions

1870 1900 1910

Foreign born residents

1010

LABORLABOR

CCHHIILLDD

1111

Children in the household Children in the household economyeconomy

“… the household is the locus (location) of both production and

consumption.”

In the pre-industrial society children worked side by side with their parents for the benefits of the family household. The work was controlled and determined by the parents. Family life, education and labor happened simultaneously.

1212

Children in the yeoman* economyChildren in the yeoman* economy

“… most yeoman households practiced one or more industrial

occupations in which the children invariably participated.”

Family production, apart from farming, was not only for their own consumption but also for the market or for bartering.

Children worked long hours alongside their parents in the family and household environment.

*A man holding and cultivating a small piece of land

1313

Children in the proto*-Children in the proto*-industrialization stageindustrialization stage

“… it was in this stage that the seeds for child labor were sown.”

The family was the producing entity. A merchant provided the raw material and tended to the sales on the market. The family entered an employment relationship where the children were part of. Labor though, still happened within the family household and environment.

*First stage of something,. Here : first stage of industrialization

1414

The ChangeThe Change

Think of the deadly drudgery.

Children rise at half past four, commanded by the ogre scream of

the factory whistle;

they hurry, ill fed, unkempt, unwashed, half dressed to the walls

which shut out the day

and which confine them amid the dim and dust and merciless maze of

the machines.Julia E. Johnsen

1515

Why Children?Why Children?

Employing children was thought to be a noble cause.

Work supports the development of appropriate values and ethics:“Can it be doubted that, if the crowd of little

mendicant (homeless) boys and girls who infest this edifice (Building) and assail us every day at its very thresholds, (...) begging for a cent, were employed in some manufacturing establishment, it would be better for them and the city? Those who object to the manufacturing system should recollect that constant occupation is the best security for innocence and virtue, and that idleness is the parent of vice and crime.” Senator Henry Clay, 1820

1616

And 100 years later:And 100 years later:

“The real problem in America is not child labor, but child idleness. You cannot convince me that it hurts a child either physically or morally to make him work. Where one child, in my experience, has been injured from work, ten thousand have gone to the devil because of lack of occupation.”

Senator Charles S. Thomas, 1925

1717

HoweverHowever

“If laws raised the minimum working age,

companies would have to replace children with more expensive adults and that

would reduce profitsOwner of Southern textile mill, 1910

Remember:

1818

IndustrializationIndustrialization

cheapcheaplaborlabor

wanted

needed

used

1919

Wage DifferencesWage Differences

$7.00

$1.50

$0.00

$1.00

$2.00

$3.00

$4.00

$5.00

$6.00

$7.00

Week

Adult Male Child

What was the annual profit for the company employing the child instead of the father?

$3.54

$2.34

$1.32

$0.00

$0.50

$1.00

$1.50

$2.00

$2.50

$3.00

$3.50

$4.00

Week

Male Female Child

2020

Wage DisparitiesWage Disparities

$364.00

$78.00

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

$200.00

$250.00

$300.00

$350.00

$400.00

Wage

Father Child

$177.84

121.68

$68.64

$0.00

$50.00

$100.00

$150.00

$200.00

Wage

Male Female Child

Gain: $286.00 per child employed instead of father

Gain: $109.20, per child employed instead of father

2121

Wage DisparitiesWage Disparities

To put it in Lewis Hine’s words:

“The object of employing children is not to train them,

but to get high profits from their

work.”

2222

Child Labor in the Family EconomyChild Labor in the Family Economy

Traditionally, the whole family worked and created a family income.

There is some evidence that fathers lived off the income of the children.

However, in most cases the child’s or children’s income was a necessity for

the family’s survival.

The availability of cheaper child labor decreased adults’ wages so that every

member of the household needed to contribute.

2323

What about School?What about School?

SchoolSchools were not available for most

working class children

SchoolParents did not recognize the future value of education over the necessary income of the present.

SchoolNor did employers give up their present profit for a better educated, i.e. more productive workforce.

SchoolSchool days and the school year were much shorter than workdays and the work year. Children would have been unattended.

School

NO

2424

The African American ExperienceThe African American Experience

The slave holder society considered

all slaves, adults and children, as

property that could be disposed of,

used, and sold as seemed fit at any

time.

2525


Slave children guaranteed the continuation of

labor supply. They learned by

working alongside adult slaves.

2626


A low life expectancy due to overworking

children was not in the interest of the slave holder.

Nevertheless, child labor in slavery was not the issue to condemn but slavery itself.

2727

After AbolitionAfter Abolition

“First thing I knowed we’d stayed on the

place free longer than we’d stayed as slaves”

Virginian freed woman

African Americans were not considered capable to work in factories and were mostly excluded from the industrial section. They remained in agriculture, domestic and personal service.

2828

Children without hope

CHILDREN

in

MillsMinesGlass FactoriesThe Streets

2929

The golf links lie so near the mill

That nearly every day

The laboring children can look

outAnd see the men at play.

Sarah N. Cleghorn

3030

Why do I pick the threads all day, Mother, Mother?

While sunshine children laugh and play, and must I work forever?

Yes, Shadow Child, the livelong day, Daughter little Daughter, your hands must pick the threads away

And feel the sunshine never.

Harriet Munroe

3131

They came home too tired to eat the food their money bought. And often they fell asleep with their clothes still on. When the five o’clock whistle blew, they went back to the mill, without having seen the sun, the light of day or anything but the mill for twenty-four hours.

…,the children fed the endless ravening hunger of the machines.

3232

They (the boys) work here, … picking away at the black coals, bending over till their little spines are curved, never saying a work all the livelong day….

Not three boys in this roomful could read or write….

They know nothing but the difference between slate and coal.Excerpt from an 1877 issue

of “The Labor Standard”.

3333

How many boys worked in the

coal mines?

9,000? 12,000 or 7,600?

More or less?

Does is really matter?

It was a large number. But the

number is not the issue.

Boys working in coal mines is the

issue.

3434

Owing to the intense darkness in the mine , I didn’t notice the chalk drawings on the door until I had developed the photographic plate. These drawings tell the tale of the boy’s loneliness underground.

Lewis Hine

A lonely job, by himself nine or ten hours a day in absolute darkness save for his little oil lamp. …

3535

At least a dozen of the carrying-in boys were probably under 16.

These little boys did not look healthy, many of them, not fit to do their all-night work in the intense heat and hurry.

They are on the walk all the time for ten hours….

Timed one boy and paced the distance; at his rate he walked a little over 20 miles per night.

Charles L. Chute

3636

Learning the Trade?

For every 100 boys under the age of sixteen that we permit to do this night work in the glass factories, not more than four stand any chance of becoming skilled tradesmen,…

At present there is no prospect whatever for the boy learning the glass trade.

Herschel Jones

3737

I would rather send my boys

straight to hell than send them by

way of the glass house.

Longtime glass factory worker

3838

Boys bought the newspapers wholesale and made their earnings through the markup – one to three cents per paper.

Most of them stayed out in the streets until they were sold out.

3939

From Rags to Riches

Street trading kids were often considered as little entrepreneurs – Horatio Alger style.

Some of them made it into middle class or even a ‘captain of industry’.

However, for one who made it there were hundreds that did not.

4040

Canneries

Department stores

Night messengers

Shrimp pickers

Oyster shuckers

AGRICULTURE

Meatpacking

Industrial Homework

And where else?

4141

Continues…Continues…

LABORLABOR

CCHHIILLD D

4242

“In general, “child labor” refers to children under 18 years old who

work in both the formal and informal sectors, in conditions that are harmful or potentially

harmful to the child. Underpayment of children for their work and other forms of

exploitation, are also included.”

New Definition of Child LaborNew Definition of Child Labor

4343

From the Factories to the FieldsFrom the Factories to the Fields

Hundreds of thousands

of children work

as hired labor in

America’s fields

and orchards. These

children are among

the least protected of

all working children

4444

“The sun is blazing on my skin its hot so hot I feel as if I am going to faint but I know I can’t stop working I feel like crying but that wont help me in anything.

I keep on picking cucumbers trying not to work hard because there is a 99% percent chance that once we are done with our fifty rows there will be another twenty to fifty more rows waiting for us. We will keep on working until we cannot see the cucumbers any more.

Sometimes I want to scream at the top of my lungs because the next day will be just the same.

I hate the fact that no one thinks we can be anything but migrant workers but I know different. That is the only thing that keeps me striving daily.”

–Veronica Rodriguez, age 15, Michigan

4545

Global Child LaborGlobal Child Labor

2008 Total Child Labor - 215,000,000

91,024,00061,826,000

62,419,000

Age 5-11 Age 12-14 Age 15-15

4646

Global Child Labor by RegionGlobal Child Labor by Region

14,125,000

65,064,000

22,473,000

113,607,000

Asia and PacificLatin America and CaribbeanSub-Saharan AfricaOther Regions

4747

Far and CloseFar and CloseSouth AmericaSouth America

Bananas

Flowers, Gold,

EmeraldsOranges, Charcoal

Tea

Fireworks

4848

Far and CloseFar and CloseCentral America & CaribbeanCentral America & Caribbean

Fireworks

Charcoal, Fireworks

Fireworks

4949

Far ad CloseFar ad CloseAfricaAfrica

Cotton

Cotton, Carpets

Cocoa, Diamonds

Charcoal

5050

Far and CloseFar and CloseAsiaAsia

Coal

Carpets, Soccer Balls,

Surgical Instruments

Carpets, Footwear, Fireworks,

Glass, Bricks

Tea, Clothing

FootwearFireworks

5151

CloseClose

Fruits and Vegetables

5252

All children should be in

school

For all references click hereFor bibliography click here

5353

ReferencesReferences

Title Slide

Background photo:

http://abscynthe.deviantart.com/art/The-Poetry-of-Cogs-173578820

Photos from left right (Photographs by Lewis Hine)

http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/nclc.html

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lewis-hine?before=1334953813

http://www.savevid.com/video/lewis-hine-a-progressive-reformer.html

http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/it-was-inevitable-new-tea-partying-r

http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lewis-hine?before=1334953813

Slide 1

Timeline for the Industrial Revolution generated from information from:

William Dudley, (ed.), The Industrial Revolution. Opposing Viewpoints. (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998), 18-20. Numbers for 1870 and 1900 estimated for continuation of data series.

Numbers for child labor from:

Hugh D. Hindman, Child Labor: An American History. (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002), 31. Child Labor has certainly started earlier than 1870. However, the US Census did not start counting industrially employed children until 1870. Ibid., 32.

Children started working in textile factories as early as 1789 as George Washington could observe himself. Rhoda Cahn and William Cahn, No Time for School. No Time for Play. The Story of Child Labor in America. (New York: Julian Messner, 1972), 21

City population as indicator for industrialization: Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 20

5454


Slide 3,4

Ruth Holland, Mill Child. The Story of Child Labor in America. (New York: Crowell-Collier Press,1970), 12-13

Slide 7

Farming photo from:

http://thefederalist-gary.blogspot.com/2011/09/shock-americans-are-lazy-bastards.html.

Immigration Photo

http://www.ellisisland.org/photoalbums/ellis_island_then.asp

Factory photo from:

http://senioreagles.wikispaces.com/Industrial+Revolution+Invention+Project.

Slide 8

Holland, Mill Child, 2-3

Russell, Freedman, Kids at Work. Lewis Hine and the Crusade against child labor. (New York: Clarion Books, 1994), 32

Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 224

Slide 9

Most immigrants went straight into industrial employment after their successful immigration. Hindman, Child Labor, 23

For statistics about immigration:

Nancy S. Landale and Avery M. Guest, “Generation, Ethnicity, and Occupational Opportunity in Late 19th Century America,” American Sociological ReviewVol. 55, No. 2 (1990), 280

5555


Slide 11

Hindman, Child Labor, 21

See ibid and Holland, Mill Child, 4

Slide 12


Ibid.

Holland, Mill Child, 4-7,

Sarah Horrel and Jane Humphries, “ ‘The exploitation of little Children’: Child Labor and the Family Economy in the Industrial Revolution.” Explorations in Economic History32 (1995) 486-487 (for bibliography 485-516)

Slide 13


Ibid.

Slide 14

Printed in: Juliet H. Mofford, (ed.), Child Labor in America. (Carlisle: Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., 1997), 5

Picture from:

http://www.businesspundit.com/the-15-most-notorious-sweatshops-of-all-time/

Slide 15

Quote from Senator Clay in:


5656


Slide 16

Quote from Senator Thomas in:

Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 44

Slide 17

Quote from the textile mill owner in:

Ibid.

Slide 19

$ 7.00 for the father and $ 1.50 for the child from:

Holland, Mill Child, 19

Male, female, child wages from


Another example states a weekly rate of $ 6.55 for the girl and $ 7.70 for the father. Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 49

Slide 20

No footnotes

Slide 21

Freedman, Kids at Work, 21

5757


Slide 22


Ibid., 39

Holland, Mill Child, 47


Kaushik Basu and Pham Hoang Van, “The Economics of Child Labor,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 88, No. 3 (Jun., 1998), 415


Slide 23


Slide 24-26

Ibid., 19-20 and

Slide 27

Quote from:

Patricia C. and Frederick L. Makissack, Days of Jubilee. The End of Slavery in the United States. (New York: Scholastic Press, 2003) 97

Joe William Trotter, Jr., “African Americans and the Industrial Revolution.” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 15, No. 1, The Industrial Revolution (Fall, 2000), 20-21

Slide 29

Poem printed in: Mofford, (ed.) Child Labor in America, 7

5858

ReferencesReferencesSlide 30

The full song printed in ibid., 18

Slide 31

Quotes from:

Holland, Mill Child, 16, 17

Photo from:

http://motleynews.net/2012/02/04/historical-photos-of-child-labor-in-nc-textile-mills/

Slide 32

This quote is abbreviated. The excerpt is printed in:

Mofford, (ed.) Child Labor in America, 23-24

Photograph by Lewis Hine from

http://www.theoldphotoalbum.com/2009/05/lewis-hine-child-labor-i/

Slide 33

See Hindman, Child Labor, 94


http://www.shorpy.com/node/36

Slide 35

Chute was an investigator for the National Child Labor Committee.

Quote: Hindman, Child Labor, 131


http://argenteditions.com/carryingin-boy-alexandria-glass-factory-p-14.html

Slide 34

Quote: Freedman, Kids at Work, 51

Photograph by Lewis Hine from http://www.lewishinephotographs.com/content/vance-trapper-boy-15-years-old-has-trapped-several-years-west-va-coal-mine-75-day-10-hours-w

5959


Herschel Jones was also an investigator for the National Child Labor Committee.

Quote: Hindman, Child Labor, 137

Slide 37



http://argenteditions.com/typical-glass-works-boy-indiana-night-shift-p-13.html

Slide 38



http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2009/09/child_labour_america.html

Slide 39

Hindman, Child Labor, 215, 233


http://www.theoldphotoalbum.com/2009/05/lewis-hine-child-labor-v/

Slide 40

Hindman, Child Labor, 187-212, 214-228, 248-290

Freedman, Kids at Work, 40-45

Agriculture is emphasized because even today about half million children work in agriculture in the U.S. See footnote to slides 52 and 53

6060



Slide 42

Ibid., 50

Slide 43

Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 11

Slide 44

Hindman, Child Labor, 51-52

Slide 45

Ibid., 65 and Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 13

Slide 46


Both, the Keating-Owen Act and the Child Labor Tax Act were considered unconstitutional because of the Tenth Amendment that reserves rights to the states where not particularly explained. It should be added that many employers adjusted their standards towards the Keating-Owen Act. Also, the War Labor Policies Board (WW I) had inserted a clause for federal contracts that required adaptation of labor standards to the Keating-Owen Act. Ibid., 69-70 and 72

Slide 47

Ibid., 70-74

Slide 48

Ibid., 81-84 and Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 13

Slide 49


6161


S.L. Bachman, “The Political Economy of Child Labor and its Impact on International Business,” Business Economics July 2000, 32 (30-41)

Slide 52

Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children in the Fields. An American Problem”, available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Children-in-the-Fields-Report-2007.pdf ; Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.

Photograph: ibid.

Slide 53

Ibid.

Slide 54

Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children at Work. A Glimpse into the Life of Child Farm Workers in the United States”, available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NC-Blueberry-Photo-Booklet-2009.pdf; Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.

Numbers for world wide child labor

http://ilo-mirror.library.cornell.edu/public/english/dialogue/actrav/genact/child/part2_a/agric.htm

Numbers, industries and countries for child labor

Do picture per industry and name the countries and numbers

http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html

Slides 55 und 56

International Labor Office, “Global child labour developments: Measuring trends from 2004 to 2008”; Available from http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=13313 ; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012

Slides 57 and 58

Child Labor Coalition, “Child Labor Coalition announces Top Ten Child Labor Stories of 2011”; available from http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2528; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012.

6262


Slides 59-63

Zyiadnews, “Child Labor is a growing concern around the world…”; available from http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html ; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012

All maps from www.worldatlas.com

Slide 64

Photo from http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/labour/index.htm;

6363

BibliographyBibliography

•Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children at Work. A Glimpse into the Life of Child Farm Workers in the United States.” Available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NC-Blueberry-Photo-Booklet-2009.pdf. Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.

•Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs. “Children in the Fields. An American Problem.” Available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Children-in-the-Fields-Report-2007.pdf. Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.

•Bachman, S.L.. “The Political Economy of Child Labor and its Impact on International Business.” Business Economics32, July (2000): 30-41

•Basu, Kaushik and Pham Hoang Van. “The Economics of Child Labor,” The American Economic Review88, No. 3 (1998): 412-427.

•Cahn, Rhoda, and William Cahn, No Time for School. No Time for Play. The Story of Child Labor in America. New York: Julian Messner, 1972.

•Child Labor Coalition. “Child Labor Coalition announces Top Ten Child Labor Stories of 2011.” Available from http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2528. Internet; accessed 10 May 2010.

•Dudley,William, (ed.). The Industrial Revolution. Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.

•Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work. Lewis Hine and the Crusade against child labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1994.

•Hindman, Hugh D. Child Labor: An American History. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002.

•Holland, Ruth. Mill Child. The Story of Child Labor in America. New York: Crowell-Collier Press,1970.

6464

BibliographyBibliography

•Horrel, Sarah, and Jane Humphries, “ ‘The exploitation of little Children’: Child Labor and the Family Economy in the Industrial Revolution.” Explorations in Economic History32 (1995): 485-516

•International Labor Office. “Global child labour developments: Measuring trends from 2004 to 2008.” Available from http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=13313. Internet; accessed 10 May 2012

•Landale, Nancy S., and Avery M. Guest. “Generation, Ethnicity, and Occupational Opportunity in Late 19th Century America.” American Sociological Review55, No. 2 (1990): 280-296.

•Makissack, Patricia C., and Frederick L. Makissack. Days of Jubilee. The End of Slavery in the United States. New York: Scholastic Press, 2003.

•Mofford, Juliet H, (ed.), Child Labor in America. Carlisle: Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., 1997

•Trotter, Jr, Joe William. “African Americans and the Industrial Revolution.” OAH Magazine of History15, No. 1 (2000): 19-23.

•Zyiadnews. “Child Labor is a growing concern around the world… .” Available from http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html. Internet; accessed 10 May 2012

child labor and the american industrial revolution by dorothea stewart

Documents

family household

family production

industrial centersfarming

industrial occupations

family life

household economy

household environment

mechanized production