The
abuses of child labor are no longer a big issue in America. Child labor was a
big deal in the latter part of the 19th century.
The
Industrial Revolution came to America as early as 1813, when the first
water-powered textile mill opened in Waltham, MA. Within a few decades, mills
and factories were sprouting along waterways everywhere, and workers streamed
off the farms to join immigrants who were employed in them at low wages.
The
ongoing abuses of child laborers were condemned (by unionized adults) as early
as the 1830s. In the following decades, regulation of the working conditions
for kids occurred piece-meal, state by state. By the end of the 19th
century, 28 states had enacted laws governing (but now outlawing) the working
hours and conditions for children. Work by youngsters was finally outlawed in
America when the Fair Labor Standards Act was passed in 1938.
In
1881 eight-year-old textile workers in Maine—some of them working for 8 cents a day— started a strike when they discovered that kids their age at
another mill were making a penny more per day. The three-day strike was partly
successful.
Mill
owners and factory owners and other 19th century capitalists were
forced, over time, to cease exploitation of poor kids on the shop floor.
 |
| Cabot Mill |
Imagine
that you work in the Cabot textile mill. Imagine
that you take your eight-year-old son to work with you every day, so he can
work for 12 hours for pennies in grimy conditions, with poor lighting,
breathing air filled with cotton lint and climbing barefoot on the humming
machinery so he can replace the empty spindles.
Imagine
that you need his paltry income to keep food on the table for your family.
Copyright
© Richard Carl Subber 2016 All rights reserved.
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