What kids really had to go through in the 1800s

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Child Labor

• What kids really had to go through in the
  1800s

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When kids started working

• Most parents couldnt support their whole family
  which were usually larger than todays family, so
  they had their kids get a job. Most of the time
  the kids were 5 years old when they got their
  first jobs! Sometimes even children of the age of
  3 were made to work by doing simple chores and
  cleaning and sweeping factory floors.

3
How long they worked

• Children did not get to choose where they wanted
  to work, they would go where they were told to.
  Cotton mills and textile factories where the
  worst places to work. Children worked extremely
  long hours, and in harsh conditions many that
  adults wouldnt even work in.

4
Coal mines

• Coal mines where horrible to work in. The mine
  roof would collapse and there were a lot of
  explosions going on all the time. There were a
  lot of injuries. What machines do now men,
  woman, and children did back then. Younger kids
  worked as trappers, they would work the trap
  doors in the mines. They would sit in hollowed
  out holes and hold strings to the door. When they
  heard the coal wagon come they would pull the
  string. This was one of the easier jobs but very,
  very lonely! Older kids might be coal bearers",
  were you carried coal on your back out of the
  mines all day.

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The hazards

• Since children did the jobs that adults didnt
  want there where many hazards children had to
  face. Most of the kids died before the age of 25!
  Also crippled and deformed children where normal
  to see. There were many diseases where they
  worked especially if they worked as a chimney
  sweeper. Their lungs would fill up with ash and
  other chemicals. Also their Master would burn
  their feet with a fire in the fireplace if they
  didnt clean the chimney fast enough.

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What laws where passed

• The first laws were passed in 1802 but they
  where only for factory and cotton mill workers,
  and they were based on shortening the work day to
  12 from 15 to 18 hours. But those where
  ineffective. Then in the 1830s laborer groups
  formed to work on shortening the number of days
  worked from 7 to 6 a week. Some even got
  factories not to let kids under 9 years old work.
  Today kids under 16 years old cannot work in
  factories or mills. Also many places only take
  you if you have a high school diploma.

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Today

• Now a days there is not child labor problems in
  the U.S., but overseas it is still a major
  problem. Kids are making many things like shirts,
  shoes, and pants. Also there is nothing we can
  really do about it. But there are groups, that
  you can support that negotiate with the companies
  to reduce childrens working hours, to have
  better working conditions, and make their lives
  better. These organizations try to buy the
  children out of their work contracts.

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What I am trying to teach you

• Children now a days have it pretty easy, I
  should know I am one. We dont have to work for
  anything, and we take that for granted. So what I
  am trying to teach you is that we have it easy
  and back then life was very hard. Children didnt
  get to choose whether they worked or not. Most
  didnt even get a proper education. Also a lot of
  them didnt live past 25 years old. Life was hard
  then and we should appreciate what we have and
  better yet, try and help other children around
  the world by stopping companies from using
  children as laborers. Put an end to child labor.
  These countries use children just like America
  did in the 1800s.

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THE END
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