Do You Support Child Labor?

The people in Great Britain and the US wanted to industrialize and advance technologies. To do that they invented many new machines and ways to make the work they did every day more efficient and productive. This meant that one person could now do the work of eight in the case of the spinning jenny, for example. Although that sounds wonderful, now they needed someone to work for cheap. That was where the children came in.

         In Great Britain the orphans were forced to work because they were a free labor force. As long as they provided them with simple care, they could make the orphans do anything they wanted. The conditions were horrible for the poor children. They had boring meals and had to eat them while they worked. They were not allowed to take breaks and the jobs they had to do were dangerous. Many children died from injuries because of the machines they were forced to work at all day. They got very tired and made careless mistakes. If that happened, the overseer, "beats the little children if they do not do their work right" (Document D). That was a horrible phenomena because the children did not even want to be working in the first place.

In the US the conditions were not as bad. The largest industrializing town was Lowell. The young people that worked there were paid, not much, but enough to help their families. Although the machines were dangerous, the girls were allowed more breaks. These breaks and the fact that they had better meals contributed to the fact that there were less careless accidents. One girl who was part of the Lowell Experiment said, "I think that the factory is the best place for me and if any girl wants employment I advise them to come to Lowell" (Document C). There were definitely many accidents because no matter the precautions the masters took, they could not take the danger out of the machines.

Overall the conditions in the US were much better than the conditions in Great Britain. These new machines were very dangerous, but they were necessary in order for the world to be the way it is today. Although industrializing was very dangerous, it helped more people than it hurt. We would not have things, like steam engines, if the Industrial Revolution never happened.