In the colonial period (1565- 1946) and even into the 1800s, most of the populace worked in the agriculture sector. Parents required children to work them and so the children engaged in tasks that demanded greater strength as they matured. However, these children had very low productivity levels, and parents/guardians could not make much money putting them onto work. Their cost of rising was still more than the value of their output at work. This finding helps in explaining why in 1800s to 1820s, children constituted an important share of labor in industries. In 1820, children of ages 15 years and under formed twenty three percent of manufacturing workforce of the Northeast. These children worked day and night in the textiles, cotton and wool mills, and paper mills. Lately, in 1840s the child labor’s share in industrial employment began to decline.
Despite rapid industrialization, agricultural employment dominated child labor. However in 1930, agricultural employment fell to twenty five percent of workforce as compared to 1880. The continuation of child labor in industries in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century resulted in controversy regarding the trend. The employers of such children were held responsible as they made them work in extremely dangerous and hostile conditions with no support. In addition to their miseries, their working class parents paid no attention to their growing illness and troubles and continued taking hard labor from them so as to earn decent livings. These parents later on moved to places where there are more industries especially textile mills so that their children can get more jobs and in turn, more income opportunities. This however, did not increase their family income by great proportions. It was found that in years from 1917 to 1919, these adolescents acquired more bargaining power at homes, and more money was expend on them as their household income increased.
The industrial revolution from the 18th to the 19th century contributed towards child labor significantly. More multi nationals employed these young children and adolescents, taking more work out of them while paying them lesser than adults. This helped them in gaining profits out of this activity. Moreover, with children such as these, there was no problem of labor unions too. Throughout the American history, different forms of child labor existed including indentured apprentice and child slavery. As industries began to grow and agricultural jobs were abandoned by families who moved near these industries, demand for employing children grew substantially as they were cheap labor, more manageable and less likely to observe any strikes. When child labor faced opposition in the North of U.S. many industries moved to the South. Hence these countries classified themselves whether they had anti-child labor standards within their premises or not. By then, a large number of children were already working in mines, textiles, glass factories, and home industries.
By the eighteenth century, industrialization had promoted the use of child labor force to boost up productivity. This trend continued and by the nineteenth century, children had become an indispensible part of industrial employment in the sectors of textiles and coal mining. As an example in the U.S. coal industry in the mid-1990s, about thirteen percent of the total work force was below the age of fifteen. It had been observed that in those industries child labor was gender divided. Boys were assigned tasks mainly in coal mines and sawmills. On the other hand, girls worked in the textile industries.
In the United States, it was industrialization that opened new avenues of earning for these young children after the Civil War (1861-1865). This greatly increased child labor in such industrial areas of the U.S. according to a census of 1870; approximately two out of every nine children in the United States were employed. This trend was further reinforced by immigrant families who moved to the United States in search for better employments for the whole family. They were mentally prepared to offer their young ones as labor force for different industries and this inclination promoted the rise in child labor in years in which immigration peaked.
Life imposed insurmountable burdens on immigrant families who moved to North America (including Canada) between 1869 and 1920. Here the immigrant children worked as domestic servants and farm laborers. Furthermore, industrialization in such areas intensified the nature of work for these young unformed minds as work was more specialized, rigorous, and organized. These children contributed to the family income and their earnings raised more after the adult male earnings had peaked. They developed a potential to earn while their adults reached fifty years of age. It was in 1914 when the contributions from children’s wages rose to 18.5 percent. This continued till 1875 where children became an essential part of many of the textile, agriculture, tobacco, and glass manufacturing industries. However, by 1912 their roles had been specialized and more restricted. Boys worked as newspaper sellers while girls served in the household as servants. Thus by early twentieth century, essential role of child labor began to drop down. This decline was attributed to the enforcement of compulsory schooling laws in the twentieth century. This was aimed to abolish child labor.
In the course of these measures, more efforts were made by educationists and politicians to reduce number of children in industries and make them attend schools in large numbers. Although these law enforcements began in the late nineteenth century, it was no longer than the twentieth century that it became more effective. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) was formed in the year 1904 with an agenda to minimize child labor and organize local committees for this cause.
The immigrant populace of the United States is evidently diverse and dynamic. These comprise of different people who have come from different backgrounds and support various diverse beliefs and values. What they may have in common is discrimination by the dominant U.S. who exploits their labor. Many immigrants are treated as being second-class citizens who, despite their role in overall progress of the economy, remained ignored by the State. The government had been passive towards the problems faced by the immigrants who share in the labor force with the natives. Therefore, many such families are left with no other choice than to restraint these suppressing conditions. Also many immigrant women are left without much choice than to stay in the U.S. facing these odds because they had fled from even more disappointing situations at home. These immigrant women and their children are put into harsh jobs atht exceed their strengths and capabilities and deteriorate their health as well. They are also trafficked into other countries as prostitutes. Many of their children are put to work at farms, unsupervised by anti-child labor laws. They are ill-treated by their heads and supervisors.
Poverty is deemed as a primary cause for acute child labor. Usually in poor families, there are large numbers of children which makes it difficult for them to live on the income of a single earning member. These poverty-stricken families are prone to indulge in child labor from very early ages in their lives. They work at shops, in factories, and even sell things on streets. Hence they become a source of earning for their households. Even helpless little girls in such situations become victims of prostitution and sexual harassment. Other causes of child labor are social apathy towards it, parental ignorance about the adverse effects of child labor, absence of compulsory primary education opportunities, ineffective laws against child labor, expensive education, inaccessibility to schools and colleges, and employers who prefer employing children at work.
In the 1880s, many governments had started placing some restrictions on the use of child labor in their respective states. These laws were supported by tradesmen who feared a loss of jobs because of child labor. However, the practice of child labor continued even in the next century. After 1900, the conditions in the mining, glass manufacturing and textile industries attracted the attention of reformers and led to the formation of Southern States National Child Labor Committee. Under this committee, various events were held and mass mailings took place. This way many other local committees gained momentum in reducing child labor, and new laws were enforced. However, these measures were inadequate and much more was needed to be done. In 1910, it was estimated that two million children were still employed at different places. When the census in the year 19oo reported an all-time high on child labor, child labor activists responded urgently through press campaigns. Hence with the help of NCLC, many more states enacted minimum age limits on children for work. The Federal legislation initially was unsuccessful. The Keating-Owen Act of 1916 was enacted to prevent interstate trade involving products of child labor and for other purposes. However this Act was struck down in the United States Supreme Court decision namely Hammer v. Dagenhart (1918) involving the power of Congress to enact child labor laws. In 1924, the Senate passed a Constitutional amendment banning child labor. This was not approved by the state. The Fair labor Standards Act of 1938 finally restricted full employment of children less than sixteen years of age. This was ratified by the Supreme Court as well.
Though there were many laws enforced to completely ward off the evils of child labor in the United States, many economic analysts observe that these laws were not the only reason for eliminating child labor. it was the rapid economic stability due to industrialization that allowed some freedom to these children as their parents/guardians were able to obtain decent incomes even without their children’s contributions. Many reasons for this reduction in child labor trends can be an expansion in the educational infrastructures all over the U.S., high returns from acquiring education, and technological changes in the proc3esses of business sector.
In order to eliminate the menace of child labor from all societies, everyone needs to fulfill certain duties. While the State enforces laws in this regard, it is the duty of poor families to seek family planning mechanisms so that they are not burdened by children. We should all take some steps in the right direction so that our children may be enabled to enjoy the very blessings and innocence of their childhoods.