Figure 1.-- .

Child labors laws eventually prevented the most serious abuses of children. The effort to achieve those laws was a long, uneven struggle. The process varied from country. In each industrial country the process varied, but in each country industrialist saw any effort to limit their free access to labor, even women, and children, as a moral issue. The British passed three Factory Acts (1833, 44, and 47) which limited the working hours of children in certain circumstances. In each instances there was concessions granted factory owners. These laws limited the hours children could be worked. The Factory Act of 1844 regulated the relay system. Some factory owners had avoided limits on the working day for children by developing a relay system. The children might work from 5:00 am to noon and then begin to work again at 1:00 pm under the guise of a new shift. While the 1844 Act regulated this abuse, it granted factory owners the right to employ children at age 8 instead of the previous 9 year old limit, his opened up a new supply of potential workers. 【Wilson, p. 53. 】 Child labor laws were passed by states in America. A national law was not passed until 1916, but it was overturned by the Supreme Court. It was not until the New Deal that a Federal Law was passed and sustained.

America

Child labor in America as in other countries was extensively used in American industry because children were willing to work for low wages. Large numbers were employed in unhealthy and unsafe conditions. As many of their parents were employed at wages below the subsistence level, they had no alternative but to take their children out of school and send to work. The progressive movement made child labor legislation a major goal. Socially minded photographers of the turn of the century played a major in exposing the abuses of the children. One of the most important in America was Lewis Hine. Hines had previously worked in immigrants. The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) hired Hine in 1908 to document working and living conditions of children in the United States. He worked at this project until 1921. Hines was very aware of the power of his images. He coined the term 'photostory' meaning the pioneering use of sequential photos with text to create powerful social commentary. He collaborated with writers in the articles published in newspapers and magazines. He often wrote elaborate captions. One image of a little boy selling newspapers in the rain explained that the boy had already had two bouts with pneumonia. The progressives gradually won the debate that children should be in school and women at home. The growing labor movement also wanted to reduce the competition with child labor. Child labor laws and compulsory school attendance regulations were passed by states in America. President Taft set up the Children's Bureau to address the issue of child labor and other matters affecting children's welfare. Despite state laws, there were still in 1916 over 2 million American children under age 16 out of school and working. A national law was not passed until 1916--The Keating Owens Act. It made it illegal to purchase goods manufactured by children under 14 years of age. Children under 16 were not permitted to work in mines. The law was overturned by the Supreme Court. Industrial interests argued that child labor was an unconstitutional restraint on commerce. It was not until the New Deal that a Federal Law was passed and sustained--the Fair Labor Standards Act. Unaddressed in the law was agricultural labor. The issue of migrant labor is still a serious concern in the United States.

England

Children received no special protection under British law until the Industrial Revolution. It was Britain that invented the Industrial Revolution. And it was Britai that began to protect working children. Too often the abuses of child labor is blamed on capitalism and industry. We see texts like "When the Industrial Revolution began, industrialists used children as a workforce," suggesting that industrialists invented child labor.But children for millennia worked including in abusive circumstances. Children were an important part of the work force in all societies. Laws to protect children began to be enacted, but only in a few capitalist countries where the Industrial Revolution was unfolding. Elsewhere and to this day, child labor continues. This only began to change and only in a few countries (19th century). Laws to protect children began to be enacted first in Britain. The first such law was the Factory Act (1833). Young children were working very long hours in workplaces where conditions were often horrible. The basic act was prohibited child workers under 9 years of age.The question rarely asked is -- why? Child labor was nothing new. The answer is unclear. Factory was perceived as more abusive than agricultural work. Perhaps more dangerous, but we are not at all sure it was more abusive. A factor often ignored is the growth of the middle class,generated by the Industrial Revolution, which was more concerned with social issues. Attitudes toward childhood were changing. And mass media was developing bringing abuses to public attention. Attitudes toward childhood were changing. Charles Dickens published David Copperfield (1859-60) to great public acclaim. Factory abuses were very real and more visible than what occurred in isolated rural areas. Thee were no compulsiry school attendance laws. The first protective legislation was the Factory Act (1833). It banned children under 9 years old from working in factories. It limited hours, and required some schooling, gradually setting precedents for modern protections against exploitation, as seen in legislation like the Mines Act (1842). .Two more Factory Acts followed (1844 and 47). There were some concessions granted factory owners. These laws limited the hours children could be worked. The Factory Act of 1844 regulated the relay system. Some factory owners had avoided limits on the working day for children by developing a relay system. The children might work from 5:00 am to noon and then begin to work again at 1:00 pm under the guise of a new shift. While the 1844 Act regulated this abuse, it granted factory owners the right to employ children at age 8 instead of the previous 9 year old limit, his opened up a new supply of potential workers. 【Wilson, p. 53. 】 Numerous Parliamentary Acts followed to further protect children over time. The Children Act (1908) prohibited children under the age of 14 years from entering pubs.

France

Germany

Italy

Sources

Reed, Lawrence W. "Child labor and the British industrial revolution," Liberty Haven, site accessed August 3, 2003.

Wilson, A.N. The Victorians (W.W. Norton & Co.: New York, 1993), 724p.

Created: August 3, 2003
Last updated: 2:54 PM 1/19/2026