Child Labour in the Industrial Revolution was the employment of children as workers for textile industries, mining industries, milling industries and many more.
In 1788, more than 60% of the workforce were children employed in textile factories. Children aged as young as 5 or 6 would work for more than 12 hours a day, for 6 days a week. Families sent their children to work in factories, mills and mines because they needed the money. The average working class child in the period 1791-1850 started work at age 10 and by the 1820s, 60% of 10 year olds and 30% of 8 year olds were employed.
There were many jobs for children as they were easy to train, obedient, low maintenance and they were paid very low income. They are able to fit in tiny spaces were adults are not able to fit in.
The jobs that children were employed as in the textile factory were:
• Piecers: they had to lean over machines, while it was running, to repair broken threads,
• …show more content…
It did not happen straight away but it happened gradually over time.
These were the steps of stopping child labour:
• Factory Act 1819 - Limit the hours worked by children to a maximum of 12 per day.
• Factory Act 1833 – Banned employment of children under 9 and limited 10-13 year olds to a 48-hr week in the textiles industry. To enforce this rule, factory inspectors were introduced
• Factory Act 1847 – Reduced the maximum working hours for women and children to 10 hours per day
• Factory Act 1850 – Prohibited women and children from working in a factory before 6 am or after 6pm
Child Labour in the Industrial Revolution was able to shape our world today. If this event did not happen, we wouldn’t have realised the importance of education and spending time with our family. In a way, it has improved our society by knowing the consequences of Child Labour. This is able to help us prevent anything similar for this to happen in our