How Does Child Labor Affect America

Faith Onyiuke Mrs. Morales/ Mrs. Seraphin
210 Research

Child Labor

Abstract: Child labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. Child labor started around the industrial revolution. During the industrial revolution, Children had always worked, especially in farming. But factory work was hard. A child with a factory job might work 12 to 18 hours a day, six days a week, to earn a dollar. Many children began working before the age of 7, tending machines in spinning mills or hauling heavy loads. The factories were often damp, dark, and dirty. Some children worked underground, in coal mines. The working children had no time to play or go to school, and little time to rest.

Introduction
It started in America around the same time as the Industrial Revolution, which was around the 1800’s. The children, who had to do labor, got little to no education, so therefore couldn’t get descent jobs as an adult. Most of the jobs that children got, such as mines and factories, included being in dangerous situations, where with factories they were around dangerous machinery and with mining jobs, they were around explosives. It also ruined their childhoods because the jobs, the children got mostly included long hours with low pay, and they couldn’t do want they wanted. Child labor is very close to slavery whereas most children were forced to do the work because their parents made