As the
industrial revolution took
hold in 19th century America, factory owners preferred to hire families, including children. Child labor was so accepted and widespread, in the early years of the 19th century, that no one clamored for its abolition. (Andrew Carnegie got his start as a “bobbin boy” in a Pittsburgh textile mill.) But when long workdays prevented children from getting even a modest education, people began to get concerned:
- An 1813 law, passed in Connecticut, encouraged employers to provide young workers with lessons in reading, writing and arithmetic. It did little good.
- In 1836, Massachusetts passed America’s first child labor law. It required children under the age of 15 to spend at least three months a year in school.
After the Civil War was over (in 1865), a highly mechanized textile industry flourished in the South. With the slaves freed, children were brought into the shops:
- Children as young as 6 or 7 worked 13-hour days in hot, dusty mills and factories. Proposals for change were unwelcome.
- At the dawn of the 20th century, only a few Southern states had passed laws limiting the numbers of hours children could work.
During the first year of the 20th century, America’s census revealed a disturbing fact. At least 2 million children were working in mines, mills, factories, stores and on city streets. (Charles Dickens, an Englishman
forced to work in a factory when he was a lad of 12, had
written books, like Oliver Twist, which drew attention to the plight of 19th century working children.) But few protections were in place for American children by the time of the 1900 census.