The Industrial Revolution marked the time of new inventions and major expansions in the market. There was large economic advancements that began originally in Britain in the late eighteenth century. Overall, during the revolution, there were many inventions that were extremely important to the development of society. One of the original inventions which was made was the spinning jerry. It was created by James Hargreaves who was an inventor in that time. The spinning jerry was a hand powered spinning machine that was later more developed into other great pieces of technology. After the creation of the spinning jerry, the water frame was created. The water frame was much larger and could create much more at one time. This is the invention that sped up the process of mass production. The water frame was able to hold several hundred spindles and it was powered by water. It required an entire factory to run it. The next major invention that came out was the spinning mule. It was created by Samuel Crompton and was a combination between the spinning jerry and the water frame. Samuel Crompton was unfortunately not getting much money from the spinning mule. There was many of them being used all of Great Britain however he was not making any money off of them. The next machine ultimately set off the idea of rapid development. The steam engines were able to burn coal to produce steam which could operate a pump.
With an increased amount of production, there was a great need for labor in Great Britain. This caused an increased in the amount of children that were allowed to work. The children were able to work long and hard hours to help make money for their parents. It is so odd to look back on that now and think about young children working in factories. If children in todays society were doing the same kind of labor, it would be very unproductive. It is hard to even imagine children have the ability to work like they used to. Whenever the working conditions began to get worse, people began to worry about the children working long and tough hours. This ultimately caused the Factory Acts to be passed. These acts ensured that children were not over worked and they were well taken care of. Even if this issue was taken care of in Europe at the time, there are still child workers around the world today. A lot of younger children work in third world countries in order to mass produce things to be sent to the United States. It is very interesting to see how in some countries this issue is taken care of but in others it is simply slide under the table as if nothing is happening.
Citations
McKay, John P., et al. A History of Western Societies. 12th ed., Bedford/St. Martin’s, 2017
Your comment on how unproductive putting children to work today would be, but I have to disagree with that. There are still countries that use child labor and have a huge success in productivity because of fear and other factors. I would agree that it is not possible to have productive child labor in most countries, but not all.
ReplyDeleteThe biggest issue with child labor was the working conditions and the restriction of possibly not being able to get an education. If people make sure the working conditions are good and the hours restricted children working probably would not be that big of an issue. Another concern was that children were not able to grow properly because they were putting too much stress on their growing bodies. With all these concerned they deemed it irresponsible and wrong to force children to work. If these problems were solved then anyone should be able to work if they feel the need to.
ReplyDeleteA lot of new inventions that came out during the Industrial Revolution still benefit us today, and we have grown on these ideas. One thing I did notice was that you said that if there was still child labor today, it would be "unproductive", and I have to disagree. Although it may not be seen in the US, child labor is still very apparent in today's society in other countries. Child labor still occurs in places like China, and that's how online companies are making so much money on "cheap" clothing. They pay their workers very little and that's how they make their products so cheap. These types of companies are very productive and make quite a bit of money. Even though child labor probably wouldn't happen in the US today, it still occurs in other countries and we may not even realize it.
ReplyDeleteYou mentioned how there are still third world countries practicing child labor today. Most of those countries are oppressed with no rights or education, mostly for girls and lower class boys. Although this is still a thing of today's time, most of these countries have at least taken it upon themselves to offer better and safer working conditions. I feel as though the rights to work as a child or not, depend on the economic state and culture of that country. A lot of the countries that still operate with children are unwilling to change too.
ReplyDeleteMy only issue with child labor is the lack of education associated with it. No child should be forced to work to help their families survive to the point of not allowing them to get their education first. Yes I do believe children should learn a good work ethic at a young age so they can respect the workforce however, if it hinders their education in any way then it should not be allowed. Many countries that allow child labor have rules put into place for this specific reason. However, many countries also disregard child labor laws or work around them so ultimately the companies benefit while the children do not.
ReplyDelete