PRESENTATION OUTLINE
Children were a cheap source of labor for the growing industries. Managers and overseers saw other advantages to hiring children because they were obedient, submissive, likely to respond to punishment and unlikely to form unions. Since the machines had reduced many procedures to simple one-step tasks, unskilled workers could replace skilled workers.
They argue children had a comparative advantage with the machines that were small and built low to the ground as well as in the narrow underground tunnels of coal and metal mines.
Children were brought to there limit in the mines. They were used to pull creates of coal and ore up a small shaft the mainly only children can get through. The would crawl on there hands and knees with Mabel someone pushing from the back, it was severely dangerous. By 1842 one-third of the workers were under 18.
In 1834 23 to 57% of the work forces in cotton, wool, flax, and silk were comprised of youths between 13 and 18. Reports showed that the growth of the factory system meant that from one-sixth to one-fifth of the total work force in the textile towns in 1833 were children under 14.
Child labor was virtually eliminated when, for the first time in history, the productivity of parents in free labor markets rose to the point where it was no longer economically necessary for children to work to survive
