Causes of Child Labor
The causes of child labor included poverty, limited access to education, repression of workers’ rights, and limited prohibitions on child labor. After the Civil War, millions of Americans left their small towns and farms to work at jobs in cities, factories, and mines. Manufacturing increased rapidly as the demand rose for new mass-produced products such as textiles, telephones, etc. The factories needed coal to power the machinery, and many new products were made from natural resources such as iron, because of this new mines were opened across the country and the mines and factories needed workers.The population of urban areas grew quickly. In the overcrowded cities, laborers often suffered on back streets in poor housing, plagued by terrible sanitation, disease, and violence. Workers expressed their anger at their bosses for paying them low wages for long working hours by organizing public protest . Millions of laborers eventually organized into unions to try and negotiate with their bosses for better wages and working conditions.
The causes of child labor included poverty, limited access to education, repression of workers’ rights, and limited prohibitions on child labor. After the Civil War, millions of Americans left their small towns and farms to work at jobs in cities, factories, and mines. Manufacturing increased rapidly as the demand rose for new mass-produced products such as textiles, telephones, etc. The factories needed coal to power the machinery, and many new products were made from natural resources such as iron, because of this new mines were opened across the country and the mines and factories needed workers.The population of urban areas grew quickly. In the overcrowded cities, laborers often suffered on back streets in poor housing, plagued by terrible sanitation, disease, and violence. Workers expressed their anger at their bosses for paying them low wages for long working hours by organizing public protest . Millions of laborers eventually organized into unions to try and negotiate with their bosses for better wages and working conditions.