Winter Times News ~ Hard Times in the 1850s ~ | Page 3

CHILD LABOUR: DO YOU KNOW WHAT HAPPENS TO YOUR KIDS AT WORK?

I don’t know about these big business owners, but I think child labour is unfair! As a child, naturally, you’re playful and excited and you’ve only really just begun life. Working in factories is dangerous for small children, some of which don’t even know what they’re doing, and just think about the way slaving away in a dirty factory is already affecting their lives! I want to give children the life they deserve. Not only is child labour unfair, but it is also very, very hazardous. Children as young as four are allowed to work in factories or other places, and most of the time, the business owners take advantage of that by not paying them what they deserve to get. Just because you’re a child, it doesn’t mean you’re a complete and utter fool. For risking your life each day, don’t you think you should be paid a little more than three or four pence a day?

Working conditions are also bad for children, and the working hours can sometimes be up to nineteen hours long each day, with only a total of one hour for a break! And not to mention the way children are treated at their place of work. Younger children, such as four to six, who were too small to be able to work at the machines, had to work as assistants to workers at the textile mills. Those people are horrible to the children! They beat them, curse at them, and punish them. The safety of the poor children was overlooked all the time.

One of the special punishments for the children who showed up late, did not do as they were told, or just because they weren’t good enough, was “weighting.” A heavy weight was tied around the small child’s neck and they were forced to walk up and down the aisles of the other children working so they could “take example.” In case you hadn’t guessed, this was very bad for the child’s neck and back, and it could last up to one hour. Sometimes, to ensure that the kids weren’t late, little boys were forced from their beds without clothes and sent to work that way. They would be able to put on their clothes at their place of work once they got there. It’s really disgusting the things children are made to do, the ways they are treated, and the extremely low pay. Some have taken to calling it “child slavery” and you can see why. I want to put a stop to child labour, and I know I’m not the only one.