hi my name is Yahoo Williams I'm a
historian and here's what you need to
know in order to sound smart about child
labor children have been an important
part of the labor force throughout human
history but in the 19th century this
became a problem due to
industrialization as children were
exposed to dangerous working conditions
employers however saw a huge benefit to
the use of child labor children were
smaller and more nimble and so therefore
could perform functions that would be
more difficult for adults in addition it
was more difficult for children to
unionize and employers could pay them
lower wages than they had to pay adults
this however was a deep source of
concern for reformers who believed that
children were not only placed in
jeopardy by virtue of this work but that
they also should be receiving an
education instead reformers pointed to
the horrible working conditions the long
hours and the low wages that children
received in the 1840s just as American
reformers were having some success in
limiting child working hours for
native-born Americans and influx of
immigrants from places like Ireland
provided a fresh supply of child labour
for the burgeoning industrial revolution
between 1902 and 1905 several
organizations committed themselves to
seeing an end to child labor in the
United States but it wasn't until the
advent of the Great Depression that real
change was on horizon with so many
Americans out of work labor unions and
laborers began to clamor for an end to
child labor to ensure that the adult
working population would have enough
jobs this proved to be an important
development lawmakers actually drafted
legislation which ended the practice in
the United States limiting working hours
and improving working conditions for
young people one of the lasting legacies
of the battle to end the use of child
labor is the importance of education
American reformers were able to make the
case successfully that young people in a
democracy needed to be educated in order
to perform their civic duty young people
in large numbers came out and joined
what became known as the Red Guards
these largely terroristic organizations
were used to publicly humiliate assault
and in some cases even murder political
enemies of Mao and the Communist Party