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CHILD LABOR
In the U.S., the idea that kids should go to school to prepare for their future is relatively new. Throughout most of American history, it was normal for children to work long hours at difficult and dangerous jobs. Child labor in the U.S. is as old as the country itself: In the early 1600s, it was believed that crime and poverty were a result of idleness, not a lack of education. As a result, poor children were shipped by the thousands from England to the American colonies to become apprentices. This arrangement helped England manage its most helpless citizens and also provided a cheap solution to the labor shortage in the colonies. Colonists’ children were also apprentices or did grueling work on family farms.
During the Industrial Revolution, as the number of factories increased, so did the number of jobs. Factory owners needed more workers and turned to children to help do everything from operating dangerous machinery to mining coal. It was expected that children as young as 10 years old work 12 or more hours per day for six days per week. According to the U.S. Census of 1880, one in six American children were employed, and this number does not account for the number of children under 10 years old working illegally in sweatshops or on the streets. Estimates indicate that those illegal workers include as many as one in six children between the ages of five and 10 who were employed in some sense. In 1881, only seven states had education laws requiring kids to attend school, but even in these states, many people found ways to get around the law.
By the turn of the 20th century, at the time when Newsies is set, the child workforce hit its peak with almost two million legal and countless undocumented working children. During this period, reformers began to take action and created child labor laws, fought to end the abuse of kids in the workplace, and worked to make sure that all children had the opportunity to better themselves through education.
It was not until 1938 that Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, a law that prohibited the employment of kids younger than 16, and placed limits on the employment of kids between 16 and 18 years old. Many people argued that child labor helped children by teaching them a trade. In reality, their jobs kept them from going to school and improving their futures.
