Children in factories
"Children as young as 6 years old during the industrial revolution worked long hours for little or no pay. Children sometimes worked up to 19 hours a day, with a 1-hour total break." The children had to work in terrible conditions even adults would dread. They had to work with dangerous equipment and "Many accidents occurred, injuring or killing children on the job".
The factories could get away with paying children nothing because there were no laws restricting it. They argued that they gave the children food and places to sleep. They didn't need to pay the children.
"The treatment of children in factories was often cruel and unusual, and the children's safety was usually neglected." The boys and girls often received beatings in front of all the other children for doing something incorrectly or wrong. "One common punishment for being late or not working up to quota would be to be "weighted". An overseer would tie a heavy weight to worker's neck and have them walk up and down the factory aisles so the other children could see them and "take example". This could last up to an hour. Weighting could lead to serious injury in the back and/or neck."
(Child Labor In Factories)
The factories could get away with paying children nothing because there were no laws restricting it. They argued that they gave the children food and places to sleep. They didn't need to pay the children.
"The treatment of children in factories was often cruel and unusual, and the children's safety was usually neglected." The boys and girls often received beatings in front of all the other children for doing something incorrectly or wrong. "One common punishment for being late or not working up to quota would be to be "weighted". An overseer would tie a heavy weight to worker's neck and have them walk up and down the factory aisles so the other children could see them and "take example". This could last up to an hour. Weighting could lead to serious injury in the back and/or neck."
(Child Labor In Factories)
http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html