THE BEGINNING OF CHILD LABOR

Child Labor is a social problem associated with the rise of industrial production and capitalism. It started to appear when agriculture started to first form, when factories, mines and other jobs similar to that were forming. It mainly started during the Industrial Revolution of the 18th century in Great Britain. In the 19th century, it was one of the biggest scandals and started to spread all over to other countries that were beginning to industrialize as well. This problem started when factories and mines started employing children as young as ten years old and younger! The children were forced to work, because they felt they needed to help their family bring more money into the house hold to pay for rent, for food, clothing, etc. these children also worked because it seem more better to them because school took to long and the chances of them making it in life and going off to college seem almost impossible. They were forced to work long hours under very dangerous conditions and for very little to almost nothing pay.
"Child labor in America was first recognized as a national issue in the 1850s. At that time the country was in the middle of industrialization. Northern cities were especially making heavy advances in the area of labor and had begun to mechanize and build large factories for the production of goods. While many workers were replaced by machines and put out of work, families were becoming desparate for money. Many children went to work, doing any thing they could to contribute to their family. They dug through trash trying to find anything that could be salable. They became peddlers on the street, newsies, shoe shiners, and some girls turned to prostitution. Children at this time also took jobs in glass factories, textile mills and coal mines. These jobs were often times very dangerous and subjected children to hazardous conditions, deadly inhalents, and in the case of the glass factories, working near hot burners. In 1870, the United States Census reported 750,000 child laborers (classifying children as ages 15 and below). This figure received some attention around the country, and helped some to realize that child labor was a problem. This was the very beginning of the child labor movement in the United States."
Basically child labor is the employmet of children under the age determined by law. Child Labor is considered to be exploitative by alot of countries and internal organizations. It was not seen as a problem throughtout most of the history until universal schooling started and concepts of laborers and children's rights started getting really strict. Child Labor started wayyy back, as early as 1800s, when moving into cities was getting more popular and the need for more workers in the factories for industries was growing.

sites:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Child_labor
http://filebox.vt.edu/j/jcable/webpage.html
http://www.earlham.edu/~pols/globalprobs/children/Laila.html