Children’s Rights Movement
The Children’s Rights Movement took place in the 1860’s through the 1900’s. Mother Jones led the children through the march. There were 200 children at the march. The march was named the “Children’s Crusade” from Philadelphia all the way to
New York. They had banners that stated “We want to go to school!” Mother Jones wanted President Theodore Roosevelt to meet the children. But he didn’t. Some of the children there were ill or injured. They were injured because they were working with dangerous machines. Some children were missing fingers because of this. Mother Jones helped 100,000 strikers in the Kensington Mills.
These children suffered many injuries. Some had diseases because of the dirty conditions they worked in. Most of the time the conditions were so bad some lost fingers because the working conditions were terrible. Children in the mid- 1800’s had to work as adults to help pay bills and help their parents put food on the table. People were really fond of children working because they paid children very little. People like Mother Jones decided to take action on this issue. These children worked with dangerous machines in the factories, explosives in mines and farming machines in fields. Participants in the movement to rid the country of child labor were many children themselves, including a girl named Camella Teoli. She was working in a textile mill when a part of her scalp ripped off. Mill workers went on strike three years later and Camella joined them.
My conclusion is this was a bad time for children. It took the Great Depression to end child labor nationwide. During this period adults had become so desperate for jobs that they would work as much as children. In 1938 President Franklin D. Roosevelt, signed Fair Labor Standards Act which among other things placed limits on child labor. I think people really needed to do something about the issue.
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