Imagine living life without any say in anything? Imagine waking up everyday knowing your either being overworked in a factory with a very cheap salary or losing a body part into a machine with no health benefits provided. Imagine your own parent making fake papers claiming your old enough to work, just so you can help support the family, even though your way too young for working anyway. Could you imagine what life was like for the children in the late 18th century to the Great Depression? Children were overworked and people such as; Mother Jones, Jacob Riis, and President Howard Taft couldn’t bear such treatment. These people soon led the Children’s Rights Movement to give kids the rights they rightfully deserved and for them to escape from the cheated way they were being treated.
Back in the late 18th century, children were forced to work in factories. They were paid small amount of money even though they worked sixty hours for over six days a week. Children weren’t given the protection benefits other workers were given. If they accidentally get their hand caught in one of the machines, they would have to live without their hand and lose their jobs. They were exposed to various chemical substances that could harm their body, which could result to kids being diagnosed to very dangerous diseases. In other subtle words, children back then were treated terribly and could not do anything about it.
Due to the poorly way the children were treated, leaders like Mother Jones led the Children’s Right Movement. The Children’s Right Movement went through different types of protesting to make it possible for children to get their rights. The children held the "Newspaper Boy Strike," which was one of the rebellious strikes that made people realize how serious the children wanted their rights. They burned and destroyed the papers until the people would lessen the price of the newspapers. Mother Jones led a march called the "Children’s Crusade." This march took place from Philadelphia to New York. President Howard Taft also tried to enforce laws to help the children’s condition and put them in less harm. This did not work out so well because children were like slaves to the factory owners. They were paid less and worked so much more.
After a factory fire that caused 146 women to die, people started to realize how this could happen to the young children in the factories. Congress then decided to pass a bill called the "Keating-Owens Act." This act stated that it was illegal for children under 14 to sell goods and to work for more than eight hours a day and six days a week. Also, President Howard Taft forced the factory owners to finally raise the children's salary and pay for children working over time.
To me, this Movement was very important because it helped children get their rights. It kept them safe from the harmful substances they were exposed to and from being overworked. This Movement made me realize how horrible children were treated back then and that I shouldn’t take my rights for granted. Without their protest and struggles to make life better for the future children in the United States, we would have to go through what they did or probably even worst. I feel very blessed and proud to the people who took a stand and made children's right possible
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