The Debate Over Child Labor

Process Paper

EXPLAIN WHY YOU CHOSE CHILD LABOR- 
We chose child labor because through out itʻs history, the topic itself was a magnet of controversy. It existed during Americaʻs adolescence, where the country was developing through industrialization at the same time trying to manage the morales would support the American government, itʻs citizens and society in whole. An example of this is from the National Child Labor Committee panels (pictured above center) "What is costs the child-- What it costs Industry-- What it costs society." Any person would realize that this would be up for argument because in todayʻs terms, a child working would be categorized as being "slave driven", whereas in the 1890s-1920s, Child Labor was somewhat prominent in society. The topic fits well with debate, the sources we found and compiled are a testament to that.

HOW DID YOU CONDUCT YOUR RESEARCH?
We did majority of the research online since we have the technology. We did site a few books from Midkiff and eBooks, PDFs, other online documents etc. It was really a step-by-step process. We first started finding primary sources, then secondary... so on and so forth.

WHY DID YOU SELECT A WEBSITE?
The website creation site: weebly.com helped do our formatting; we just edit the content itself, very user friendly. Just have a username and password and anyone can edit the site. It wasn’t difficult, in fact it was hard to access it because it’s so close to be accessed, meaning we put it off because we can access it anytime.

HOW DOES YOUR PROJECT RELATES TO NHD THEME (DEBATE or DIPLOMACY)?
Child Labor was one of the driving forces during the Industrial Revolution. Debatably, child labor was not wanted but at the same time, necessary because it was, as Mark Twain eloquently described, the "Gilded Age" as being appealing on the surface, but corrupt underneath. Meaning families would be somewhat dependent on their children to become bread-winners, so to speak. Hence child labor was necessity. Consequently, the National Child Labor Committee was formed during that time as well to advocate for the well being of children. The issue of Child Labor sparked a debate on how to regulate the trade of goods produced by children. Child Labor, due to certain organizations laws and acts, sparked a debate nationwide on how to regulate the trade, even to end it.