Child Labor During the Puritan Era

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Child Labor During the Puritan Era

Emily Carter

Harvard University

HIST 214 – Early American History and Society

Dr. Jonathan R. Whitmore

September 10, 2025

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Child Labor During the Puritan Era

Even though child labor is an old custom that has forever been very irritable, it has a particular spot in American history, especially during the Puritan time. The Puritans who moved to New Britain toward the start of the sixteenth century were severe sticklers with deep sentiments. Child labor was a reality in the general public molded by verifiable, monetary, social, and legal elements. The essay examines the nature of child labor during the Puritan era, the earliest colonial society as a whole, as a complicated web.

Statement of the Research Problem

The period was known as the Puritan era, which saw the settling of New England with a strongly Puritan-oriented society. A considerable share of child labor was also fundamental for a sustainable economy and for establishing Puritan notions within this society. There is little comprehensive research into children’s work within historical and cultural contexts, although child labor was ubiquitous. Hence, this study aims to fill this loophole regarding child labor during the Puritan era.

Purpose and Significance of the Study

The study highlights child labor as it pertained to the period of the Puritans and gives a comprehensive history, such as childhood in this era, working children’s conditions, why people worked with their children, and general social views of children who worked. The study aims to reveal the subtleties of children’s labor in a Puritan society concerning primary and secondary sources (Fanuzzi, 2023). In addition, this research investigates what led to rampant child labor in Puritan New England during that period, such as religion, economics, and legislation.

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The research is essential because it contributes to our knowledge about child labor within a general outline of American history. The Puritan Era marks a critical point concerning the history of child labor in the US, which can be understood only when discussing the emergence of labor laws and societal perception of the issue (Fitzgerald, 2020). The paper also gives essential information about what it was like for children during the era when they had already started contributing their sweat and blood. We can understand their sacrifices and difficulties because of their effort and blood.

Overview of the Structure of the Paper

The part will comprehensively consider the literature on child labor with particular attention to the Puritan era. In the following chapters, we will talk about specific sources giving information on child labor in this period, the legality of children, and how it has turned out nowadays. The paper will close with an overview of the main findings, their implications on child labor during the prison era, and directions for future research.

Literature Review

The kind of viewpoints on the historical, cultural, and economic determinants of child labor in the Puritan era. To comprehend this, one should understand its authentic setting, the moving viewpoints about childhood and their cultural roles, the advancement of child labor practices in early America, and how English writing enlightened child labor during the Puritan period.

Historical Context of Child Labor during the Puritan Era

It was distinct because of the particular social and religious environment that characterized the Puritan Era, spanning the early 17th century and late 17th century, when Puritan colonies were set up in New England. The Puritans were deeply devoted people who wanted to develop a society that would observe their understanding of Christianity. The Puritans considered children members of that community, and their tasks were almost synonymous with several economic and religious functions. Understanding the Puritan era’s historical context must be critical because that served as the background setting on which those happenings prospered.

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Literature Review

Various determinants, including historical, cultural, and economic factors, influenced child labor during the Puritan era. This understanding requires a review of the historical background, societal concepts of childhood about children’s roles in their societies, and old age laws in 18th-century America and Britain, as well as looking up Puritan literature to shed light on the child labor conditions in Britain during that period.

Historical Context of Child Labor during the Puritan Era

From the early 17th to the late 17th century, an exceptional social and religious climate identified as the Puritan era characterized the establishment of Puritan colonies in New England. Puritans were pious believers who wanted a society with their kind of Christianity (Wilonoyudho et al., 2020). Children in Puritanism were vital members of the group whose duties regularly blended with the religious and economic spheres of the community. To understand child labor practices, it is necessary to study the history of the Puritan era, as it was the environment in which they were born.

Changing Views of Childhood and Children’s Roles in Society

Society has also changed a lot when it comes to the roles played by childhood as well as children. Children were treated quite differently from how they are today during the Puritan era. The Puritans did not view childhood as a distinctive life phase but as preparation for adulthood. Labor was part of children’s upbringing as they were required to participate in the housework and contribute to society at an early age (Bercovitch, 1974). It differs from today’s views of children as innocent, protected, and educated. Knowing the changing notions about childhood in the various ages assists in understanding why there was a lot of child labor during the Puritan Period.

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Child Labor Practices in Early America and Their Evolution

Child labor expanded throughout early America and was not just a problem in the Puritan colonies. The book “Child Labor in America: A History,” written by Shammas, explores the background of child labor laws in the country and provides insight into children’s working conditions. Shammas’s research mostly examines the 19th and 20th centuries but also sheds light on older eras, such as the Puritan Era (Shammas, 2023). It reveals that child labor was deeply rooted in the economic needs of society, and the early American experience with child labor serves as a historical precursor to the practices in the Puritan colonies.

Role of British Literature in Understanding Child Labor in the Puritan Era

British literature from the later part of the eighteenth century could afford us an idea of how life would come about for a child under the Puritan era. While focusing on a slightly later period, she examines shifting ideas about childhood and children’s social positions, which help explain attitudes towards child labor during the Puritan era. A comparison of portrayals of youth in British literature of the Roth era and the Puritan era will shed light on changes in attitudes and treatment of children at that time. A detailed analysis of child labor during the Puritan period must consider historical contexts, changing perceptions about childhood, child labor trends in pre-colonial America, and contributions of British literature towards an understanding of child labor indirectly (Lamb et al., 2014). Together, they constituted the background against which child labor was possible; therefore, these factors also create grounds for this analysis of children’s situations, positions, and visions during Puritanism.

The role of children and childhood in society has transformed. Children in the Puritan era were seen differently, unlike modern perceptions. Childhood is not viewed as a separate phase independent of other steps in life. Instead, it is the phase for preparing one for adult life (Lamb et al., 2014). The children started contributing to the household and broader community from a young age. Work was part of being raised. On one hand, this position is antithetical to current perspectives on childhood associated with purity, care, and education. Knowledge about changing notions of childhood through time provides context for children’s labor during the Puritan period.

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Child Labor Practices in Early America and Their Evolution

Child labor was in the Puritan colonies, but it developed further and did not limit itself there. Chaim M. Rosenberg’s work, “Child Labor in America: In “A History,” child labor practices in the USA are traced back with an insight into how children were exploited. Even though this happens more in Rosenberg’s works than in any others, considering that it is in the 19th and 20th centuries, it yields beneficial information concerning other times, including the Puritan era (Krieger, 2019). American experience points out that it was to satisfy the needs of society that such labor existed. As a result, this practice served as a precedent for the later Puritan colonies.

Role of British Literature in Understanding Child Labor in the Puritan Era

A study of British literature from the late 18th century may offer indirect knowledge of how children were treated at work during the Puritan times. It may be a little late, but her results shed light on the changing notions about what kind of society a particular child belongs to and, therefore, indirectly educate us regarding the nature of work carried out by children at that time. In comparing the depiction of childhood in British literature when Roth wrote with the Puritan Era, historians learn what happened concerning children’s attitudes and attitudes (Katz, 2019). The understanding of child labor under the Puritan era entails an analysis of its historical backdrop, the evolving notion of childhood, the origin of modern-day child labor techniques in colonial America, and how works of British writers shed indirect light onto that epochal phenomenon. Combined with these conditions were elements in children’s lives to analyze their requirements, roles, and perceptions during the Puritan period.

Child Labor in the Puritan Era

Overview of Child Labor Practices during the Puritan Era

The way of life in the Puritan colonies dictated child labor, which resulted from particular socioeconomic issues. Frugality was necessary in Puritan communities, working hard and being able to cater to one’s family. They saw labor as a moral duty and also part of religion. Children had to support their families’ economy and help build community (Morris, 2020). Boys and girls engaged in age and gender-appropriate occupations classified under child labor. Farm work was not strange for boys who helped with planting, harvesting, and looking after livestock. Cooking, cleaning, and weaving activities occupied girls in the home.

Furthermore, children had to participate in church services and acquire religious instruction, maintaining the linkage of labor with faith. Of the enormous Puritan work ethic that emphasized the value of delivery and the notion of a calling, it is possible to understand child labor in the Puritan era. Hard work and productivity were considered acts of worship. They shaped the roles a child was expected to play as part of their families or communities.

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The Role of Children in Puritan Society and Their Contribution to the Workforce

Be that as it may, children offered more to the Puritan culture economy than simple commitments. Their work was pivotal to the family’s endurance, but at the same time, it was utilized to instill strict and moral standards in them. For the Puritans, children were laborers, yet future individuals from the congregation and society. Like grown-ups, children were considered to have been accused of an otherworldly undertaking, and their work was viewed as a support of God (Arslan, 2020). Children were fundamental for the family’s monetary feasibility, as mirroring a smaller-than-expected picture of the whole community was taken. Down-to-earth abilities, utilitarianism in their profound development, and an essential hard-working attitude were taught to the children at home. Since the Puritans put such a high value on schooling, “The New Britain Groundwork” was one of their essential assets for showing small children. They start to peruse, compose, and decipher the Book of Scriptures early in life. The motivation behind the scholarly center was likewise otherworldly and functional due to the need to peruse profoundly the sacred writing and participate in the city’s monetary viewpoints.

Comparison of Puritan Child Labor with Other Historical Periods

Such a comparison helps to better understand how different from current views about child labor the distinctness of child labor in the Puritan period might have been. Child labor in the Puritan Era differs significantly from contemporary notions about childhood and the prioritization of education, play, and vulnerability. Unlike child labor in factories and mines related to the Industrial Revolution, Puritan child labor was deeply seated in the farms and within the households. However, this was not the situation with Puritan children who labored in pleasant and supportive settings close to them and their places of habitation. Although child labor during the Puritan Era was physically taxing, it was shaped by strict religious and ethical principles.

Unlike the abusive child labor practices during the Industrial Revolution that exposed children to prolonged work duration and dangerous conditions, the Puritan times’ society, religion, economics, and child labor were all in a tangle. In fact, children were important in the economic and religious life of the Puritan society. Thus, by comparing the context of Puritan child labor to the other historical periods, we better appreciate child labor within the Puritan Era and its association with the Puritan work ethic and religious principles.

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The Pauper Apprentice System

Explanation of the Pauper Apprentice System in Early America

One notable part of child labor practices during colonial America and the Puritan time includes the Pauper Apprentice System. As the colonial society grew, this became a system of supporting impoverished and orphaned children and providing labor for burgeoning colonies. The scheme involved caring for poor or orphaned children by being apprenticed to a family or an artisan. These children provided work in return for food, clothing, accommodation, and an ideal chance for education and moral guidance. The result can be traced to England, where they dealt with poor and homeless children. The 17th-century English Poor Laws laid down the framework that formed the basis for the Pauper apprentice system. The system sought to alleviate prevailing social and economic problems by catering to orphans and vulnerable children. The pauper apprenticeship system was transported to the New World, where it functionally operated in the American colonies upon the arrival of the Puritan settlers (Teixeira, 2023). It became a way of confronting a shortage of the labor force while also providing social help. The children, placed in different apprenticeships, also worked in many other trades, such as farming and blacksmithing, according to the needs of the respective host families or masters. The system enabled the children to participate in economic life and, at the same time, helped them achieve their peer expectations.

Analysis of its Impact on Child Labor during the Puritan Era

Child Labor Practices under the Pauper Apprentice System influenced the lives of children in the colonies. The system made a significant contribution to the labor forces of the colonies. Unwanted and orphaned children would otherwise have proved burdensome to society, were they not incorporated into the workforce. It was necessary, especially in the Puritan Era when the colonies were founded, requiring a massive force for survival (Honningdal Grytten & Bjørn Minde, 2019). The apprenticeship for paupers provided work, moral lessons, and education for these children. The child was always taught to read and write, and the host had to inculcate religious ethics. Such a dual focus on labor and education made it compatible with Puritan religious instruction.

It was also a part of the social welfare program and ensured that poor and homeless kids were cared for. By doing so, it dealt with the social concern of poor children and assisted in promoting the economics of new settlements. Although the Pauper Apprenticeship system did have some benefits, there were also a lot of faults. The children were subjected to hard labor under some cruelty meted out to their host families or masters. The potential for exploitation called for vigilance and, eventually, a regulation that developed when society changed its views concerning child labor (Honningdal Grytten & Bjørn Minde, 2019). The Puritan system had numerous ramifications relating to child labor. The hymn provided economic benefits to the colonies, guided them morally and socially, and educated children. On the other hand, this system held the potential for exploitation, thus giving rise to labor laws and regulations that have grown since then. The inclusion of this system makes our understanding of child labor and the socioeconomic aspects more enriching.

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Evolution of Child Labor

How Child Labor Laws and Practices Evolved from the Puritan Era to More Recent Times

In essence, during this time, children were actively involved in labor. The children had a role in sustaining their families’ and communities’ economies. The work was conceived as a moral obligation, and they were engaged in this labor as an instrument of the Puritan work ethic. The period had no formal child labor laws, and it was considered normal for children to work. They saw what was known as the Industrial Revolution in the early 19th century, leading to significant changes in child labor practices. More and more children were being employed in factories and mines, subjected to dangerous conditions, and for prolonged periods. During this period, children’s labor was at its peak. Such concerns emerged among the stakeholders who sought to protect children’s health, safety, and educational rights. The rise in the labor movement occurred due to increased awareness of the harmful repercussions of child labor. Reformers and labor unions pushed for humane working conditions and restricted child labor, among other issues that had negative social consequences. Therefore, states commenced enacting their child labor laws. The federal government established the National Child Labor Committee in 1904, which the Supreme Court ruled unconstitutional in 1918.

The pivotal event that culminated in child labor regulation was the passed federal legislation. For the first time, a statutory restriction on child labor was enforced with the passage of the Keating-Owen Act of 1916, making it illegal to transport interstate goods produced by using child labor. Nevertheless, this law was nullified by the Supreme Court in 1919. Despite this, Congress suggested introducing changes to the Constitution, and in 1924, the 20th Amendment empowered the federal government to limit child labor. It came about through the passing of the Fair Labor Standards Act (FLSA) in 1938, which led to national labor standards. It included a stipulation that set the minimum working age and maximum hours for children. It constitutes a significant step towards safeguarding child labor rights. The FLSA established 16 as the minimum working age, while the minimum in non-hazardous jobs was 14. It banned the employment of children and restricted their working conditions.

The US started aligning its practices to global standards about child labor in the latter part of the 20th century. The International Labour Organization (ILO) formulated standards of child labor adopted in the US. The worst forms of child labor must be eliminated, while child rights should be implemented at all levels, starting with primary education. The USA has made improvements toward child labor in the twenty-first century. The Department of Labor establishes child labor standards, ensuring that young workers are safe and have a right to wages (Fitzgerald, 2020). The criteria differ depending on age, type, and profession of work. Federal and state laws continue evolving to meet current challenges and social trends.

Influence of Societal and Legal Changes on Child Labor Practices

Society’s changing perceptions of social norms have greatly influenced how child labor is conducted. The change in opinion from considering child labor as necessary for an organization to seeing it as harmful has fueled the development of child labor laws. The changing societal attitude is primarily attributed to increased awareness of children’s rights, including education and well-being. However, the labor union has been influential in lobbying against child labor. Labor movements resulted in improved workers’ rights and reduced child labor. These efforts played an essential role in establishing child labor laws and regulations at the federal and state levels. Child labor has also been affected by technological improvements. As economies moved from agrarian to industrial, the need for child labor declined in some sectors (Forehand & McKinney, 1993). Many industries have become automated, making fewer children available for delivery, thus reducing the number of child laborers. The US participation in global labor bodies and norms has been far-reaching (French, 2019). The efforts made by the US against child labor and in line with the protection of children worldwide have strengthened the struggles of America against child labor domestically and internationally. As such, amendments to the laws governing child labor have significantly reduced cases of child labor. The strict application of these laws, including fines for non-compliance, has dramatically decreased employers’ use of child labor.

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Conclusion

The issue of child labor in the Puritan era was intricately entwined with the realm’s spiritual, financial, and social domains. The study has investigated the historical background, the functions children rendered during the Puritan period, the effect of the Pauper Apprentice system, the development of work ethic amongst offspring, and shifts in law and public opinion. I am summarizing significant findings about child labor during the Puritan Era. While giving a nod to these limitations, it proposes various areas for future investigation.

Summary of Key Findings and Their Significance

Child labor in the Puritan period was associated with the religion of the Puritans, who viewed labor as an honest conviction and an approach to commending God. Children’s jobs were significant to a local area’s financial and profound life. It is fundamental to comprehend that the Homeless Person Disciple Framework, a framework relocated from Britain and adopted in the American provinces, fostered the act of child labor. It offered care, training, and moral direction to needy children, who had the option to work and help in achieving the essential requests of a developing economy. Notwithstanding, the improvement of child labor regulations and rules from the Puritan Time to the present has been portrayed by changing accepted practices and cognizance, the impact of labor development, innovation, globalization, and world principles. One of these turning points was the presentation of government child labor regulations, including the FLSA, passed in 1938, underlining the requirement for schooling and children’s privileges. These discoveries have importance, as they add to understanding child labor during the Puritan time frame and the overall history of child labor in the U.S. The contextual analysis shows what religion meant for labor rehearses, the beggar disciple framework that occurred before, and the advancement of child labor regulations in America.

Implications for Understanding Child Labor during the Puritan Era

Learning about child labor in the Puritan period helps one appreciate the nuances of early American life. It provides a picture of children’s role in helping their parents with tasks for reasons of religion and economic necessity. The research explains why we should understand how the particular historical and cultural environment fostered the evolution of child labor practice. In addition, this study on child labor during the Puritan era enriches our understanding of the more significant trends regarding labor practices towards children in US history. The changing definition of children’s work shows that this did not remain fixed but varied according to societal changes and legislation. For comprehension, the Puritan Era has become essential to consider the genesis and transformation of child labor practices in America. Contemporary significance is also attached to the lessons learned from developing the laws governing child labor (Edwards, 2023). Knowing the story about the struggle to protect children from being exploited and ensure that all workers respect the children’s rights will help society understand how the laws have helped ensure the children’s safety at work. It should be noted that society’s desire to educate its children ensures they do not experience childhood prematurely but grow up normally and are saved from exploitation through the development of child labor laws.

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Limitations and Areas for Further Research

However, this research does havebowl limitations. The emphasis on child labor in New England’s period might not include the generalizations of all other colonial areas or Indian races. Research may also focus on types of child labor practiced in different colonial environments. Also, such research generally depends upon historical and second-hand information that could prejudice the perception of incidents and occurrences. Future research may also use primary sources from the Puritan era, for example, diaries, letters, or legal documents, which could present a deeper understanding of Puritanism, not just in the words written by its adherents. Although this study emphasizes American child labor laws, it is essential to point out the global dimension of child labor in different parts of the world. It is another vital research opportunity to understand how international child labor practices have taken shape and their effects on the lives of children worldwide. Researchers can use such research results to comprehensively understand how industrialization led to the change in the practice of child labor, as well as subsequent policies. Child labor in the Puritan era says something about the trajectory of the general development of child labor in the United States and is an aspect of American history. Acknowledging the limitations and outlining future possible research is an integral part of this work, as it allows us to keep digging deeper into the child labor problem and strive to provide children with the conditions of fair treatment, protection, and welfare.

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References

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