what hardships did the children face in the coal mines in the 1800's?

Question

coal mining in the 1800's
what hardships did the children face
what did the U.S. government do to help these children

Answer 1

The dangers were Cave-ins, Long Hours in cramped and dangerous conditions, no protection against coal dust, spontaneous combustion of coal dust in the air in the mine, and many others. Children were recruited because they were easy to manipulate and intimidate into working long hours without being paid and without any rights, often while their parents had been laid off or black-listed from the mine.

In actuality, the only redress miners had until the 1930s was to go on strike, and in that action (along with strikers in all other industries) the federal government actually worked against reaching safe working conditons for miners of any age. Because the purpose of the strike is to stop the mine from operating and seeing a profit for management until demands are met, the federal government viewed this as a threat to interstate commerce which is regulated and protected by the federal government. Several times, when miners had gone on strike, the federal government had threatened to work the mines either with regular Army soldiers or with the State Militia (predecessor of the National Guard).

The first time the federal government did not instinctively take the side of management was during the Presidency of Theodore Roosevelt, although the federal mediators ended up siding almost entirely with management in this anyways. The federal government did not actively get involved in regulating safety for miners until the New Deal, and in many ways the protections have not been updated very much since.

I hope this helps.

Answer 2

Cold, heat, stale air, poisonous gases, potential cave-ins, injuries from rocks and equipment, working side-by-side with adults, unsympathetic management. Children were also often sent in to places too small for adults to navigate safely, adding to the danger.
Child labor laws and general occupational safety laws helped.

Answer 3

Manipulation by unions, the predecessors to Communism. The government protected them by cracking the heads of these criminals.

Answer 4

working in such a dangerous environment