ShmoopTube

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[ musical flourish ]

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And here's your Shmoop du jour, brought to you by an awful blot,

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rejects from the Rorschach collection.

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All right, what was a major cause of the problem shown in the image?

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And here are your potential answers.

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[ mumbles ]

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Okay, well the awful blot in this image refers to

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the prevalence of child labor,

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a great stain on our nation at the start of the 20th century.

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Let's see which answer best describes how

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factories came to rely on this simultaneously small

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and large workforce.

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All right, was a major cause of child labor A -

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the change in family structure following the Civil War?

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All right, well although many families were affected by

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the number of deaths that occurred during the Civil War,

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this wasn't a huge factor in the growth of child labor per se.

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So get rid of A.

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Could the rise in child labor have been affected by B -

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an increase in control by political machines?

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Well, despite promises of change from powerful political bosses,

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wages and hours often remained the same for adults

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and for children. That's a bust for B.

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So did the prevalence of child labor result from the D -

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expansion of population in the West?

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Well, though population was increasing in the West,

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the most rapid growth was happening in major urban areas

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right underneath that ugly blot on the map, right here.

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Which means that the major cause of child labor was C -

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growth of industry aided by immigration.

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Well, much of the rise in child labor was traced to recent immigrants

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to the United States and new urban residents.

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With little money and few options,

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families often found it necessary to put every member of the family

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to work in order to survive. So C is the correct answer.

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After muckraking journalists exposed the dangers of

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having underage employees,

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reformers really threw tantrums until protective laws

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were put into place and gave children their lives back.

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[ child groaning ]

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