historyplace/unitedstates/childlabor/index.html

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2. About Lewis Hine • Photographer Lewis W. Hine (1874-1940) took up photography as a means of expressing his social concerns. • Best known for his investigative photography against the exploitation of American children. • From 1908 to 1912, Hine photographed children as young as three years old working for long hours, often under dangerous conditions across America

3. Child Labor in America • Popular belief that children from poor families benefited from work • Child labor on the farm was common, • Companies often hired the entire family, provided company-owned houses, and sold overpriced goods at the company store. • Local child labor laws were often ignored. • Often laws did not apply to immigrants, thus they were often exploited and wound up living in slums working long hours for little pay.

4. Child Labor in America • In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was organized • Between 1908-1912 Lewis Hine documented children workers • Hine's photographs created widespread publicity. As a result, many states passed stricter laws banning the employment of underage children • In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, better known as the Federal Wage and Hour Law. The Act was declared constitutional in 1941 by the U.S. Supreme Court. • The Act set a work week of 40 hours, with a minimum wage of 40 cents per hour. It prohibited child labor under age 16 while allowing minors 16 and over to work in non-hazardous occupations.

5. Child Labor Today • The International Labor Office estimates 250 million children between the ages 5-14 work in developing countries • Over 120 million children work full time in various jobs often under hazardous conditions amid crude living conditions. • A surplus of unskilled workers and low wages have combined to create conditions for children similar to the worst features of factories, mines and mills from the 1800s with minimal chances for education and future happiness.

6. Faces of Lost Youth • Furman Owens, 12 years old. Can't read. Doesn't know his A,B,C's. Said, "Yes I want to learn but can't when I work all the time." Been in the mills 4 years, 3 years in the Olympia Mill. Columbia, S.C.

7. Faces of Lost Youth Adolescent girls from Bibb Mfg. Co. in Macon, Georgia.

8. Faces of Lost Youth Doffer boys. Macon, Georgia.

9. The Mill • A general view of spinning room, Cornell Mill. Fall River, Mass.

10. The Mill A moments glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 11 years old. Been working over a year. Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, N.C.

11. The Mill Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Ga.

12. The Mill • One of the spinners in Whitnel Cotton Mill. She was 51 inches high. Has been in the mill one year. Sometimes works at night. Runs 4 sides - 48 cents a day. When asked how old she was, she hesitated, then said, "I don't remember," then added confidentially, "I'm not old enough to work, but do just the same." Out of 50 employees, there were ten children about her size. Whitnel, N.C.

13. The Mill The overseer said apologetically, "She just happened in." She was working steadily. The mills seem full of youngsters who "just happened in" or "are helping sister." Newberry, S.C.

14. The Mill • Jo Bodeon, a back-roper in the mule room at Chace Cotton Mill. Burlington, Vt.

15. The Factory • Willie, a Polish boy, taking his noon rest in a doffer box at the Quidwick Co. Mill. Anthony, R.I.

16. Newsies A small newsie downtown on a Saturday afternoon. St. Louis, Mo.

17. Newsies A group of newsies selling on Capitol steps. Tony, age 8, Dan, 9, Joseph, 10, and John, age 11. Washington, D.C.

18. Newsies Tony Casale, age 11, been selling 4 years. Sells sometimes until 10 p.m. His paper told me the boy had shown him the marks on his arm where his father had bitten him for not selling more papers. He (the boy) said, "Drunken men say bad words to us." Hartford, Conn.

19. Newsies Out after midnight selling extras. There were many young boys selling very late. Youngest boy in the group is 9 years old. Harry, age 11, Eugene and the rest were a little older. Washington, D.C.

20. Newsies • Michael McNelis, age 8, a newsboy [with photographer Hine]. This boy has just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia. Was found selling papers in a big rain storm. Philadelphia, Pa.

21. Newsies • Francis Lance, 5 years old, 41 inches high. He jumps on and off moving trolley cars at the risk of his life. St. Louis, Mo.

22. Miners At the close of day. Waiting for the cage to go up. The cage is entirely open on two sides and not very well protected on the other two, and is usually crowded like this. The small boy in front is Jo Puma. S. Pittston, Pa.

23. Miners View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pa. Coal Co. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of the boys' lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience. S. Pittston, Pa.

24. Miners

25. Miners Breaker boys, Hughestown Borough Pa. Coal Co. One of these is James Leonard, another is Stanley Rasmus. Pittston, Pa.

26. Miners A young driver in the Brown mine. Has been driving one year. Works 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily. Brown W. Va.

27. Miners Breaker boys. Smallest is Angelo Ross. Pittston, Pa.

28. The Factory 9 p.m. in an Indiana Glass Works.

29. The Factory Some of the young knitters in London Hosiery Mills. London, Tenn.

30. The Factory Young cigar makers in Engelhardt & Co. Three boys looked under 14. Labor leaders told me in busy times many small boys and girls were employed. Youngsters all smoke. Tampa, Fla.

31. The Factory Boys in the packing room at the Brown Mfg. Co. Evansville, Ind.

32. The Factory Day scene. Wheaton Glass Works. Boy is Howard Lee. His mother showed me the family record in Bible which gave his birth as July 15, 1894. 15 years old now, but has been in glass works two years and some nights. Millville, N.J.

33. The Factory • Rob Kidd, one of the young workers in a glass factory. Alexandria, Va.

34. The Factory A boy making melon baskets in a basket factory. Evansville, Ind.

35. Seafood Workers • Oyster shuckers working in a canning factory. All but the very smallest babies work. Began work at 3:30 a.m. and expected to work until 5 p.m. The little girl in the center was working. Her mother said she is "a real help to me." Dunbar, La.

36. Seafood Workers Shrimp pickers, including little 8 year old Max on the right. Biloxi, Miss.

37. Seafood Workers • Johnnie, a nine year old oyster shucker. Man with pipe behind him is a padrone who has brought these people from Baltimore for four years. He is the boss of the shucking shed. Dunbar, La.

38. Seafood Workers Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English. Biloxi, Miss.

39. Seafood Workers Cutting fish in a sardine cannery. Large sharp knives are used with a cutting and sometimes chopping motion. The slippery floors and benches and careless bumping into each other increase the liability of accidents. "The salt water gits into the cuts and they ache," said one boy. Eastport, Me.

40. Seafood Workers • Hiram Pulk, age 9, working in a canning company. "I ain't very fast only about 5 boxes a day. They pay about 5 cents a box," he said. Eastport, Me.

41. Fruit Pickers A berry field on Rock Creek. Whites and blacks, old and young, work here from 4:30 a.m. to sunset some days. A long hot day. Rock Creek, Md.

42. Fruit Pickers • Camille Carmo, age 7, and Justine, age 9. The older girl picks about 4 pails a day. Rochester, Mass.

43. Fruit Pickers • Norris Luvitt. Been picking 3 years in berry fields near Baltimore.

44. Little Salesmen • After 9 p.m., 7 year old Tommie Nooman demonstrating the advantages of the Ideal Necktie Form in a store window on Pennsylvania Ave. in Washington, D.C. His father said, "He is the youngest demonstrator in America. Has been doing it for several years from San Francisco, to New York. We stay a month or six weeks in a place. He works at it off and on." Remarks from the by-standers were not having the best effect on Tommie.

45. Little Salesmen • Joseph Severio, peanut vender, age 11 [seen with photographer Hine]. Been pushing a cart 2 years. Out after midnight on May 21, 1910. Ordinarily works 6 hours per day. Works of his own volution. All earnings go to his father. Wilmington, Del.

46. Little Salesmen • A young candy seller in Boston, Mass.

47. A Variety of Jobs • A Bowery bootblack in New York.

48. A Variety of Jobs • George Christopher, Postal Telegraph, age 14. Been at it over 3 years. Does not work nights. Nashville, Tenn.

49. A Variety of Jobs Bowling Alley boys. Many of them work setting pins until past midnight. New Haven, Conn.

50. A Variety of Jobs • A boy carrying hats in New York City.