30 Shocking Photos Of Child Labor Between 1908 And 1916
The impact of these images, by photographer Lewis Hine, were instrumental in changing the child labor laws in the U.S.
1.
Date: June 1910
Location: Seaford, Delaware.
The photo shows Daisy Langford, an 8-year-old who works at Ross' canneries. She helps at the capping machine, but is not able to "keep up." So she places caps on the cans at the rate of about 40 per minute working full time. That was her first season at the cannery.
2.
Date: August 1908
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Young workers at the Indianapolis Furniture Factory.
3.
Date: September 1908
Location: Cincinnati, Ohio
Lawrence J. Hill, 17 years old, had four fingers mashed off by stamping machine in a lamp factory.
4.
Date: October 1908
Location: West Virginia
Two boys working at Lehr glass works.
5.
Date: August 1908
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
Noon time at a cotton mill.
6.
Date: November 1910
Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee.
Group of spinners at Elk Cotton Mills. According to Lewis, the youngest girl hardly knew her name.
7.
Date: November 1908
Location: Location: Lincolnton, North Carolina.
A young girl, worked as a spinner in Daniels Mfg. Co.
8.
Date: May 1911
Location: Tupelo, Mississippi
Inez Johnson (9 years old) and Lily, her cousin (7 years old), both regularly worked as spoolers.
9.
Date: November 1908
Location: Gastonia, North Carolina.
Workers on their way home from Loray Mill. The smallest boy on the right end, John Moore, 13 years old, had already been working at the mill for 6 years as sweeper, doffer and spinner.
10.
October 1913
Location: San Antonio, Texas.
Three brothers: Boyce (10 years old), Lawrence (7 years old), and the unidentified youngest brother (5 years old), worked as newsboys to support themselves, because their father was sick.
All three would start work at 6:00 A.M. and would sell papers until about 9:00 or 10:00 P.M
11.
Date: May 1910
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Newsboys taking a smoke break.
12.
Date: August 1908
Location: Indianapolis, Indiana
13 Indianapolis Newsboys waiting for the Base Ball edition, in a Newspaper office.
13.
Date: July 1908
Location: St. Louis, Missouri
Francis Lance, 5 years old, selling papers on Grand Avenue.
14.
Date: August 1916
Location: Warren County--Albaton, Kentucky
Amos (6 years old) and Horace (4 years old), worked every day from "sun-up to sun-down," worming and suckering tobacco plants on their father's farm.
15.
Location: Comanche County, Oklahoma
Date: October 1916
Jewel (6 years old) and Harold Walker (5 years old), both picked between 20 to 25 pounds of cotton a day.
16.
Date: October 1913
Location: Houston [vicinity], Texas
Millie, a 4-year-old cotton picker, on farm near Houston. She picked about eight pounds of cotton a day.
17.
Date: February 1913
Location: Bluffton, South Carolina
Rosie (7 years old) was a regular oyster shucker. It was her second year working a the Varn & Platt Canning Co.
18.
Date: January 1911
Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania
Breaker boys (their job was to separate impurities from coal by hand) at the Hughestown Borough Pennsylvania Coal Company.
19.
Date: January 1911
Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania
Breakers boys at work at the Pennsylvania Coal Co. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stood over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience.
20.
Date: June 1911
Location: Richmond, Virginia
Two Newsboys' Richard Green (with hat), 5 years old, and Richmond, who was "8".
21.
Date: March 1911
Location: Dunbar, Louisiana
Rosy, an 8-year-old oyster shucker, worked all day from about 3:00 A.M. to about 5 P.M. at the Dunbar Cannery.
According to Lewis, the baby in photo would learn to shuck as soon as she could handle the knife.
22.
Date: March 1911
Location: Bay St. Louis, Mississippi
Maud Daly (5 years old) and her sister, Grade Daly (3 years old), each picked about one pot of shrimp a day for the Peerless Oyster Co.
23.
Date: November 1910
Location: Pell City, Alabama
Doffers at the Pell City Cotton Mill.
24.
Date: November 1910
Location: Birmingham, Alabama.
Donnie Cole worked as a doffer (someone who clears full bobbins, pirns or spindles from a spinning frame). When asked Lewis asked his age, he hesitated, then said, "I'm 12."
25.
Date: April 1913
Location: Columbus, Georgia
Phoenix Mill was a "dinner-toters," delivering up to 10 meals a day to workers.
26.
Date: January 1909
Location: Augusta, Georgia
A little spinner at the Globe Cotton Mill. Augusta, Ga. The overseer admitted that she was regularly employed.
27.
Date: December 1908
Location: Loudon, Tennessee
Like many young workers, this little girl was so small she has to stand on a box to reach the machine.
28.
Date: February 1911
Location: Port Royal, South Carolina
Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old), Sophie (10 years old), were all shuckers at the Maggioni Canning Co.
29.
Date: January 1909
Location: Tampa, Florida
Young boys working as cigar makers at the Englahardt & Co.,
30.
Date: July 1909
Location: Baltimore, Maryland.
Young workers stringing beans in the J. S. Farrand Packing Co. Those too small to work are held on laps of workers.
Via: Vintage Everyday