CHILD LABOR IN AMERICA

- Parin Udani

Through the 1800s and early 1900s, nearly 2 million American children were employed in all manner of unsafe jobs

The National Child Labor Committee hired an investigative photographer to document these horrid working conditions in places such as…

Textile Mills

Canneries

Coal Mines

…and Glass Factories

Often, children had to help their parents in order to earn wages and help makes ends meet.

Here we see a widow receiving help from her children at her job rolling cigarettes.

However the wages

they earned

were miniscule.

Children were seen more as “Young Adults”

And were not offered the luxuries of a modern day “Childhood”

and it was common for children to get injured

Carl Thornburg a 12 year old boy who went to work at 11. A few weeks ago he caught his arm in the "lapper" machine, and broke it in 2 places. He said: "I sure didn't mean to. Was jus goin through the lapper room an fust thing I knew everything went black." The family is hard-up. Father is a paralytic. Here is a real chance for a mill to do a benevolent deed by making some recompense to this crippled boy and his paralytic father. They think it's charity to give a boy work under legal age, but when he is injured they forget that side of it. No suggestion of any kind of recompense has been heard. Jim Browning said he was 12 years old, but that is doubtful. Has worked 6 months here; gets 50 cents a day. Is in the 2nd grade at school.

Frank Wiegel was injured after working 18 hours a day. Age 15 years. Employed by the Henry Bosch Paper Co., makers of wallpaper sample books. On Saturday morning at 1:55, Frank must have fallen asleep and in some way he knocked against the controlling pedal, and the next thing he knew his hand was caught in the machine.