Child Labor
Industrial Revolution
and the American
By Dorothea Stewart
At that time: An
increase in city
population is
considered an
increase of industrial
employment.
Farming occupation
2.00
1.80
1.60
1.40
1.20
1.00
0.80
0.60
0.40
0.20
0.00
60
1.75
50
40
30
0.77
percent
Millions
City Population & Child Labor
20
10
0
1815
1860
1870
1900
Children employed in Industry
1916
City Population
2
What spurred the American Industrial
Revolution
 Mechanized cotton textile factories
 Mechanical, labor-saving devices
 Discovery of coal deposits
 Steam engine and electricity
 Production of American iron
 National transportation system
3
Agents of the American Industrial
Revolution
All these factors are interdependent:
Without the mechanized
production a greater scale of
produced items would not
have been possible.
The use the steam
Electricity made factories
engine made it possible
independent from rivers and
to improve and enlarge
streams.
machinery for higher
production.
The expanded national transportation
system ensured to satisfy the demand for
lower-priced goods throughout the country.4
Thus:
Large scale production is
unavoidable.
5
Industrialization
wanted
needed
cheap
used
labor
6
Transformation of a Society
From farming and the boat to the factories:
7
Migration
Farming families moving to industrial centers
Farming that depended on one crop
was not viable
Steady employment was more
viable and lucrative than toiling on
a worn out farm
Often times, the father remained
on the farm while women and
children, as less efficient farm
workers, went into industrial
employment.
8
Immigration
From the boat to industrial employment:
Millions
14.00
12.00
10.00
8.00
6.00
4.00
2.00
0.00
13.5
10.3
5.6
1870
1900
1910
Foreign born residents
9
C
H
I
L
D
LABOR
10
Children in the household economy
“… the household is the locus (location) of
both production and consumption.”
In the pre-industrial society children
worked side by side with their parents
for the benefits of the family
household. The work was controlled
and determined by the parents. Family
life, education and labor happened
simultaneously.
11
Children in the yeoman* economy
“… most yeoman households practiced
one or more industrial occupations in
which the children invariably participated.”
Family production, apart from farming,
was not only for their own consumption
but also for the market or for bartering.
Children worked long hours alongside
their parents in the family and
household environment.
*A man holding and cultivating a small
piece of land
12
Children in the proto*-industrialization
stage
“… it was in this stage that the seeds for
child labor were sown.”
The family was the producing entity. A
merchant provided the raw material and
tended to the sales on the market. The
family entered an employment
relationship where the children were
part of. Labor though, still happened
within the family household and
environment.
*First stage of something,. Here : first stage of
industrialization
13
The Change
Think of the deadly drudgery.
Children rise at half past four, commanded by the ogre scream of the
factory whistle;
they hurry, ill fed, unkempt, unwashed, half dressed to the walls which
shut out the day
and which confine them amid the dim and dust and merciless maze of
the machines.
Julia E. Johnsen
14
Why Children?
Employing children was thought to be a
noble cause.
Work supports the development of
appropriate values and ethics:
“Can it be doubted that, if the crowd of little mendicant (homeless) boys
and girls who infest this edifice (Building) and assail us every day at its
very thresholds, (...) begging for a cent, were employed in some
manufacturing establishment, it would be better for them and the city?
Those who object to the manufacturing system should recollect that
constant occupation is the best security for innocence and virtue, and
that idleness is the parent of vice and crime.”
Senator Henry
Clay, 1820
15
And 100 years later:
“The real problem in America is not
child labor, but child idleness. You
cannot convince me that it hurts a
child either physically or morally to
make him work. Where one child, in
my experience, has been injured from
work, ten thousand have gone to the
devil because of lack of occupation.”
Senator Charles S. Thomas, 1925
16
However
“If laws raised the minimum
working age, companies would
have to replace children with
more expensive adults and
that would reduce profits
Owner of Southern textile mill, 1910
Remember:
17
Industrialization
wanted
needed
cheap
used
labor
18
Wage Differences
$7.00
$7.00
$6.00
$5.00
$4.00
$3.00
$2.00
$1.50
$1.00
$0.00
Week
Adult Male
Child
$4.00
$3.50
$3.00
$2.50
$3.54
$2.34
$2.00
$1.50
$1.00
$0.50
$0.00
$1.32
Week
Male
Female
Child
What was the annual profit for the company
employing the child instead of the father?
19
Wage Disparities
$200.00
$177.84
$150.00
121.68
$100.00
$400.00
$68.64
$364.00
$50.00
$350.00
$300.00
$0.00
$250.00
Wage
$200.00
$150.00
$78.00
$100.00
Male
Female
Child
$50.00
$0.00
Wage
Father
Child
Gain: $286.00 per
child employed
instead of father
Gain: $109.20, per
child employed
instead of father
20
Wage Disparities
To put it in Lewis Hine’s words:
“The object of
employing children is
not to train them, but to
get high profits from
their work.”
21
Child Labor in the Family Economy
Traditionally, the whole family worked and created
a family income.
The availability of cheaper child labor
decreased adults’ wages so that every member
of the household needed to contribute.
There is some evidence that fathers lived
off the income of the children.
However, in most cases the child’s or
children’s income was a necessity for the
family’s survival.
22
What about School?
Nor
did days
employers
give
upthe
their
School
and
the
school
year
Parents
did
not
recognize
School
Schools were
not
available
School
present
profit
for
a better
were
much
shorter
than over
future
value
of
education
for
most
working
class
educated,
i.e. more
productive
workdays
and
the work
year.
the
necessary
income
of
the
children
workforce.
Children would have been
present.
unattended.
23
The African American Experience
The slave holder
society considered all
slaves, adults and
children, as property
that could be
disposed of, used,
and sold as seemed
fit at any time.
24
The African American Experience
Slave children
guaranteed the
continuation of labor
supply. They
learned by working
alongside adult
slaves.
25
The African American Experience
A low life
expectancy due to
overworking
children was not in
the interest of the
slave holder.
Nevertheless, child labor
in slavery was not the
issue to condemn but
slavery itself.
26
After Abolition
African Americans were not considered
capable to work in factories and were
mostly excluded from the industrial
section. They remained in agriculture,
domestic and personal service.
“First thing I knowed we’d
stayed on the place free
longer than we’d stayed as
slaves”
Virginian freed woman
27
C
H
I
L
D
R
E
N
in
Mills
Mines
Glass
Factories
The Streets
Children without hope
28
The golf links lie so near the
mill
That nearly every day
The laboring children can look
out
And see the men at play.
Sarah N. Cleghorn
29
Why do I pick the threads all
day, Mother, Mother?
While sunshine children
laugh and play, and must I
work forever?
Yes, Shadow Child, the
livelong day, Daughter little
Daughter, your hands must
pick the threads away
And feel the sunshine never.
Harriet Munroe
30
…,the children fed the
endless ravening
hunger of the
machines.
They came home too tired to eat the food their money bought. And often
they fell asleep with their clothes still on. When the five o’clock whistle
blew, they went back to the mill, without having seen the sun, the light of
day or anything but the mill for twenty-four hours.
31
They (the boys) work here, …
picking away at the black
coals, bending over till their
little spines are curved,
never saying a work all the
livelong day….
Not three boys in this
roomful could read or
write….
They know nothing but the
difference between slate and
coal.
Excerpt from an 1877 issue of “The Labor
Standard”.
32
How many boys worked in
the coal mines?
9,000? 12,000 or 7,600?
More or less?
Does is really matter?
It was a large number. But
the number is not the issue.
Boys working in coal mines
is the issue.
33
A lonely job, by
himself nine or ten
hours a day in
absolute darkness
save for his little oil
lamp. …
Owing to the intense darkness in the mine , I didn’t notice the chalk drawings
on the door until I had developed the photographic plate. These drawings tell
the tale of the boy’s loneliness underground.
Lewis Hine
34
At least a dozen of the carrying-in
boys were probably under 16.
These little boys did not look
healthy, many of them, not fit to do
their all-night work in the intense
heat and hurry.
They are on the walk all the time
for ten hours….
Timed one boy and paced the
distance; at his rate he walked a
little over 20 miles per night.
Charles L. Chute
35
Learning the Trade?
For every 100 boys under the age
of sixteen that we permit to do this
night work in the glass factories,
not more than four stand any
chance of becoming skilled
tradesmen,…
At present there is no prospect
whatever for the boy learning the
glass trade.
Herschel Jones
36
I would rather send my boys
straight to hell than send them
by way of the glass house.
Longtime glass factory worker
37
Boys bought the newspapers
wholesale and made their earnings
through the markup – one to three
cents per paper.
Most of them stayed out in the
streets until they were sold out.
38
From Rags to Riches
Street trading kids were often
considered as little entrepreneurs
– Horatio Alger style.
Some of them made it into middle
class or even a ‘captain of industry’.
However, for one who made it
there were hundreds that did not.
39
Department stores
Canneries
Industrial Homework
And where else?
Meatpacking
Shrimp pickers
AGRICULTURE
Oyster shuckers
Night messengers
40
C
H
I
L
D
LABOR
Continues…
41
New Definition of Child Labor
“In general, “child labor” refers to children under 18
years old who work in both the formal and informal
sectors, in conditions that are harmful or potentially
harmful to the child. Underpayment of children for their
work and other forms of exploitation, are also included.”
42
From the Factories to the Fields
Hundreds of thousands
of children work
as hired labor in
America’s fields
and orchards. These
children are among
the least protected of
all working children
43
“The sun is blazing on my skin its hot so hot I feel as if I am going to faint but I know I can’t
stop working I feel like crying but that wont help me in anything.
I keep on picking cucumbers trying not to work hard because there is a 99% percent chance
that once we are done with our fifty rows there will be another twenty to fifty more rows
waiting for us. We will keep on working until we cannot see the cucumbers any more.
Sometimes I want to scream at the top of my lungs because the next day will be just the
same.
I hate the fact that no one thinks we can be anything but migrant workers but I know
different. That is the only thing that keeps me striving daily.”
–Veronica Rodriguez, age 15, Michigan
44
Global Child Labor
2008 Total Child Labor - 215,000,000
62,419,000
61,826,000
Age 5-11
91,024,000
Age 12-14
Age 15-15
45
Global Child Labor by Region
22,473,000
113,607,000
65,064,000
14,125,000
Asia and Pacific
Latin America and Caribbean
Sub-Saharan Africa
Other Regions
46
All children
should be in
school
For all references click here
For bibliography click here
47
References
Title Slide
Background photo:
http://abscynthe.deviantart.com/art/The-Poetry-of-Cogs-173578820
Photos from left right (Photographs by Lewis Hine)
http://ocp.hul.harvard.edu/ww/nclc.html
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lewis-hine?before=1334953813
http://www.savevid.com/video/lewis-hine-a-progressive-reformer.html
http://crooksandliars.com/david-neiwert/it-was-inevitable-new-tea-partying-r
http://www.tumblr.com/tagged/lewis-hine?before=1334953813
Slide 1
Timeline for the Industrial Revolution generated from information from:
William Dudley, (ed.), The Industrial Revolution. Opposing Viewpoints. (San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998), 18-20.
Numbers for 1870 and 1900 estimated for continuation of data series.
Numbers for child labor from:
Hugh D. Hindman, Child Labor: An American History. (New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002), 31. Child Labor has certainly started
earlier than 1870. However, the US Census did not start counting industrially employed children until 1870. Ibid., 32.
Children started working in textile factories as early as 1789 as George Washington could observe himself. Rhoda Cahn
and William Cahn, No Time for School. No Time for Play. The Story of Child Labor in America. (New York: Julian Messner,
1972), 21
City population as indicator for industrialization: Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 20
48
References
Slide 3,4
Ruth Holland, Mill Child. The Story of Child Labor in America. (New York: Crowell-Collier Press,1970), 12-13
Slide 7
Farming photo from:
http://thefederalist-gary.blogspot.com/2011/09/shock-americans-are-lazy-bastards.html.
Immigration Photo
http://www.ellisisland.org/photoalbums/ellis_island_then.asp
Factory photo from:
http://senioreagles.wikispaces.com/Industrial+Revolution+Invention+Project.
Slide 8
Holland, Mill Child, 2-3
Russell, Freedman, Kids at Work. Lewis Hine and the Crusade against child labor. (New York: Clarion Books, 1994), 32
Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 224
Slide 9
Most immigrants went straight into industrial employment after their successful immigration. Hindman, Child Labor, 23
For statistics about immigration:
Nancy S. Landale and Avery M. Guest, “Generation, Ethnicity, and Occupational Opportunity in Late 19th Century
America,” American Sociological ReviewVol. 55, No. 2 (1990), 280
49
References
Slide 11
Hindman, Child Labor, 21
See ibid and Holland, Mill Child, 4
Slide 12
Hindman, Child Labor, 22
Ibid.
Holland, Mill Child, 4-7,
Sarah Horrel and Jane Humphries, “ ‘The exploitation of little Children’: Child Labor and the Family Economy in the
Industrial Revolution.” Explorations in Economic History32 (1995) 486-487 (for bibliography 485-516)
Slide 13
Hindman, Child Labor, 23
Ibid.
Slide 14
Printed in: Juliet H. Mofford, (ed.), Child Labor in America. (Carlisle: Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., 1997), 5
Picture from:
http://www.businesspundit.com/the-15-most-notorious-sweatshops-of-all-time/
Slide 15
Quote from Senator Clay in:
Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 17
50
References
Slide 16
Quote from Senator Thomas in:
Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 44
Slide 17
Quote from the textile mill owner in:
Ibid.
Slide 19
$ 7.00 for the father and $ 1.50 for the child from:
Holland, Mill Child, 19
Male, female, child wages from
Dudley (ed.), The Industrial Revolution, 217
Another example states a weekly rate of $ 6.55 for the girl and $ 7.70 for the father. Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America,
49
Slide 20
No footnotes
Slide 21
Freedman, Kids at Work, 21
51
References
Slide 22
Hindman, Child Labor, 35
Ibid., 39
Holland, Mill Child, 47
Freedman, Kids at Work, 8
Kaushik Basu and Pham Hoang Van, “The Economics of Child Labor,” The American Economic Review, Vol. 88, No. 3
(Jun., 1998), 415
Freedman, Kids at Work, 22
Slide 23
Hindman, Child Labor, 42
Slide 24-26
Ibid., 19-20 and
Slide 27
Quote from:
Patricia C. and Frederick L. Makissack, Days of Jubilee. The End of Slavery in the United States. (New York: Scholastic
Press, 2003) 97
Joe William Trotter, Jr., “African Americans and the Industrial Revolution.” OAH Magazine of History, Vol. 15, No. 1, The
Industrial Revolution (Fall, 2000), 20-21
Slide 29
Poem printed in: Mofford, (ed.) Child Labor in America, 7
52
References
Slide 30
The full song printed in ibid., 18
Slide 31
Quotes from:
Holland, Mill Child, 16, 17
Photo from:
http://motleynews.net/2012/02/04/historical-photos-of-child-labor-in-nc-textile-mills/
Slide 32
This quote is abbreviated. The excerpt is printed in:
Mofford, (ed.) Child Labor in America, 23-24
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://www.theoldphotoalbum.com/2009/05/lewis-hine-child-labor-i/
Slide 33
Slide 34
See Hindman, Child Labor, 94
Quote: Freedman, Kids at Work, 51
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://www.lewishinephotographs.com/content/vance-trapper-boy-15-yearsold-has-trapped-several-years-west-va-coal-mine-75-day-10-hours-w
http://www.shorpy.com/node/36
Slide 35
Chute was an investigator for the National Child Labor Committee.
Quote: Hindman, Child Labor, 131
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://argenteditions.com/carryingin-boy-alexandria-glass-factory-p-14.html
53
References
Slide 36
Herschel Jones was also an investigator for the National Child Labor Committee.
Quote: Hindman, Child Labor, 137
Slide 37
Freedman, Kids at Work, 57
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://argenteditions.com/typical-glass-works-boy-indiana-night-shift-p-13.html
Slide 38
Hindman, Child Labor, 229
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://obviousmag.org/en/archives/2009/09/child_labour_america.html
Slide 39
Hindman, Child Labor, 215, 233
Photograph by Lewis Hine from
http://www.theoldphotoalbum.com/2009/05/lewis-hine-child-labor-v/
Slide 40
Hindman, Child Labor, 187-212, 214-228, 248-290
Freedman, Kids at Work, 40-45
Agriculture is emphasized because even today about half million children work in agriculture in the U.S. See footnote to
slides 52 and 53
54
References
Slide 41
Hindman, Child Labor, 49
Slide 42
Ibid., 50
Slide 43
Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 11
Slide 44
Hindman, Child Labor, 51-52
Slide 45
Ibid., 65 and Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 13
Slide 46
Hindman, Child Labor, 65-66
Both, the Keating-Owen Act and the Child Labor Tax Act were considered unconstitutional because of the Tenth
Amendment that reserves rights to the states where not particularly explained. It should be added that many employers
adjusted their standards towards the Keating-Owen Act. Also, the War Labor Policies Board (WW I) had inserted a clause
for federal contracts that required adaptation of labor standards to the Keating-Owen Act. Ibid., 69-70 and 72
Slide 47
Ibid., 70-74
Slide 48
Ibid., 81-84 and Mofford (ed.), Child Labor in America, 13
Slide 49
Hindman, Child Labor, 84-85
55
References
Slide 51
S.L. Bachman, “The Political Economy of Child Labor and its Impact on International Business,” Business Economics July
2000, 32 (30-41)
Slide 52
Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children in the Fields. An American Problem”, available from
http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Children-in-the-Fields-Report-2007.pdf ; Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.
Photograph: ibid.
Slide 53
Ibid.
Slide 54
Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children at Work. A Glimpse into the Life of Child Farm Workers in
the United States”, available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NC-Blueberry-Photo-Booklet-2009.pdf;
Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.
Numbers for world wide child labor
http://ilo-mirror.library.cornell.edu/public/english/dialogue/actrav/genact/child/part2_a/agric.htm
Numbers, industries and countries for child labor
Do picture per industry and name the countries and numbers
http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html
Slides 55 und 56
International Labor Office, “Global child labour developments: Measuring trends from 2004 to 2008”; Available from
http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=13313 ; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012
Slides 57 and 58
Child Labor Coalition, “Child Labor Coalition announces Top Ten Child Labor Stories of 2011”; available from
http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2528; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012.
56
References
Slides 59-63
Zyiadnews, “Child Labor is a growing concern around the world…”; available from
http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html ; Internet; accessed 10 May 2012
All maps from www.worldatlas.com
Slide 64
Photo from http://www.un.org/cyberschoolbus/briefing/labour/index.htm;
57
Bibliography
•Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs, “Children at Work. A Glimpse into the Life of Child Farm
Workers in the United States.” Available from http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/NC-Blueberry-PhotoBooklet-2009.pdf. Internet; accessed 9 May 2012.
•Association of Farmworkers Opportunity Programs. “Children in the Fields. An American Problem.” Available from
http://afop.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/07/Children-in-the-Fields-Report-2007.pdf. Internet; accessed 9 May
2012.
•Bachman, S.L.. “The Political Economy of Child Labor and its Impact on International Business.” Business
Economics32, July (2000): 30-41
•Basu, Kaushik and Pham Hoang Van. “The Economics of Child Labor,” The American Economic Review88, No. 3
(1998): 412-427.
•Cahn, Rhoda, and William Cahn, No Time for School. No Time for Play. The Story of Child Labor in America.
New York: Julian Messner, 1972.
•Child Labor Coalition. “Child Labor Coalition announces Top Ten Child Labor Stories of 2011.” Available from
http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=2528. Internet; accessed 10 May 2010.
•Dudley,William, (ed.). The Industrial Revolution. Opposing Viewpoints. San Diego: Greenhaven Press, 1998.
•Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work. Lewis Hine and the Crusade against child labor. New York: Clarion Books,
1994.
•Hindman, Hugh D. Child Labor: An American History. New York: M.E. Sharpe, 2002.
•Holland, Ruth. Mill Child. The Story of Child Labor in America. New York: Crowell-Collier Press,1970.
58
Bibliography
•Horrel, Sarah, and Jane Humphries, “ ‘The exploitation of little Children’: Child Labor and the Family Economy in
the Industrial Revolution.” Explorations in Economic History32 (1995): 485-516
•International Labor Office. “Global child labour developments: Measuring trends from 2004 to 2008.” Available
from http://www.ilo.org/ipecinfo/product/viewProduct.do?productId=13313. Internet; accessed 10 May 2012
•Landale, Nancy S., and Avery M. Guest. “Generation, Ethnicity, and Occupational Opportunity in Late 19th
Century America.” American Sociological Review55, No. 2 (1990): 280-296.
•Makissack, Patricia C., and Frederick L. Makissack. Days of Jubilee. The End of Slavery in the United States.
New York: Scholastic Press, 2003.
•Mofford, Juliet H, (ed.), Child Labor in America. Carlisle: Discovery Enterprises, Ltd., 1997
•Trotter, Jr, Joe William. “African Americans and the Industrial Revolution.” OAH Magazine of History15, No. 1
(2000): 19-23.
•Zyiadnews. “Child Labor is a growing concern around the world… .” Available from
http://ziyadnews.blogspot.com/2010/05/child-labor-is-growing-concern-aroud.html. Internet; accessed 10 May
2012
59