Working in the Mill
“If I could tell the story in words, I
wouldn’t need to lug around a
camera.”
LewisHine
Babies in the Mill
By Dorsey Dixon
I used to be a factory hand when things were moving slow
When children worked in cotton mills, each morning had to go
Every morning just at five the whistle blew on time
And called them babies out of bed at the age of eight and nine
Come out of bed, little sleepy head
And get you a bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep
The children all grew up unlearned, they never went to school,
They never learned to read or write, but they learned to spin and
spool
Every time I close my eyes, I see that picture still,
When textile work was carried on with babies in the mill.
Come out of bed, little sleepy head
And get you a bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep
To their jobs those little ones were strictly forced to go,
Those babies had to be on time through rain and sleet and snow,
Many times when things went wrong their bosses often
frowned,
Many times those little ones was kicked and shoved around.
Come out of bed, little sleepy head
And get you a bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep
Old Timer can't you see that scene, that though the years go by
Those babies all went on the job, the same as you and I
I know you're glad that things have changed, and we have lots of
fun
As we go in and do the jobs that babies used to run
Come out of bed, little sleepy head
And get you a bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep
Come out of bed, little sleepy head
And get you a bite to eat
The factory whistle's calling you
There's no more time to sleep
Hine Photos Explained
• http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/ch
ildlabor/
• http://www.loc.gov/rr/print/coll/207-b.html
Child Labor Now
• http://www.hsph.harvard.edu/gallery/intro.html
• WHERE DO CHILD LABORERS LIVE?
• 61% in Asia, 32% in Africa, and 7% in Latin America, 1% in US,
Canada, Europe and other wealthy nations In Asia, 22% of the
workforce is children. In Latin America, 17% of the workforce is
children. The proportion of child laborers varies a lot among
countries and even regions inside those countries. See Child Labour:
Targeting the Intolerable, Geneva, 1998, p. 7; and other ILO
publications.
• "In Africa, one child in three is at work, and in Latin America, one
child in five works. In both these continents, only a tiny proportion
of child workers are involved in the formal sector and the vast
majority of work is for their families, in homes, in the fields or on
the streets." -- Unicef’s 1997 State of the World’s Children Report