Children Working in a Shrimp Cannery (1911)
Work
This 1911 photograph depicts workers, including two young children, picking shrimp in a cannery in Biloxi, Mississippi. Shrimp canneries often employed entire families, many of them immigrants, who worked peeling, cleaning, and cooking shrimp that was then packaged to be sold to American consumers. The photographer, Lewis Hine, was a sociologist and muckraker (an investigative journalist who exposed sources of corruption in various American institutions). Hine used photography to reveal problems within American labor systems; much of his photography highlighted the work being done by children. Hine's caption for this image said "Eight-year-old Max, one of the young shrimp pickers in the Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Company. Only a small force was working that day." In 1908, Hine became the photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, a organization dedicated to protecting child laborers and raising awareness about the conditions in which many worked. Eventually, his photographs played a critical role in the passage of child labor laws in the United States.
Hine, Lewis Wickes, "Eight-year-old Max, one of the young shrimp pickers in the Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Company. Only a small force was working that day. Location: Biloxi, Mississippi," 1911. Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/resource/nclc.00843/.
February 1911
2037
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
The National Child Labor Committee Seeks Members
The National Child Labor Committee was organized in 1904 by reformers concerned about the safety, health, and education of working children. It campaigned for state and federal laws that would ban child labor and require public education. Among its most effective methods of persuading the public were photographs taken by Lewis W. Hine of children working in mines, factories, fields, and city streets.
National Child Labor Committee
National Child Labor Committee poster, Library of Congress.
1915
Modern America (1914-1929)
The <em>Brooklyn Eagle</em> Condemns Child Labor in Mines
In this 1902 editorial, the <em>Brooklyn Eagle</em> strongly criticizes parents who sent their children to work in mines, work that the newspaper saw as dangerous and unhealthy for children.
<em>Brooklyn Eagle</em>
"Child Labor in the North," <em>Brooklyn Eagle</em> 23 December 1902, 4, from <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle 1841-1902 Online</em>, www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/
1902
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
The <em>Brooklyn Eagle </em>Defends Some Kinds of Child Labor
In this 1902 editorial, the <em>Brooklyn Eagle</em> describes the conditions that require some children to work for wages to support their families.
<em>Brooklyn Eagle</em>
"Work for Children," <em>Brooklyn Eagle</em> 17 March 1902, 4, from <em>Brooklyn Daily Eagle Online</em>, www.brooklynpubliclibrary.org/eagle/
1902
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A Southern Cotton Mill Owner Justifies Child Labor
Daniel Augustus Tompkins was an owner and investor in numerous cotton mills in North Carolina. His beliefs reflected those of many mill owners, who argued in favor of child labor.
Daniel Augustus Tompkins
<em>North Carolina Bureau of Labor and Printing, Fifteenth Annual Report . . . 1901</em>, quoted in Jacquelyn Dowd Hall, et al. eds., <em>Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World</em> (University of North Carolina Press, 1987), 58.
1901
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)
A South Carolina Textile Mill Owner Explains Child Labor
Work
In 1914 members of Congress were preparing to vote on the the Palmer-Owen Child Labor Bill, which would have banned interstate commerce in goods produced using the labor of children. Lewis Parker was the owner and manager of several textile mills, and he testified before the Congressional Committee on Labor about why his mills used children as workers.
Lewis W. Parker
Testimony of Lewis W. Parker to the Committee on Labor, House of Representatives, 63rd Congress, 2nd Session, May 22, 1914.
1914
Modern America (1914-1929)
A Reformer Describes Child Labor in the Coal Mines
Work
John Spargo's <em>The Bitter Cry of Children</em>, published in 1906, was among the most influential and widely read accounts of child labor written during the Progressive era. Spargo described work at the coal breaker, the area outside the mine where coal was sorted and organized according to its quality, mostly by young children.
John Spargo
John Spargo, <em>The Bitter Cry of Children</em> (New York: Macmillan, 1906), 163-165; from <em>History Matters: The U.S. Survey on the Web</em>, http://historymatters.gmu.edu/d/5571
1906
Industrialization and Expansion (1877-1913)