History of Child Labor in the US

1. History of Child Labor in the US Elizabeth McDonald

2. Objective • The student will analyze how the fight for child labor reform changed American society in the late 19th and early 20th centuries by examining 2 pictures of child laborers.

3. Bell Ringer • Think back to last week when we learned how the labor movement in the late 19th century United States grew out of the need to protect the common interest of workers. What about young workers? Why do you think we have a minimum age requirement for workers in America today? • Think about your answer (1 minute). • When the timer rings, turn to your elbow partner and share your answer (30 seconds).

4. Review: the Industrial Revolution • In the late 1700's and early 1800's, power-driven machines replaced hand labor for the making of most manufactured items. • Factories began to spring up everywhere, first in England and then in the United States. • Industrialization attracted workers and their families from farms and rural areas into urban areas and factory work.

5. Industrialization and the Rise of Child Labor • In factories and mines, children were often preferred as employees, because owners viewed them as more manageable, cheaper, and less likely to strike. • Most child laborers were the sons and daughters of poor parents or recent immigrants who depended on their children’s wages to survive.

6. Checkpoint: • How did the Industrial Revolution contribute to an increase in child labor?

7. Activity: Exploring the Evidence • observation • What people and objects are shown? How are they arranged? What is the physical setting? • What other details can you see? • Interpretation • What is going on in the picture? Who are the people and what are they doing? What might be the function of the objects? What can we conclude about the time period? • Investigation • What are three questions you have about the photo? • Work with your Elbow Partner. Write your responses on a piece of paper. • You have 2 minutes for each picture. When time is up, timer will ring and we will discuss.

10. How Do We Define Child Labor? • What child labor is: • work that affects a child’s health • Work that harms a child’s physical and emotional development • Work that interferes with a child’s schooling and potential for a better future • What child labor is not: • Helping parents around the home • Assisting in a family business • Earning pocket money outside school hours and during school holidays

11. Common Industries/Jobs for Children • Mining (boys) • Factories • making glass, furniture, other mass produced goods. • Textiles mills (usually girls) • Agriculture/Farms • Canneries • Home industries • making of products in the home that were then marketed and sold by an outside agency • Selling newspapers on the street • Messengers • As peddlers • selling items from door to door or in the street • Street sweepers

12. By the Numbers: • In 1870, the first U.S. census to report child labor numbers counted 750,000 workers under the age of 15, not including children who worked for their families in businesses or on farms. • In 1900…18% of all American workers were under the age of 16 • By 1911, more than two million American children under the age of 16 were working • In factories, children often worked 12-18 hours a day, 6 days a week, for very little pay • Many children began working before the age of 7

13. Checkpoint: • What were some of the common jobs for children in the 1800s?

14. Negative Effects of Child Labor • Increased risk for injuries and illness • respiratory illnesses and breathing problems especially common • Interruption of education • Interruption of healthy physical development from being unable to play and being forced to take on physical tasks that are too advanced: • Higher risk for malnutrition • Stunted growth

15. Unhealthy and Hazardous Working Conditions • Mill girls: • in danger of slipping and losing a finger or a foot while standing on top of machines to change bobbins • Risk of being scalped if their hair got caughtin machinery • Breaker boys (mining): • stiffness and pain from long days of bending over to pick bits of rock from coal • Risk of falling, or being smothered or crushed by huge piles of coal • threat of cave-ins and explosions

16. Checkpoint: • What were the ways that child labor harmed children?

17. The National Child Labor Committee • The National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) • Formed 1904 •  an organization dedicated to the abolition of all child labor • consisted of politicians, social workers and citizens who contested child labor • helped to mobilize popular support for state-level child labor laws By publishing information on the lives and working conditions of young workers • These laws were often paired withcompulsory education laws designed to keep children in school and out of the paid labor market until a specified age (usually 12, 14, or 16 years.)

18. Lewis Hine: Child Labor Activist • Lewis Hine • Hired by the NCLC in 1907 • a teacher who was hired to research the ills of the child labor industry. For several years, Hine traveled and photographed pictures of the exploitation of children in the work force-these pictures were published and seen by many across America • The pictures we saw today in our activity were just 2 of thousands of pictures taken by Hine!

19. Closure: • For your ticket out the door today: Take out a half-sheet of paper, write your name on it, then write down one thing that you learned in class today.