| When Europeans first came to America, their social values required children to work. In 1641, the Massachusetts Bay court ordered “all hands” to be employed in “the working of hemp and flaxe and other needful things for clothing.” At that time, “all hands” specifically included children.
The Colonies also adopted “poor laws” similar to those in Europe. Working-class children, as young as three, could become apprentices.
By the turn of the twentieth century, American children regularly worked in mines, fields, mills, canneries and other such places. The census of 1900 reported two million children were employed. That is roughly half the number of slaves reported in the 1860 census.
Child labor was so widespread, at the time, that no one clamored for its abolition. But when long workdays prevented children from even getting a modest education, people became concerned:
Lewis Wickes Hine quit his teaching job in New York City so he could photograph the plight of working children and the poor. His photographs shocked the nation and, in 1916, Congress passed its first child labor law. The U.S. Supreme Court found the law unconstitutional.
In 1924, Congress tried a different approach, proposing a constitutional amendment allowing the federal government to regulate child labor. The states did not ratify the amendment.
More years passed before effective child-labor laws allowed children to be children instead of workers.
In this story about child labor, step back in time to see what life was like for America’s working children. Examine Hine’s photographs. Meet youngsters who worked in the country’s fields, mines, canneries and mills. See how they lived, dressed and played as they helped to support their families.
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