US History May Research Paper

During the Industrial Revolution many businesses hired children. Mechanization in the new economy demanded a workforce. Companies took advantage of poor families, hiring children to work in sometimes dangerous situations for long hours. The National Child Labor Committee was formed to seek justice for exploited children in the workforce. Lewis Hine was a photographer whose work documented this social issue. He intended to protect children by drawing attention to child labor. His techniques of photographing the individual children were incredibly successful in attracting the attention of millions of Americans who demanded social reforms. The main problem to child labor was the ethicality of forcing children to work long hours providing little to no pay and depriving them of a proper education. 

The Industrial Revolution lasted from the mid 19th century until the early 20th century transformed the American economy as well as commerce greatly. It allowed for industrialization to set in, and largely contributed to economic growth, caused by rapid business expansion in bustling cities. Many migrated to busy cities, with the hope to leave their agriculture based lifestyle for a factory job reliant on mechanical inventions. However, living in cities was tough, as they were costly compared to the former farming life. Parents came to rely on their children as an additional source of income. Factory owners took advantage of this, and hired children for a fraction of the price, as a method of cheap labor. This is when child labor became involved significantly in the American businesses. Being hired at such young ages meant that the children would not have any sense of a healthy and safe working environment. This made them easier to control and “were ideal employees because they could be paid less, were often of smaller stature so could attend to more minute tasks and were less likely to organize and strike against their pitiable working conditions”(Child Labor, History.com Editors). Children who were hired worked in dangerous conditions for long hours, in terrible situations, as supervisors watched.

    The peak of child labor was seen in the early 20th century. It was estimated that “By 1900, 18 percent of all American workers were under the age of 16”(These Appalling Images Exposed Child Labor in America). Many factory owners took advantage of the workers, as it was “acceptable to pay children lower wages than an adult, which allowed factories to save more money. Young children, many below the age of seven, would work over twelve hour shifts for usually a dollar or less a day”(Child Labor, Addams). Not only were children the main source of cheap labor, they were occasionally forced to work in tight places and do certain jobs adults couldn’t do. A variety of jobs that were common included selling newspapers in the city, working in factories with machines, and breaking coal to separate impurities. Some of these dangerous job environments left children ill, injured, disabled, and even resulted in death.

To combat the terribly dangerous conditions that working children faced, the National Child Labor Committee was formed in 1904. Their mission was focused on “promoting the rights, awareness, dignity, well-being and education of children and youth as they relate to work and working”(National Child Labor Committee Collection). In order to accomplish this social reform, Lewis Hine was hired as a photographer. His work captured the exploitation of working children. Each photograph that Hine took of the workers includes a detailed caption. “Hine coined the term ‘photo stories’ to describe this marriage of images and text, and it’s a big part of how the photos humanized the lives of child laborers to an indifferent public”(These Photos Ended Child Labor in the US). His images shed light nationally on the difficult life of millions of working children. To combat the factories and businesses that were using child labor as a cheap labor force, the National Child Labor Committee was “Thinking of the children as more than just their economic value (which) eventually helped change the role of the children of the working class in American society”(History of child labor in the United States—part 1: little children working). This shift in social ideologies of the importance of education provides the backbone to the current American education system, and the bureau of labor. 

    Lewis Hine’s photographic technique was an extremely interesting method of capturing the viewer's attention. One of his well known photos is of Sadie Pfeifer at 48 inches tall, who was working in a cotton mill in South Carolina. She is standing next to “directly next to the dangerous machinery that she faced each day… The rows of spools in front of her, their repeating forms evoking the monotonous, mechanical nature of factory work”(Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina). Many of his photographs have a similar framing, while only substituting the worker. This is intentional, as “Hine was trying to show that each child’s experience was part of a widespread problem, and the repetition in the images signals that”(These Photos Ended Child Labor in the US). In addition to the framing similarities, he also uses a shallow depth of field, which means that the subject is the only point of focus, while the foreground and background are blurred. The final technique was being at eye level to the subject. This was most likely done as “a strong and passionate desire to humanize his subjects – to make them appear as real as they would if one was really standing there”(Focusing on Lewis Hine’s Photographic Technique). It was an incredible method in an effort to have the viewer sympathize, and empathize with the child worker, which he was successful in accomplishing.

    Lewis Hine’s photos changed the public perception on child labor. It has had various long term impacts, that are still in effect to this day. Some examples include a compulsory education for all ages until 16 years old, and age requirements for jobs, as well as work permits being necessary for minors. “The National Child Labor Committee’s work to end child labor was combined with efforts to provide free, compulsory education for all children, and culminated in the passage of the Fair Labor Standards Act in 1938, which set federal standards for child labor”(The University of Iowa Labor Center). Rather than looking at the emphasis on education and job regulations as two separate topics, “Successful child labor laws worked in conjunction with compulsory education laws. A child in school would at least not be working at gainful employment while in the classroom”(History of child labor in the United States—part 2: the reform movement). The government finally allowed for the educational law to be passed because reformers made the argument that “young people in a democracy need to be education in order to perform their civic duties”(Sound Smart: Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution: History). The ultimate result of child labor in the 1900’s was the understanding of the importance of education, as well as the significance of child labor regulations. 

Could things have happened differently? If there was no industrial revolution, then there would have been no migration into cities, and there would have been less children working in exploitative conditions. Many families would have most likely continued to live on farms, and having their children help, without receiving a proper education. In this case, mandatory education would not have been reinforced, and children would probably be allowed to work freely, from a young age to contribute to family incomes. If labor committees did not step in to convey the importance of education for children, then child labor would still most likely be prevalent in society, as the factory owners favored cheap labor. In any case, it is possible that if something had occurred differently, that child labor laws, and educational laws would not have been mandatory. Society would have been vastly different from what it is today. 

The central conflict to child labor was most likely the morality of forcing children to work for long hours, without a proper education and providing little to no pay. Children were forced into environments with dangerous mechanical equipment. In the case of an injury, many were not compensated for the work related issue. As the workers were children, there were no labor unions created to voice their concerns and they were unable to protest for the unfair working conditions even if they wanted to. They were voiceless. This inability to ever receive enough money to support a family will continue to fuel the never ending cycle of poverty for those who were working in factories for small incomes since they had never experienced a formal education as a child. 

    Child labor issues are mainly resolved in American society. Unfortunately, there are a handful of  instances where it was revealed that minors were working without a permit. The latest reported incident was in August of 2008 when “57 under-age workers who were employed at a kosher meatpacking plant in Postville, Iowa,... asked the attorney general to bring criminal charges against the company for child labor violations”(Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant). This means that there are still violations of child labor laws occuring seven decades after the Fair Labor Standards Act had been passed, which is disappointing to say the least. In addition to the American violations of child labor, there are still many countries where child labor use is extremely high till this day. It is unfortunate, as children who are forced to work are mostly from poor families, which results in the cycle of poverty repeating due to their unfortunate situation. 

Bibliography

1. History.com Editors. “Child Labor.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 27 Oct. 2009, www.history.com/topics/industrial-revolution/child-labor. 

2. Horne, Madison. “These Appalling Images Exposed Child Labor in America.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 26 Apr. 2018, www.history.com/news/child-labor-lewis-hine-photos. 

3. Addams, Jane. “Child Labor.” Jane Addams Digital Edition, digital.janeaddams.ramapo.edu/exhibits/show/nhd-cc/conflict/child-labor. 

4. Natanson, Barbara Orbach. “National Child Labor Committee Collection - Background and Scope.” National Child Labor Committee Collection: Background and Scope - Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (Library of Congress), 1 Jan. 1970, www.loc.gov/pictures/collection/nclc/background.html. 

5. Lowndes, Coleman. “These Photos Ended Child Labor in the US.” YouTube, YouTube, 28 June 2019, www.youtube.com/watch?v=ddiOJLuu2mo. 

6. “History of Child Labor in the United States-Part 1: Little Children Working : Monthly Labor Review.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 Jan. 2017, www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-1.htm.

7. Hine, Lewis Wickes. “Sadie Pfeifer, a Cotton Mill Spinner, Lancaster, South Carolina.” The Art Institute of Chicago, Photography and Media, www.artic.edu/artworks/23336/sadie-pfeifer-a-cotton-mill-spinner-lancaster-south-carolina. 

8. Orbach Natanson, Barbara. “Focusing on Lewis Hine's Photographic Technique.” Focusing on Lewis Hine's Photographic Technique | Picture This: Library of Congress Prints & Photos, 31 Jan. 2019, blogs.loc.gov/picturethis/2019/01/focusing-on-lewis-hines-photographic-technique/. 

9. “The University of Iowa Labor Center.” Child Labor in U.S. History | The University of Iowa Labor Center, laborcenter.uiowa.edu/special-projects/child-labor-public-education-project/about-child-labor/child-labor-us-history. 

10. “History of Child Labor in the United States—Part 2: the Reform Movement.” U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 1 Jan. 2017, www.bls.gov/opub/mlr/2017/article/history-of-child-labor-in-the-united-states-part-2-the-reform-movement.htm. 

11. Williams, Yohuru. “Sound Smart: Child Labor in the Industrial Revolution: History.” YouTube, 27 Nov. 2016, youtu.be/ejc8oDOcN_o.

Preston, Julia. “Inquiry Finds Under-Age Workers at Meat Plant.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 6 Aug. 2008, www.nytimes.com/2008/08/06/us/06meat.html?searchResultPosition=25.