Children as young as 5 years old worked long hours in dangerous conditions during the Industrial Revolution. Photographs show children working in mills, mines, canneries, fields, and on the streets. The images depict the harsh reality of child labor including small children doing tasks that put their safety at risk or required sitting or standing for long periods. Children faced injuries from machinery, toxic dust, and accidents from handling sharp tools. Many were exhausted from the heavy physical demands of their jobs.

1. Images of Child Labor and the
Industrial Revolution

2. 1. Faces of Lost Youth: Adolescent girls from Bibb Mfg. Co. in
Macon, Georgia.

3. 2. Faces of Lost Youth: Doffer boys.
Macon, Georgia.

4. 3. The Mill: A general view of spinning room, Cornell
Mill. Fall River, Massachusetts.

5. 4. The Mill: A moment's glimpse of the outer world. Said she was 11 years
old. Been working over a year. Rhodes Mfg. Co. Lincolnton, North Carolina.

6. 5. The Mill: Some boys and girls were so small they had to climb up on to
the spinning frame to mend broken threads and to put back the empty
bobbins. Bibb Mill No. 1. Macon, Georgia.

7. 6. Newsies: Michael McNelis, age 8, a newsboy [seen with photographer Hine]. This
boy has just recovered from his second attack of pneumonia. Was found selling
papers in a big rain storm. Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

8. 7. Newsies: Newsboy asleep on stairs with
papers. Jersey City, New Jersey.

9. 8. Newsies: Fighting is not unusual here. In the alley, 4
p.m. Rochester, New York.

10. 9. Newsies: Where the newsboy's money goes (an ice cream
vendor). Wilmington, Delaware.

11. 10. Miners: View of the Ewen Breaker of the Pennsylvania Coal Co. The dust was so
dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrated the utmost recesses of
the boys' lungs. A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or
kicking them into obedience. South Pittston, Pennsylvania.

12. 11. Miners: Breaker boys, Hughestown Borough Pennsylvania Coal
Company. One of these is James Leonard, another is Stanley Rasmus.
Pittston, Pennsylvania.

13. 12. The Factory: Some of the young knitters in London Hosiery
Mills. London, Tennessee.

14. 13. The Factory: Boys in the packing room at the
Brown Mfg. Co. Evansville, Indiana.

15. 14. The Factory: A boy making melon baskets in a
basket factory. Evansville, Indiana.

16. 15. Seafood Workers: Shrimp pickers, including little
8-year-old Max on the right. Biloxi, Mississippi.

17. 16. Seafood Workers: Cutting fish in a sardine cannery. Large sharp knives are used
with a cutting and sometimes chopping motion. The slippery floors and benches and
careless bumping into each other increase the liability of accidents. "The salt water
gits into the cuts and they ache," said one boy. Eastport, Maine.

18. 17. Seafood Workers: Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a
mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year.
Understands not a word of English. Biloxi, Mississippi.

19. 18. Field and Farm Work: Three boys, one of 13 yrs., two of 14
yrs., picking shade-grown tobacco on Hackett Farm. The "first
picking" necessitates a sitting posture. Buckland, Connecticut.

20. 19. Field and Farm Work: Eight-year-old Jack driving a horse rake. A small
boy has difficulty keeping his seat on rough ground and this work is more or
less dangerous. Western Massachusetts.

21. 20. A Variety of Jobs: A Bowery bootblack in New York City.

22. Source
• http://www.historyplace.com/unitedstates/ch
ildlabor/index.html