During the Second Industrial Revolution, child labor was growing exponentially. Local regulations were rarely enforced as officials turned a blind eye to factories and mines crammed with preteens. Children were often injured, with girls getting hair caught in elaborate machinery and boys falling through coal chutes. A man named Lewis Hine was hired to photograph America's working children for the National Child Labor Committee. His pictures would end up changing the nation.
"The mill has kep' us from growin."-Charlie Brazell, Child laborer photographed by Lewis Hine
Mule-spinning room in Chace Cotton Mill. Raoul Julien a "back-roping boy." Has been here 2 years. Burlington, Vt.
Mill-Doors
You never come back.
I say good-by when I see you going in the doors,
The hopeless open doors that call and wait
And take you then for—how many cents a day?
How many cents for the sleepy eyes and fingers?
I say good-by because I know they tap your wrists,
In the dark, in the silence, day by day,
And all the blood of you drop by drop,
And you are old before you are young.
You never come back.
-Carl Sandburg
You never come back.
I say good-by when I see you going in the doors,
The hopeless open doors that call and wait
And take you then for—how many cents a day?
How many cents for the sleepy eyes and fingers?
I say good-by because I know they tap your wrists,
In the dark, in the silence, day by day,
And all the blood of you drop by drop,
And you are old before you are young.
You never come back.
-Carl Sandburg