PowerPoint Show by Andrew

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At the start of the 20th century, labor in America was in short supply, and laws concerning the employment of children were rarely enforced or nonexistent.

While Americans at the time supported the role of children working on family farms, there was little awareness of the other forms of labor being undertaken by young hands. In 1908, photographer Lewis Hine was employed by the newly-founded National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) to document child laborers and their workplaces nationwide.

His well-made portraits of young miners, mill workers, cotton pickers, cigar rollers, newsboys, pin boys, oyster shuckers, and factory workers put faces on the issue, and were used by reformers to raise awareness and drive legislation that would protect young workers or prohibit their employment.

After several stalled attempts in congress, the NCLC-backed Fair Labor Standards Act passed in 1938 with child labor provisions that remain the law of the land today, barring the employment of anyone under the age of 16.

7-year-old year old Ferris, a small newsboy, who did not know enough to make change. Photographed in Mobile, Alabama, in October of 1914.

A spinner in the Globe Cotton Mill in Augusta, Georgia, in January of 1909. The overseer admitted she was regularly employed.

A few of the Western Union messengers in Hartford, Connecticut, They are on duty, alternate nights, until 10 P.M.

Textile mill workers in Newberry, South Carolina, in December of 1908.

Willie, one of the young spinners in the Quidwick Co. Mill in Anthony, Rhode Island. He was taking his noon rest on this day in April of 1909.

Callie Campbell, 11 years old, picks 75 to 125 pounds of cotton a day, and totes 50 pounds of it when sack gets full. Photographed in Potawotamie County, Oklahoma. on October 16, 1916.

Shorpy Higginbotham, a "greaser" at the Sloss-Sheffield Steel and Iron Co in Alabama. He said he was 14 years old, but it is doubtful. He carries two heavy pails of grease, and is often in danger of being run over by the coal cars. Photographed in December of 1910.

Minnie Carpenter, (left) photographed in November of 1908 at Loray Mill in Gastonia, North Carolina. Minnie makes fifty cents for a 10-hour day as a spinner in the mill. The younger girl works irregularly.

A pipe-smoking messenger boy working for Mackay Telegraph Company. He said he was fifteen years old. Photographed in Waco, Texas in 1913.

Pin-boys work in the Arcade Bowling Alley in Trenton, New Jersey, on December 20, 1909. The boys worked until midnight and later.

A young driver in the Brown Mine in Brown, West Virginia, in September of 1908.  He had been driving pack animals for one year, working from 7 a.m. to 5:30 p.m. daily.

Young doffers in Mollahan Mills in Newberry, South Carolina, on December 3, 1908. A doffer is someone who removes, or "doffs", bobbins or spindles that hold spun cotton or wool from a spinning frame, then replaces them with empty ones.

"Fire! Fire! I want to make the fire!" An Italian boy on Salem Street on Saturday morning, offering to make fires for Jewish People on their Sabbath, in Boston, Massachusetts, in October of 1909.

Two young workers, a raveler and a looper, in Loudon Hosiery Mills in Loudon, Tennessee, in December of 1910.

Some of Newark, New Jersey's newsies, in December of 1909.

A typical Birmingham, Alabama, bicycle messenger, in October of 1914.

Bibb Mill No. 1 in Macon, Georgia, on January 19, 1909.  Some young workers were so small they had to climb up on the spinning frame to mend the broken threads and put back the empty bobbins.

15-year-old Vance, a trapper boy, sits by a large door in West Virginia coal mine in September of 1908. Vance has trapped for several years, receiving 75 cents a day for 10 hours work.

Louis Birch, age 12, a newsboy, in Wilmington, Delaware, in May of 1910. Louis had just started selling, earning 10 cents in a day.

Ethel Shumate has been rolling cigarettes in a Danville Virginia factory for six months. She said she was thirteen years old, but it is doubtful. 1911.

The photographer found the Arnao family, children and all, working on Hichens farm in Cannon, Delaware, on May 28, 1910. Their children are 3, 6, and 9 years old.

Noon hour in the Ewen Breaker, Pennsylvania Coal Co., in South Pittston, Pennsylvania, in January of 1911.

A barefoot Indianapolis newsie in August of 1908.

A 10-year-old spinner at the Rhodes Mfg. Co. takes a momentary glimpse of the outside world. She said she had been working there for more than a year. Photographed in Lincolnton, North Carolina, in November of 1908.

Two of the boys on night shift in the More-Jones Glass Co., in Bridgeton, New Jersey, in November of 1909.

A young newsie asleep on a set of stairs with his papers, in Jersey City, New Jersey, in November of 1912.