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Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal

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01.06.2006 | Original Paper

An Historical Perspective on Child Labor in the United States

verfasst von: Kriste Lindenmeyer

Erschienen in: Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal | Ausgabe 2/2006

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Just before 1:00 pm on July 7, 1903, approximately 200 to 400 striking workers from Pennsylvania’s Kensington textile mills gathered at Torresdale Park on the outskirts of Philadelphia. About half the group’s members were children ten through fifteen years of age and observers described the rest as “adults,” although many were only sixteen and seventeen years old. The group planned to march through the streets of Philadelphia and then make its way to New York City. Calling their protest “The March of the Children,” the effort was basically a publicity stunt designed to gain sympathy for the approximately 100,000 striking textile workers employed in the Kensington mill district. Their demands included higher pay and shorter working hours, as well as an effort to draw public attention to the plight of the many children working full-time in the mills.¹ …

Vorheriger Artikel Unfinished Business: The Persistence of Child Labor in the US

Nächster Artikel History Repeats Itself: Child Labor in Latin America

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Accounts published at the time of the protest vary about the exact number of individuals gathered in Philadelphia on July 7th, but all suggest that boys and girls, as well as adolescents and adults took part in the event; on Mary Harris Jones and her labor activism see (Gorn, 2001a; McFarland, 1971b; Smith, 1967c; Currie, 1997a) for a brief history of child labor in Pennsylvania see (Wolensky, 1998b) Mary Harris Jones described the July, 1903 march in her autobiography, The Autobiography of Mother Jones, chapter 10, first published by Charles Kerr in 1925 and available on the Internet at http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/mojones1.htm, accessed January 20, 2003.

On the changing definitions of childhood from economic value to emotional worth during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century (see for example, Zelizer, 1985; Hawes, 1991a; Murray, 1998; Ashby, 1997a).

McAhren (1970), U.S. Children’s Bureau (1930) on the evolution of the American definition of childhood (see Mintz, 2004, see also Lindenmeyer, 1997d) on children and work (see Nasaw’s, 1985, on the focus on white children (see Sallee, 2004).

Gorn (2001b), McFarland (1971a), Smith (1967a) Currie, We Have Marched Together; for a brief history of child labor in Pennsylvania (see Wolensky, 1998c; Jones, 2003a).

Letter from Mary Harris Jones to Theodore Roosevelt, July 15, 1903, included in (Foner, 1983; Gorn, 2001d).

The National Child Labor Committee collected newspaper clippings on the strike, National Child Labor Committee Papers (NCLC papers), box 64, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C.; Data on the 1933 strike was gleaned from the 1933–1934 Minute Books compiled for the Pennsylvania Department of Labor and Industry, RG 16, box 2, Pennsylvania State Archives, Harrisburg, PA.

Ashby (1997b) There are a number of studies examining the history of the child labor reform movement in the United States during the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. Most emphasize the movement’s progress and limitations from the perspective of adults; including (Felt, 1965; Wood, 1968; Trattner, 1970b; Hawes, 1991b; Muncy, 1991; Sklar, 1995; Lindenmeyer, 1997a; Sallee, 1998; Fish, 2001).

Currie (1997b), Jones (2003b), Gorn (2001g), Smith (1967b), New York Times, July 10, 1903, p. 1, and July 12, 1903, p. 1; (Lindenmeyer, 1997b; Trattner, 1970a; McGill, 1928).

Gorn (2001h), Currie (1997c) reports of the march are included in the Philadelphia Inquirer from July 8th through 20th, 1903, microfilm, Newspaper and Government Documents Reading Room, Library of Congress, and in the NCLC Papers, box 64.

Currie (1997d) oral histories conducted with mill workers from the Kensington region are included in (Seder, 1982; Gorn, 2001f).

The quotation from Ruben Dagenhart is from (Mellet, 1923a, also in Bremner et al., 1971; Mellet, 1923b, reprinted in Abbott, 1938, see also Mellett, 1923c).

The Pennsylvania State Code includes specifics about each of these laws, Pennsylvania State Law Library, Harrisburg, PA; for a brief synopsis (see Wolensky, 1998a).

Doak Says Children Should Not Be Employed (1932) for an overview of the (Lindenmeyer, 1997c; U.S. Children’s Bureau memorandum, 1935), NRA Summary, typed report, CBP, RG 102, box 10, file 3.

“Speeches”, Cornelia Pinchot Papers, typed transcript of speech, no date, but probably given several times in April and May, 1933, box 271, file “Speeches, 1933”, Library of Congress, Manuscript Division, Washington, D.C. (Mrs. Pinchot Joins March of Strikers, 1933).

Minutes of the Industrial Board (1933b) the full regulation states: “The employment of minors under 16 years of age in an establishment where a strike or lockout is in progress is prohibited, except that this prohibition shall not apply to minors who were legally certificated to work in such establishment before the strike or lockout was declared”, Rule M-38 of the Regulations Affecting the Employment of Minors.

For an excellent summary of child labor and its regulation in the U.S. up to the present see Macleod, D. I., Child Labor, included in (Hawes & Shores, 2001; Fair Labor Standards Act, 1938) on the federal government and child labor (see Sealander, 2003; Lindenmeyer, 2005).

For example see the earlier reference to Ruben Dagenhart and oral histories included in (Hall et al., 1987).

Abbott, G. (1938). The Child and the State: Legal Status in the Family, Apprenticeship, and Child Labor (Vol. 1, pp. 515–517). Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Allentown Strikers Given Wage Increase (1933). Philadelphia Inquirer, April 25, microfilm, Library of Congress, Newspapers and Government Documents Reading Room, Washington, DC.

Ashby, L. (1997a). Endangered Children: Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse in American History (pp. 79–124). Boston: Twayne Publishers.

Ashby, L. (1997b). Endangered Children: Dependency, Neglect, and Abuse in American History (pp. 79–124). Boston: Twayne Publishers.

Bremner, R. H. et al. (1971). Children and Youth in America: A Documentary History (vol. 2, pp. 716–717). Cambridge: Harvard University Press.

Currie, S. (1997a). We Have Marched Together: The Working Children’s Crusade. Minneapolis, MN: Lerner Publications Company.

Currie, S. (1997b). We Have Marched Together, p. 37.

Currie, S. (1997c). We Have Marched Together, pp. 30–33.

Currie, S. (1997d). We Have Marched Together, pp. 34–36.

Doak Says Children Should Not Be Employed (1932). New York Times, December (no day), NCLC papers, box 64.

Fair Labor Standards Act (1938). (52 U.S. Statutes-At-Large, Section 13, 1060–1069).

Felt, J. (1965). Hostages of Fortune: Child Labor Reform in New York State. Syracuse, NY: Syracuse University Press.

Fish, A. J. (2001). The Children’s Crusade: The Effect of Culture and Ideology on the Movement to Ratify the Federal Child Labor Amendment, 1924–1937 (Ph.D. Dissertation, State University of New York at Stony Brook).

Foner, P. (Ed.) (1983). Mother Jones Speaks. New York: Monad Press, pp. 555–556.

Gorn, E. (2001a). Mother Jones: The Most Dangerous Women in America (pp. 131–138). New York: Hill and Wang.

Gorn, E. (2001b). Mother Jones, pp. 131–138.

Gorn, E. (2001c). The Most Dangerous Woman, p. 131

Gorn, E. (2001d). The Most Dangerous Woman, p. 135.

Gorn, E. (2001e). The Most Dangerous Woman, p. 139.

Gorn, E. (2001f). The Most Dangerous Woman, p. 140.

Gorn, E. (2001g). The Most Dangerous Woman, pp. 132–134.

Gorn, E. (2001h). The Most Dangerous Woman, pp. 133–134.

Hall, J. D. et al. (1987). Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press.

Hawes, J. M. (1991a). The Children’s Rights Movement: A History of Advocacy and Protection. Boston: Twayne Publishers.

Hawes, J. M., & Shores, E. F. (Eds.) (2001). The Family in America: An Encyclopedia (vol. 1, pp. 174–186). Santa Barbara, CA: ABC CLIO.

Hawes (1991b). The Children’s Rights Movement, pp. 39–53.

Jones (2003a). The Autobiography of Mother Jones, chapter 10, http://www.angelfire.com/nj3/RonMBaseman/ mojones1.htm, accessed January 20.

Jones (2003b). Autobiography, chapter X.

Lindenmeyer, K. (1997a). A Right to Childhood.

Lindenmeyer, K. (1997b). A Right to Childhood, p. 131.

Lindenmeyer, K. (1997c). A Right to Childhood: The US Children’s Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912–1946 (pp. 195–202). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Lindenmeyer, K. (1997d). A Right to Childhood: The U.S. Children’s Bureau and Child Welfare, 1912–1946 (pp. 10–24). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Lindenmeyer, K. (2005). The Greatest Generation Grows Up: American Childhood in the 1930s (pp. 238–241). Chicago: Ivan R. Dee Publishers.

McAhren, R. W. (1970). Making the Nation Safe for Childhood: A History of the Movement for Federal Regulation of Child Labor, 1900–1938, pp. 5–6.

McFarland, C. K. (July 1971a). Crusade for Child Laborers: Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children, pp. 283–296.

McFarland, C. K. (July 1971b). Crusade for Child Laborers: Mother Jones and the March of the Mill Children. Pennsylvania History, 38, 283–296.

McGill, N. P. (1928). Children in Street Work, U.S. Children’s Bureau pub. no. 183. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

McKillips, B. L. (1933a). Sweatshop Conditions Force Children’s Strike.

McKillips, B. L. (1933b). Sweatshop Conditions Force Children’s Strike. Toledo, Ohio Leader, April 28, NCLC papers, box 64.

Mellet, L. (1923a). The Sequel of the Dagenhart Case.

Mellet, L. (1923b). How Sharper than a Serpent’s Tooth It Is to Have a Thankless Child, Labor, Nov. 17.

Mellett, L. (1923c). The Dagenhart Boys, clipping, U.S. Children’s Bureau Papers, RG 102, box 9, file 16, National Archives, College Park, Maryland.

Mintz, S. (2004). Huck’s Raft: A History of American Childhood. Cambridge, MA: Belknap of Harvard University Press.

Minutes of the Industrial Board (1933a). Department of Labor and Industry, RG 16, “Meeting of the Industrial Board Meeting, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, April 21,” pp. 75–76.

Minutes of the Industrial Board (1933b). June 22, 1933 and July 12, 1933, “Employment of Minor under sixteen years of age where strikes are in progress,” pp. 89–92 and pp. 109–110.

Mrs. Pinchot Joins March of Strikers (1993). Lorain, Ohio Journal-Times Herald, May 12, NCLC papers, box 64.

Muncy, R. (1991). Creating a Female Dominion in American Reform, 1890–1935. New York: Oxford University Press.

Murray, G. S. (1998). American Children’s Literature and the Construction of Childhood (pp. 51–207). Boston: Twayne Publishers.

Nasaw’s, D. (1985). Children of the City: At Work and at Play. New York: Oxford University Press.

Parker, M. (1933a). Sweatshop Probe Hears of Hardships of ‘Baby Strikers’.

Parker, M. (1933b). Sweatshop Probe Hears of Hardships of ‘Baby Strikers’, Philadelphia Record, April 28, newspaper clipping in National Labor Committee Papers, Container 64, Library of Congress, Manuscript Collection, Washington, DC.

Parker, M. (1933c). Sweatshop Probe Hears of Hardships of ‘Baby Strikers’, Philadelphia Record, April 29, NCLC papers, box 64.

Roe, D. (1933). Forlorn Parade of Sweat-Shop Children Protests $1 Week Wages, Winston Salem, North Carolina Sentinel, no date but probably April 28 or 29, NCLC papers, box 64.

Sallee, S. (1998). Inventing `The Forgotten Child’: The Whiteness of Child Labor Reform in the New South, (Ph.D. Dissertation, University of Texas at Austin).

Sallee, S. (2004). The Whiteness of Child Labor Reform in the New South. Athens: University of Georgia Press.

Sealander, J. (2003). The Failed Century of the Child: Governing America’s Young in the Twentieth Century (pp. 138–141). New York: Cambridge University Press.

Seder, J. (1982). Voices of Kensington: Vanishing Mills, Vanishing Neighborhoods. Ardmore, PA: Whitmore Publishing Company.

Sklar, K. K. (1995). Florence Kelley and the Nation’s Work. New Haven: Yale University Press.

Smith, R. E. (1967a). The March of the Mill Children. Social Science Review, 41, 300–310.

Smith, R. E. (September 1967b). March of the Mill Children, pp. 301–302.

Smith, R. E. (1967c). The March of the Mill Children. Social Science Review, 41, 300–310.

Trattner, W. I. (1970a). Crusade for the Children, pp. 171–172.

Trattner, W. I. (1970b). Crusade for the Children: A History of the National Child Labor Committee and Child Labor Reform in America. Chicago: Quadrangle Books.

U.S. Children’s Bureau (1930). Child Labor Facts and Figures, Children’s Bureau pub. no. 197. Washington, DC: Government Printing Office.

U.S. Children’s Bureau memorandum (1935). Effect of NRA codes on Child Labor, June 5, Children’s Bureau papers (CBP), RG 102, box 6, file 6.

United Nations (1989). Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly, November 20, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.unhchr.ch/ html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm, accessed January 2, 2006.

United Nations (2006). Convention on the Rights of the Child, adopted by the UN General Assembly, November 20, 1989, Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights, Geneva, Switzerland, http://www.unhchr.ch/html/menu3/b/k2crc.htm, accessed January 2.

Wolensky, K. C. (1998a). Child Labor in Pennsylvania, p. 4.

Wolensky, K. C. (1998b). Child Labor in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, Historic Leaflet No. 43.

Wolensky, K. C. (1998c). Child Labor in Pennsylvania. Harrisburg: Pennsylvania Historical Museum Commission, Historic Leaflet No. 43.

Wood, S. B. (1968). Constitutional Politics in the Progressive Era. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Zelizer, V. A. (1985). Pricing the Priceless Child: The Changing Social Value of Children. New York: Basic Books.

Titel: An Historical Perspective on Child Labor in the United States
verfasst von: Kriste Lindenmeyer
Publikationsdatum: 01.06.2006
Verlag: Springer US
Erschienen in: Employee Responsibilities and Rights Journal / Ausgabe 2/2006
Print ISSN: 0892-7545
Elektronische ISSN: 1573-3378
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10672-006-9011-1

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