Tennessee Cotton Mill Helper, 1910
Entitled: "Little Fannie, 7 years old, 48 inches high, helps sister in Elk Mills. Her sister said, "Yes, she he'ps me right smart. Not all day but all she can. Yes, she started with me at six this mornin'." These two belong to a family of 19 children. Location: Fayetteville, Tennessee." Cotton mills were designed to move cotton through a precise series of production processes that separated, straightened, and twisted cotton fibers, combined them into yarn, then wove the yarn into cloth. Workers directed four or more slivers through a series of rollers in the head of a drawing frame, where they were combined in a single strand. As bobbins on the spinning frames filled with thread, doffers replaced them with empty ones. The spinner's job was to move quickly up and down a row of machines, repairing breaks and snags. According to the 1900 US Census about 1 in every 6 Children between the ages of five and ten were engaged in "gainful occupations" in the United States. Photographed by Lewis Hine, November 1910.
Size: 4650px × 3093px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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