Oklahoma Cotton Picker, 1916
Entitled: "Callie Campbell, 11 years old, picks 75 to 125 pounds of cotton a day, and totes 50 pounds of it when sack gets full. "No, I don't like it very much." Location: Potawotamie County, Oklahoma." When the cotton pickers got to the field, each was given a sack with a strap that went over the shoulder. That left both hands free to pick. No one wore gloves. The boll that holds the cotton is quite sharp, and by the end of the day, fingers were sore, cut and bleeding. Child labor refers to the employment of children in any work that deprives children of their childhood, interferes with their ability to attend regular school, and that is mentally, physically, socially or morally dangerous and harmful. 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. This trend alarmed Americans who, while supporting the traditional role of children in agriculture, found the idea of American youth laboring for meager wages in industrial factories appalling. From 1909 to 1921 the NCLC (National Child Labor Committee) capitalized on this moral outrage by making it the focal point of the NCLC campaign against child labor. They hired Lewis Hine, a teacher and professional photographer trained in sociology, to document child labor in American industry. Over the next ten years Hine would publish thousands of photographs designed to pull at the nation's heartstrings. Photographed by Lewis Hine, October 16, 1916.
Size: 4500px × 2957px
Photo credit: © Photo Researchers / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
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