Labor Day: Children at Work

[rangerrebew]

Labor Day: Children at Work
September 3, 2018 by jessiekratz, posted in Holidays   

Today’s post comes from Megan Huang, an intern in the National Archives History Office.

The Federal holiday Labor Day honors the American worker. When considering the accomplishments and contributions of the our workers throughout history, one category—the child laborer—doesn’t always come to mind. However, child labor was a significant part of the American labor story.

 
The United States was rapidly changing at the turn of the 20th century. Immigration and urbanization combined to create a massively stratified society, with the extremely wealthy living in opulence while the poorest city dwellers and immigrants lived in crowded and filthy tenements. To make ends meet in times of difficulty, many poor families had to rely the work of all members, including the children.

https://prologue.blogs.archives.gov/2018/09/03/labor-day-children-at-work/

[Free Vulcan]

My grandfather grew up in Alabama in a family of 15 kids. They were poor, dirt poor after great-grandpa died. They worked as child labor in factories during the Depression.

Years later my parents were down visiting my uncle and his wife, and started talking about that very topic. His wife, who grew up rich and never had to work, was appalled that they had to endure that.

My uncle reared his head back, looked at her, and in his best Foghorn Leghorn drawl that men of that generation had, said 'Why honey, that's how we SURVIVED!!'

So while I don't condone child labor, understand that there were reasons for it, it was not all horrific, and it kept many families from an even worse fate.