Youngsters today may lie about their ages to sneak into movies or bars, but a century ago, the fibbing stakes were considerably higher - as children routinely lied to keep their families above the poverty line.
Haunting images taken at mills in Winchendon, Massachusetts in 1911 capture the faces of children as young as eight as they illegally endured unsafe conditions, long hours and poor pay to keep their families from starving.
In a sad twist, the workers spent their hours making wooden toys - from doll furniture, drums and building blocks - for other youngsters who did not have to spend their childhood and adolescence cooped up inside the mills' four walls.
The sepia-tinged photographs, which have been released by the Library of Congress, were captured by teacher-turned-photojournalist Lewis Wickes Hine, who repeatedly noted his suspicion at the children's real ages - and how many were not planning to return to school.
While children under the age of 12 were not legally allowed to work in the mills, Hine noted that many appeared much younger, while others claimed they were older in order to be able to work longer hours.
At work: In September 1911, photographer Lewis Hine captured Annie Dugas, a spinner at machine on the top floor of Glenallen Mill in Winchendon, Massachusetts
Underage: Left, Anna Pagnette, 12 (L) and Alice Dugas, 11, (R) said they help their older sisters spin. Right, Rosina Goyette, claimed she was 14 but the photographer, Lewis Hine, guessed she was 12. She told him she had been working six months and then later changed it to three weeks
Foreign land: These two French boys were around 11 years old, Hine noted. Like many of their co-workers, they could speak little English and could not read
The smallest also often flouted the 'helper' rule, in which younger children were permitted if they were merely given the older workers a helping hand.
One worker Francis Pagnette, from France, worked in the Glenallen Mill and told the photographer he was 15. 'I doubt it,' Mr Hine added.
'Mamie La Barge at her Machine,' Hine writes on another photograph. 'Under legal age.'
Hine noted that he spoke to the parents of another child, 12-year-old Batise Joseph, who said the boy would soon be going to school. 'Will he go to school?' he questioned. Another boy, who was 13 and lived with his illiterate sister and parents, openly admitted to the photographer: 'I'll stay at work until they come after me.'
The youngster added that he is 'helped' by his eight-year-old brother Edgar. 'He picks up bobbins and things like that,' he said.
Even though they risked illiteracy and injuries at such a young age, their grueling shifts kept their families from starving; records reveal that a typical family was paid about $30 a week, including $12 for the father, $9 for the mother, $5 for a girl and $4 for a boy.
Lost childhood: Lumina Demarais told Hine, who captured the faces of child labour for the National Child Labor Committee, that she was 12-years-old
Through the ages: Right, Mary Deschene, admitted to being 11 and said she helped her sister spool all summer at the mill. Next her is Lumina Demarais, 12. Rosina Coyette, second from left, said she was 14 but Mr. Hine said he doubted it
Hidden: A group of sweepers in the spinning room of Glenallen Mill in Massachusetts. They were smuggled out of the back window during hours but all work, Hine noted
Sneaking in: A group of boys wait to be smuggled from the mill in Winchendon, Massachusetts. Many said they were not intending to go back to school
Hine photographed the children for the National Child Labor Committee - a lobbying organisation - and is often credited with creating a hard-hitting body of work that ultimately helped bring about stricter labour laws, giving youngsters their childhoods back.
The Committee hired Hine, a sociology professor who encouraged his students to see photography as an effective medium of education, in 1908, and for the decades to follow he published thousands of images to highlight the insufferable conditions of children's workplaces.
Through more than 5,000 photographs, he caught the plethora of jobs filled by youngsters, including stringing tobacco in dingy factories, stitching in sweatshops and picking cotton or berries. He visited mills and factories all over the United States to capture girls and boys, toddlers and teenagers.
Many Americans viewing the pictures would have no other means of knowing the plight the nation's youth was facing, and when asked about his work, Hines said he 'wanted to show things that had to be corrected'.
The photographer would sneak into factories, often hiding his camera and posing as a fire inspector. He risked being beaten by managers if they discovered him.
Although the images of the grubby-faced children may be startling today, Hine's critics claimed his pictures were not shocking enough.
Ready for work: The girl on the left said she was 13 and had been working a year and a half apparently 13 years old. Hine noted that the boys appeared to be much younger than 14
Illiterate: The girls, above, admitted they were 12 and their crew in the mill was made up entirely of children. The youngster, below, Bastise Joseph, said he is 12-year-old and will return to school after the summer, but the photographer questioned the likelihood of this
A life of work: Thirteen-year-old Marion Deschere, left, and Mildred Greenwood, second left. Mamie La Barge said she was 14 but the photographer discovered she was 14, while, right, Rosina Goyette, said she was 14, but Hine guessed 12
He made no attempt to exaggerate their poverty, arguing that people were more likely to support a campaign against child labour if they felt the pictures accurately depicted the conditions.
Owen Lovejoy, Chairman of the National Child Labour Committee, wrote that 'the work Hine did for this reform was more responsible than all other efforts in bringing the need to public attention'.
The demand for child labour was a result of the boom in industry at the end of the 19th century. Businesses sought immigrant and child workers to complete cheap labour. Many saw children, with their small hands and energy, as ideal employees.
But at the turn of the century, some reformists started voicing their concerns over the children's welfare and the negative effects on their education. There were fears the practice would stunt America in years to come because of a high number of overworked, under-educated youths.
Set up on 1904, the National Child Labour Committee worked state by state to lobby legislatures to adopt regulations. In 1915, its efforts started to focus on the federal level.
Far from home: Adrienne Pagnette, 14, could speak little English after moving from France. Her younger siblings also work at the mill. They were just a few of the two million children under the age of 16 working in America at the time
Family business: The family of Mamie La Barge (sitting centre) - nine out of the 13 members of the family worked in the mill in Winchendon, Massachusetts
Helping out: Many of the children would work to bring money to their struggling homes. Hine noted that the children at the right all worked and none spoke English
And in 1938, after a series of failed or retracted laws, the Committee supported the Fair Labor Standards Act, which prohibited any interstate commerce of goods made through oppressive child labor.
'Oppressive child labor' was defined as any form of employment for children under sixteen and any particularly hazardous occupation for children ages sixteen to eighteen, excluding agricultural labour.
President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed the bill into law on June 25, 1938; it still stands today and acts as the basic protection for children across the U.S.
The Hine NCLC collection consists of more than 5,100 photographic prints and 355 glass negatives, given to the Library of Congress
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2209557/The-haunting-images-workers-young-EIGHT-Massachusetts-helped-change-child-labor-laws.html#ixzz28YfrFiOi
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