Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old), and Sophie (10 years old) worked at the Maggioni Canning Company.


 

They started working at 4 AM and made between $9 to $15 a week.


Sophie would shuck six pots of oysters each day. Her mother, who also worked with her, said, “She doesn’t go to school. She works all the time.”


Photographer Lewis Hine captured the harsh working conditions that many children faced. These kids often worked as soon as they could walk and were paid based on how many buckets of oysters they could shuck each day.


Mr. Hine wrote about one photograph, saying, "All but the smallest babies work. They start at 3:30 AM and work until 5 PM.” He traveled about 50,000 miles each year, taking pictures of children working in coal mines and factories from Chicago to Florida.


These photos helped raise awareness and anger about child labor, making more people aware of how serious the problem was in America.

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