These heartbreaking photos from the days before labor unions and labor laws reveal just how hard our forefathers had it.
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Lawrence History Center Photograph Collection
Three of the strikers would not make it out alive. One young boy would die when a soldier put a bayonet in his back.
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Wikimedia Commons
Pittston, Pennsylvania. 1908.Library of Congress
New York City, New York. 1910.Library of Congress
His aunt complained to the photographer, "Now he's jes got to where he could be of some help to his ma an' then this happens and he can't never work no more like he oughter."
Bessemer City, North Carolina. August 21, 1912.Library of Congress
Workers at the textile mill, on average, made 15 cents an hour. To get by, most had to put their children to work as well.
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Wikimedia Commons
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. August 1909.Library of Congress
The workers were unable to escape. They had been locked inside to keep them from taking breaks.
New York City, New York. March 26, 1911.Wikimedia Commons
New York City, New York. March 26, 1911.Library of Congress
New York City, New York. March 26, 1911.Wikimedia Commons
New York City, New York. March 26, 1911.Library of Congress
New York City, New York. May 1, 1911.Library of Congress
Lawrence, Massachusetts. Date unspecified.Library of Congress
Ambridge, Pennsylvania. 1933.Library of Congress
Roosevelt, New Jersey. 1915.Library of Congress
1913.Library of Congress
Cincinnati, Ohio. May 17, 1913.Library of Congress
McKees Rocks, Pennsylvania. September 22, 1909.Library of Congress
Fall River, Massachusetts. June 19, 1916.Library of Congress
West Virginia. 1908.Library of Congress
Tarrytown, New York. July 11, 1914.Library of Congress
Ludlow, Colorado. 1914.Wikimedia Commons
Ludlow, Colorado. 1914.Wikimedia Commons
Ludlow, Colorado. April 20, 1914.Library of Congress
Ludlow, Colorado. April 20, 1914.Library of Congress
Tarrytown, New York. June 6, 1914.Library of Congress
Ludlow, Colorado. 1914.Library of Congress
Trinidad, Colorado. 1914.Wikimedia Commons
Their strike will fail and nothing will change.
Kern County, California. November 1938.Library of Congress
West Virginia. Circa 1874-1940.Library of Congress
The photographer, Lewis Hine, distributed this photo to show how dangerous this coal mine was for the children who worked there.
Pennsylvania. January 1911.Library of Congress
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Library of Congress
As the parents were preparing to strike for a living wage, they didn't know how to support their children. Many sent their kids to sympathizers in New York, who took them in as temporarily displaced orphans.
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Library of Congress
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Wikimedia Commons
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Lawrence History Center Photograph Collection
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Lawrence History Center Photograph Collection
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Lawrence History Center Photograph Collection
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Library of Congress
Everett, Washington. 1916.Wikimedia Commons
Three would die and nearly 300 would be sent to jail, but they would get their demands: a 54-hour work-week. In the time they lived in, it seemed like a luxury.
Lawrence, Massachusetts. 1912.Lawrence History Center Photograph Collection
The eight-hour workday didn't come easy. It took people who were willing to stand up and fight for it.
It took unions of workers who were ready to face the rifles of militiamen and refuse to go home. It took people who were willing to spill their blood and give their own lives to make the United States a place where a family could get by without sending their children off to work in the factories.
The Fight To End Child Labor
Going to work in the 19th century was a different and far more dangerous experience than it is today. During the industrial revolution, American laborers would work 70 hours a week or more for mere pennies. The little they earned was barely enough to feed a family. And so, to put food on a family's plate, wives and children would be forced to come along to the factory and toil away as well.
These children would work in incredibly dangerous conditions. Typically, one in every four child laborers was injured in the workplace; some getting their fingers caught in the grinding machines or getting burned in an explosion in the depths of a coal mine.
As early as 1832, labor unions across the U.S. started calling for an end to such abuses, demanding that "children should not be allowed to labor in the factories from morning till night" – but it took more than 100 years of strikes and protests before minimum ages of employment became federal law.
The Triangle Shirtwaist Fire
One of the worst labor disasters in U.S. history took place at a clothing factory in New York in 1911. The Triangle shirtwaist factory caught fire, with the workers – some as young as 14 – stuck inside.
To keep them from taking breaks, the managers locked the employees in. The workers, unable to break through the doors, were trapped in the burning building. Some, in desperation, leaped out of the windows. Others stayed and burned. By the time the fire was out, 146 people were dead.
At this point, many decided that they'd had enough. After the fire, labor unions across the city went on strike, demanding their right not to be locked inside their factories.
The Bread And Roses Strike
In Lawrence, Massachusetts, a year after the Triangle shirtwaist factory fire, more workers took a stand. At the time, most employees at the textile mills made 15 cents an hour — not enough to feed a family.
"When we eat meat it seems like a holiday, especially for the children," one worker said. It was no exaggeration: The children in Lawrence were so malnourished that half of them died before they turned seven.
When the factory cut their wages, they stood up and went on strike. Their demands were basic: They wanted to cut their work down to 56 hours a week and earn an extra two pennies each hour.
Still, the governor sent the militia in, armed to the teeth, and let them open fire. Three died, and one of them, 20-year-old John Ramey, was run through with a bayonet while he was trying to run.
The Ludlow Massacre
After Lawrence, coal miners in Ludlow, Colorado, fought back next. The men were dying inside the mines at an alarming rate – their job had twice the fatality rate of other mines in America. Their union demanded an eight-hour workday and that the mine follow Colorado law.
John D. Rockefeller Jr., the mine's owner, sent in a private detective agency to torment the strikers. The strike-breakers burned their camps to the ground and opened fire on the workers with a machine gun, slaughtering some 20 people – including one woman who was reportedly pregnant as well as several children.
It was one of the worst massacres in the history of the struggle for American labor unions – but as the blood washed off the mines and the smoke faded, the people started talking. Congress' Commission on Industrial Relations started campaigning for an eight-hour work week and the end of child labor.
It's an all too often forgotten chapter in American history. But it's how a living wage was won – by men, women, and children in labor unions who spilled their blood to give the next generation a life they could live.
After this look at the history of labor unions, check out these incredible Lewis Hine photos from the era of child labor.
