Laboring Children

Lucy Larcom's Experience 1836:
- Ninth of ten children, started working at a textile mill in Lowell, Massachusetts, at age eleven.
- Family background: Father was a sea captain who died a year earlier, mother operated a boarding house and struggled to support the family.
- Motivation: Lucy wanted to support her family to avoid being a burden, so she and her sister applied for mill jobs.
Job and Work Environment:
- Only one job available; Lucy, taller than her sister, got the position.
- Enjoyed independence and peer companionship initially, with playful activities during work.
- Duties included changing bobbins and taking breaks for games and stories.
- Over time, frustration grew:
- Pay: Received $2 per week.
- Hours: Worked from 5 AM to 7 PM with only half an hour for breakfast and dinner, six days a week.
- Conditions: Poor working conditions: windows shut, dim lights, dust-laden air, and noise from machinery.
- Lack of Education: No educational opportunities; felt the repetitive nature of work was dull and tiresome.

Capitalist expansion:
- Led to vastly different childhood experiences based on class, ethnicity, and region.
- Urban Middle Class: Due to rising affluence, children could enjoy a protected childhood, away from labor.
- Laboring Classes: Children were expected to contribute to family income due to economic demands.
- Contrasting experiences showcased the drastic differences in childhood across classes.
Diverse Experiences:
- Lai Chow's Experience: Sold by her family in China at age twelve and forced into prostitution in San Francisco.
- Ann McNabb: Migrated from Ireland to Philadelphia and worked as a live-in cook.
Economic Developments:
- Industrialization created demand for child labor while disrupting rural economies.
- Massive migration from Europe to urban areas correlated with labor demands, with children expected to participate in family economics.

Child Mortality Rates:
- By 1895, 18% of children died before age five; mortality highest among poorer families.
- Affluent families also experienced child mortality, often losing one child in multiple births.
Gender Roles:
- Girls:
- More likely to be sheltered and involved in housework, earnings usually handed to parents.
- Limited expectations in terms of independence outside the home.
- Boys:
- Encouraged to explore and engage in the outside world, often pursued opportunities beyond family labor.

Schooling Trends:
- Enrollment rates varied by class and region; significant increase from 1850 to 1870 in grammar school education.
- Higher attendance in the Northeast compared to the South, where fewer than half of children attended school by 1890.
- Rural children faced shorter school years (six months/year) compared to urban students (nine months/year).
Differences in Educational Content:
- Urban students received a standardized curriculum in age-graded classrooms taught by trained educators.
- Rural students attended ungraded one-room schools staffed by underqualified teachers.
- Age of leaving school varied significantly by region, with urban middle-class children often remaining in high school until aged sixteen or seventeen, while others entered the workforce at a much younger age.

Difference in Play:
- Middle-Class Children:
- Access to manufactured toys and games designed to teach moral lessons.
- Engaged in adult-organized clubs and sports activities.
- Working-Class and Farm Children:
- Played with homemade toys; engaged in outdoor play often unsupervised.
- Commercial amusements available (e.g., penny arcades and dance halls) for urban working-class youth.

Working-Class Families:
- Children’s earnings pivotal for family survival, often accounting for 20% of family income.
- Decisions concerning education and work were family-centric rather than individual.
Historical Perspectives of Child Labor:
- Mechanization increased demand for child labor in factories, paving the way for child labor visibility.
- Early instances of child labor:
- Samuel Slater's mill in 1790 employed children aged seven to twelve.
Child Labor in Domestic Settings:
- Earlier domestic work diminished as industrial jobs were developed, impacting household economies.

Early Apprenticeship System:
- Provided youth with vocational skills but the system weakened post-American Revolution due to increased job availability and economic fluctuations.

Irish Immigration:
- Impact of the potato famine led to significant Irish migration to the U.S., resulting in family separations and increased youth responsibilities.
- Young individuals often entered into domestic work or manual labor.
Childhood Experiences:
- Depot on family dynamics demonstrated by individual stories (e.g., Anne Sullivan, Eugene O’Neill)
- Family structures transformed with increasing instances of single-parent households.

Emerging Conceptual Frameworks:
- Useful Childhood: Reflects childhood of labor contributions within family dynamics.
- Protected Childhood: Aimed at providing children a sheltered experience away from economic obligations, more in line with middle-class ideals.
- Push for social reforms particularly in the late nineteenth century aimed at child labor laws and compulsory schooling, marking significant shifts in societal structures and perceptions.

Mintz, Steven. Huck's Raft: a History of American Childhood. E-book, Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 2004, https://hdl.handle.net/2027/heb06195.0001.001. Downloaded on behalf of University of North Carolina at Asheville