the mills and factories. Children as young as five work if their parents signed permission. The children are encouraged and supported by factory owners to work. Child labor forces many kids to quit going to school because they believe working is more important to help their families.
How Children Under 16 Get to Work
In order for the children under 16 years of age to hold a job, their parents sign a document that allows them to enter the workforce. Many parents do this to increase the amount of income they receive. John W. Dearborn of Troy signed up his son James L. Dearborn, age 13, to work for the Burden Iron Works in Troy, New York. (Insert Burden Iron Works Record)
Why Parents Are Forced to Have Their Children Work
Parents pull the children out of school so they can work full time. Without the help of their kids, they do not have enough money to survive. Even the parents who put multiple kids to work still struggle. During the 1884 investigation for the report on labor to the NYS Assembly, one lawyer asked a male employee, “Could you support your family without the assistance of this child?” The male employee responded “It would be pretty hard.” Another worker of Harmony Mills was asked the same question and he responded with “I don’t know; it would be pretty hard.” The lawyer also asked him, “You think it is necessary to keep her at work?” He responded, “I do not think I could hardly get along without her.”
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Child labor began in the United States during the late 1700’s and early 1800’s. Parents have to force their children to work so they have enough money to survive because the wages are so low. The working conditions are terrible for all people. The children have some of the most dangerous jobs in the factories, mills, railroads, etc… Owners of the industries prefer children to work for them because they (picture of John Dearborn being signed off to work by his father, This is where you put it in the newspaper)are small and able to reach places that adults can not. They have a variety of dangerous machines that they have to clean. Many children receive bad injuries due to working at a young age.
Background
Child labor is very popular right now in the 1800’s. Child labor is prevalent across the world, even in the capital region. Harmony Mills in Cohoes, and the Burden Iron Works in Troy are guilty of using children as workers. (Picture of Henry Burden during inventive age and water wheel he invented) Children of all ages are employed by the industries to work difficult jobs that are easier for smaller and nimble children. Children lose limbs due to the dangerous machinery they work on. Not only do children lose limbs, some children are killed by machinery.
About The Industries
Two local companies, Harmony Mills, the largest cotton factory in the world, and Burden Iron Works, manufacturers of horseshoes and other iron products, both employ children. (Insert map of Harmony Mills) Henry Burden is the owner of the Burden Iron works. Most of the workers in Harmony Mills are women and children. It is an everyday sight to see young children working in
Save Your Child's Future. Help Stop Child Labor!
The Mule Room
Many children complete their work in the mule room. As described in the Harmony Mills brochure, the mule room is “occupied by sixty-operating mules, each sixty-five feet long. Each operative tends two mules. These self-acting machines, with their thousands upon thousands of rapidly revolving spindles, drawing out, twisting and winding up myriads of delicate threads with infallible precision and unerring certainty, with no hand to direct or control their operations.” The mule spins cotton and other fibres. The mule room helps improve the technology of manufacturing important fibres . It helps produce the worsted fabric used today. In order to clean the machinery the machine has to be left on, which causes a lot of children to get injured.
Children Who Died In the Mule Room
A 9 year old boy died in the mule room. “He was caught in the machinery.” He was the first child to be killed in the mule room at Harmony Mills. Another victim of Harmony Mills’ mule room was a young boy named Robert Hewitt, who was merely ten years old. He was also cleaning the machinery when “the boy’s head was pressed with irresistible force.” He was the second child to die in the mule room. A 14 year old boy named John T. Leonard suffered the same death as the previous children. He was cleaning the machinery when “he was caught in the machinery and his head crushed into almost a shapeless mass and his arm broken.” He was the third child to die. A lawyer asked a witness, “Did you ever know of any employees being killed or maimed for life by machinery in the mills? “Were any of them children?” The witness responded, “Three to my knowledge.”
Other Injuries Caused by Child Labor
A lot of children lose fingers and some lose arms due to cleaning the machinery while it is in motion and not stationary. A lawyer asked a witness, “Do you know of children losing an arm, leg or finger?” “How many during your experience?” The witness responded “Well, I only know of one child losing an arm; fingers, I have-I cannot say; perhaps twenty-five, perhaps fifty; somewhere between these numbers.” Some people feel that all machinery should be stationary while young children clean them, to prevent injury from occurring.
Disciplinary Actions on the Children
Sometimes the children get disciplined by the other workers above them. A lawyer asked Charles Den,“Under fourteen years-how many children are there in your employ under fourteen years of age?” Den responded “There are forty-six.” The lawyer
also asked Den “Is personal violence used to control those children- any whipping or hitting them indulged in?” Den responded, “Sometimes we pull their ears or cuff them a little, but not to hurt them; just enough to scare them.”
Children deserve to have a childhood. Help prevent child labor from happening in the future. Don’t let another child suffer. It would be a shame if 200 years from now children are still suffering.
-Alexis Bruno
(Rensselaer County Historical Society)
(Rensselaer County Historical Society)
(Rensselaer County Historical Society)
(Rensselaer County Historical Society)