Mrs. Ruland's U.S. History Class Project
Child Labor and the Progressive Movement
Christina::Bridgett::Margette::Natalie
The abolishment of child labor had not been enforced, or even thought about until the age of the Progressive Movement. The Progressive Movement was the efforts to solve the problems with the American society that had erupted after the boom of industrial revolution years earlier. This movement lasted decades and it focused on many controversial issues such as women's suffrage, prohibition, and child labor. But when President Franklin Delano Roosevelt was elected into office in 1932, he had the means to carry out a series of reform acts, which he called "The New Deal". One of the reform acts was the Fair Labor Standards Act of 1938, which finally banned child labor.
This web site contains numerous political cartoons created by child labor activists during the Progressive era, in a campaign to stop child labor. The grueling and the outrageous demands pushed towards working children are displayed clearly in these cartoons.
Child Labor Photographs and The History Place: Child Labor in America
The first link leads to a biographical web site that unravels the life of Lewis W. Hine. Hine was a photographer in the Progressive era who exposed the cruelties of child labor by traveling across America. He was an exceptional muckraker because he had experienced the laboring life of a working child when he was younger. The second link leads to more of Lewis Hine's photographs. These pictures showcase the different occupations children had suffered through. Pictures of children working at the mill, the newsies, the miners, and the seafood workers are only the start of the collection of artwork displayed on this site.
The hardships and the brutality of child labor is revealed through this site with several photographs and political cartoons. Also, various acts, organizations, and committees involved with making decisions about child labor are displayed here. There are sufficient number of links related to an abundant amount of people, places, and events relating to child labor that the users are able to click on as they are reading the web site.
Although this narrative is not true in its entirety (because a coal is supposedly telling the story), the main idea supports the objectives of creating this webliography. This web site is the story of a piece of coal that observes the pitiful children who come to work at the coal mines. The coal reflects upon what the children could be doing instead of laboring away on their picks
Entering this web site will lead to the case of Hammer vs. Dagenhart, in which a distressed father (Roland Dagenhart) files a case demanding that his two under-age sons are not being able to express the freedom to work. The Keating-Owen Child Labor Act of 1916 had prohibited the interstate shipment of goods produced by child labor, and Dagenhart demanded that because of the Act, his sons could not work at their factories more than the time the law allowed.
This web site covers an abundant amount of information on child labor. It has three sections that cover the wages and hours of the children, the treatment they received in the factories, and movements to regulate child labor. This site also contains a couple of pictures that show child labor and also includes a graph of the workforce in 1750 in Britain.
Battle Over the Regulation of Child Labor
This site gave detailed information on the battle for legislation and regulation of child labor, along with the fight for an amendment of child labor. It applied the struggles with the case Dagenhart v. Bailey and all the objections surrounding similar actions. Finally, the effects of child labor decisions in the Progressive Era, along with the effects of child labor arguments on the Progressive movement specifically.
This web site outlines the history of child labor, about how it came into a nationwide practice in the United States. The information describes the sort of labor children had to work through at factories, and the effect child labor had on reform movements. The site concludes with a brief description of the legislature passed because of the unfair practice of child labor.
The Campaign to End Child Labor
The Campaign to End Child Labor: Introduction
This site characterizes the movement to rid the nation of child labor. Details about the great amounts of legislation and actions taken to limit child labor are described. In addition, further information about the individual Lewis Hine, who traveled around the country, experiencing and documenting the lives of children put into labor, was included, giving a key example of actions taken to exploit the negative aspects of child labor.
William Jennings Bryan on Child Labor
This site gives an interview with William Jennings Bryan on the topic of child labor. His opinion on child labor is characterized by his opening statement, declaring, "We have no right to the labor of children. It is one of the worst evils of the present day and should be corrected." He discusses his beliefs on age limits with child labor and other necessities he
believes should be in place in order to protect the children.Songs for the Working Children
This web page is a vast collection of songs and poems that had been made in a campaign to end child labor.
Last updated March 28, 2006
© Marcella Ruland 1998-2008, All rights reserved
