Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor

120 Pages·1994·11.058 MB·English

by  Russell Freedman, Lewis Hine

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In the early twentieth century, children were
widely employed in factories, mills, mines, and
fields across the United States. Laborers as young
i
as three years old often held jobs, and many chil-
dren worked twelve hours or more a day, six
days a week. They endured the noise and lint-
filled air of cotton mills; dark, narrow coal mines
full of stifling dust; the dangers of city streets;
and back breaking field work through summer
heat and winter frost. The kids' families needed
their wages to survive, but working kids lost any
chance for a better future.
Lewis W. Hine, a schoolteacher and photogra-
pher, felt so strongly about the use of children as
industrial workers that he became an investiga-
tive reporter for the National Child Labor
Committee. Hine traveled the United States, tak-
ing photographs that were so devastating, they
convinced people that the United States needed
laws against child labor.
Hine's work on behalf of child laborers
emphatically proved his conv—iction that seeing is
believing. His later projects "Work Portraits"
highlighting the importance of human labor in
the machine age, and a step-by-step account of
the construction of the Empire State Building
brought dignity and respect to the American
worker. Hine's groundbreaking documentary
photography is hailed by modern-day photogra-
phers for its content, artistry, and technical skill.
Kids at Work is Russell Freedman's vivid
account of social reforms that were urgently
needed as industrialization transformed
—
American society interwoven with the story of
a man whose life work made significant -d'-^nr-
enccs in the lives of others.
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I<;idsatWork
LEWIS MINE
AND
THE CRLISADE AGAINST CHILD LABOR
FREEDMAN
BV RUSSELL
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BY LEWIS HINE
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CLARION BOOKS NEW YORK
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Newsboy, St. Louis, Missouri, 1910.
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LEWIS MINE
AND
THE CRUSADE AGAINST CHILD LABOR
FREEDMAN
BV RUSSELL
WITH PHOTOGRAPHS BV LEWIS HINE
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CLARION BOOKS NEW YORK
Clarion Books
a Houghton Mifflin Company imprint
215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003
Text copyright © 1994 by Russell Frecdman
Photographs by Lewis Hine
The photographs were printed as duotones
using black and gray ink. Type is 13 point Sabon.
All rights reserved.
For information about permission to reproduce selections from
this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company,
215 Park Avenue South, New York, NY 10003.
Book design by Sylvia Frezzolini
Printed in USA
Library ofCongress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Freedman, Russell. Kids at work :
Lewis Hine and the crusade againstchild labor/ Russell Freedman ;
with photographs by Lewis Hines.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 0-395-58703-4
— — — —
1. Children Employment United States —History Juvenile
literature. 2. Hine, Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940 Juvenile litera-
— — —
ture. 3. Social reformers United States Biography Juvenile
— — —
literature. 4. Photographers United States Biography Juvenile
—
literature. |1. Children Employment. 2. Hine, Lewis Wickes,
1874-1940. 3. Social reformers. 4. Photographers.] I. Hine,
Lewis Wickes, 1874-1940. II. Title.
HD6250.U3F67 1994 93-5989
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For Phil Gerrard,
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Young Lewis Mine.