Document 2: Cannery
Work in the canning sheds began long before daybreak. “Come out with me to one of these canneries at 3 o’clock in the morning,” Hine wrote from Mississippi. “Here is the crude, shed-like building, with a long dock at which the oyster boats unload their cargo… It is cold, damp, and dark. The whistle blew some time ago, and the young workers slipped into meager garments, snatched a bite to eat, and hurried to the chucking shed…Boys and girls, six, seven, and eight years old, take their places with the adults and work all day.” For a pail that held four pounds of shelled oysters, the workers received five cents. Children usually filled one to two pails a day, adults eight or nine.
Investigative Report for Cannery (5 Points)
7: Is the work area safe? What dangers do you see?
8: Would you recommend that workers wear protective clothing? What would you recommend?
9: Would you recommend any changes to the work environment to make it safe? What changes do you think need to be made?
10: What age recommendations would you give for this job? What is an appropriate age to be doing this work?
11: What injuries or harm can this job cause the children?
12: Would you recommend that children in the photograph be allowed to continue working at this job? Why or why not?
Document 3: Coal Breakers
Coal Breakers jobs: as the coal came pouring through the chutes, the boys bent over, reached down, and picked out pieces of slate and stone that could not burn. A foreman armed with a broom handle stood in front of the breaker room. He watched the boys as intently as they watched the moving coal. He used the broom handle to rap the heads and shoulders of those who, in his opinion, were not working hard enough.
They bend over the chutes until their backs ache, and they get tired and sick because they have to breathe coal dust instead of good, pure air. Many of the breaker boys suffered from chronic coughs. “There are twenty boys in that breaker,” one of the foremen said, “and I bet you could shovel fifty pounds of coal dust out of their systems.”
If a boy reached too far and slipped into the coal that was constantly flowing beneath him, he could be mangled or killed. “While I was there, two breaker boys fell or were carried into the coal chute, where they were smothered to death,” Hine reported from a Pennsylvania mine.
Investigative Report for Coal Breakers (5 Points)
13: Is the work area safe? What dangers do you see?
14: Would you recommend that workers wear protective clothing? What would you recommend?
15: Would you recommend any changes to the work environment to make it safe? What changes do you think need to be made?
16: What age recommendations would you give for this job? What is an appropriate age to be doing this work?
17: What injuries or harm can this job cause the children?
18: Would you recommend that children in the photograph be allowed to continue working at this job? Why or why not?
