Click2History - Child Labor: An American Pictorial History - Chapter 1 - Preface

<body link="0000ff" alink="ff0000" vlink="000000" bgcolor=000033> <table width="100%" bgcolor=000033> <tr> <td align=center valign=top><table width=90% bgcolor=ffffff cellpadding=5> <tr> <td align=center valign=top><div align=center><p><b><font face="arial, helvetica" size=5 color=000000><b>CHILD LABOR:<br> AN AMERICAN PICTORIAL HISTORY</b></font></p>  <table width="590"> <tr> <td align="CENTER" valign="top" bgcolor="000000" colspan=2><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="3" color="FFFFFF"><b>STORY CHAPTER LINKS</b></font></td> </tr> <tr> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width="100%" cellpadding="5" cellspacing="5" border="0"> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch1.htm">1. STORY PREFACE</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch2.htm">2. CHILD LABOR OVERVIEW</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP" width="50%"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch3.htm">3. EFFORTS TO PROTECT CHILDREN</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch4.htm">4. LOBBYING FOR CHILDREN</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch5.htm">5. CHILDREN IN THE FIELDS</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> <td align=center valign=top width=50%>  <table width=100% cellpadding=5 cellspacing=5 border=0> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch6.htm">6. IN THE CANNERIES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch7.htm">7. IN THE MINES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch8.htm">8. IN THE MILLS</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch9.htm">9. CHILD FOOD SCAVENGERS</a></b></font> </td> </tr> <tr> <td align="LEFT" valign="TOP"><font face="ARIAL, HELVETICA" size="2"><b><a href="child_labor_ch10.htm">10. USED AND RECOMMENDED SOURCES</a></b></font> </td> </tr> </table>  </td> </tr> </table>  <p><b><font size="3"><u><a name="preface">PREFACE</a></u></font></b></p> <div align=center><b><i><font face="Times New Roman" color="000000" size="3"></b></i><br><br> </div> <center> <table width="90%"> <td align="left" valign="top"> <div align="justify"> <p><font face="arial, helvetica" color="000000" size="3">When Europeans first came to America, their social values actually <i>required</i> children to <a href="http://www.eh.net/encyclopedia/tuttle.labor.child.britain.php" target="_blank"><b>work</b></a>. In 1641, when the Pilgrims were urged to grow <a href="http://www.fiberfutures.org/pages/directory.html" target="_blank"><b>hemp</b></a> as a raw material for winter clothing, the Massachusetts Bay court <a href="http://www.druglibrary.org/schaffer/hemp/history/first12000/4.htm" target="_blank"><b>ordered</b></a> (scroll down 10%) "all hands" to be employed in "the working of hemp and flaxe and other needful things for clothing." "All hands" specifically included children.</p> <p>The Colonies also adopted "poor laws" similar to those <a href="http://users.ox.ac.uk/~peter/workhouse/poorlaws/poorlaws.html" target="_blank"><b>in Europe</b></a>. Working-class children, as young as three, could become apprentices.</p> <p>By the turn of the last century, American children regularly worked in mines, fields, mills, canneries and other such places. The census of 1900 reported that 2 million children were employed throughout the country, For comparison purposes, that is roughly half the number of slaves <a href="http://valley.vcdh.virginia.edu/Reference/discussions/maps/1860slav.gif" target="_blank"><b>reported</b></a> in the <a href="http://fisher.lib.virginia.edu/collections/stats/histcensus/" target="_blank"><b>1860 census</b></a>.</p> <p>This is a pictorial story of those working children. </div> <p align="right"><font size="2"><a href="child_labor_ch2.htm">GO TO CHAPTER 2</a></font></p> <p align="center"><font face="arial, helvetica" size="3"><a href="http://www.awesomestories.com/content/about_author.htm" target="_blank"><b>Author: Carole D. Bos, J.D.</b></center></a></p><br> </table>  </td> </tr> </table> </td> </tr> </table>  </body>