Child Labor Reform Photographs

Photograph A:
In this photo I see a little girl, maybe around the age of nine. Her facial expression looks pretty blank and she doesn't seem to be showing any specific emotion. Considering these conditions of the photo, I can make the assumption that this girl does not have time for herself. The caption says, when the photographer asked her what her age was, she hesitated and said "I don't remember. I'm not old enough to work but do just the same." I related what she said back to her facial expression. She doesn't look happy, but not sad either, she looks just really lost. And like she had said, she doesn't even remember her age all she knows is that she needs to work regardless of it. It's really sad to think that a little girl can't even remember things like this which are so important, because she's no caught up in her job at an age this young. The caption also says, out of 50 employees there were about 10 her size. Reading this I made the conclusion that families, like the one this little girl was in, didn't have alot of money at all so they needed even the youngest ones to work in jobs that much older people were working too. From observing this photo I can conclude that Children like the one in this photo needed to grow up fast and didn't have much of a childhood.

Photograph B:
In this photograph I see five young girls. Each girl seems to be wearing torn down clothes, their hair messily thrown up. Most of them just look content, probably because they're posing for a picture, but the girl in the middle is showing an extremely strong emotion. Her face is very stern, and her eyes are wide open, she generally just looks furious. This girl is also hunched over. Her hunch I think could have alot to do with the working conditions of the places they have been working. For long hours laborers would be hunched over doing their jobs like packing meat for examples. These long hours positioned this way, would result in problems in the body like the one this little girl may have. I think the torn clothes, and stern angry facial expression from the little girl in the middle show that these small children have been worked, and they're lives must mostly be just work and theres no time for themselves.

Photograph C:
In this photo there is an extremely young looking girl standing in the middle of an unsanitary working place. She looks around the age of maybe 5 years young yet still working. The room has pieces of paper all around the floor, and many other things. This little girl also has nothing on her feet protecting her from this grimy dirty ground. The caption of this photo says: "The mills seemed full of youngsters who just 'happened in' or 'are helping their sister'." The fact that the mills were full of youngsters rather than adults just proves the point that so many people at this time were poor. Excuses were even made as to why these young children were there. People would say they just showed up one day working, or they're just helping their sister. It's all just excuses for the obsurd fact that children as young as maybe five are working in these grusome unsanitary conditions.

Photograph D:
This paper shows a boy around the age of 5 years old selling newspaper on a busy street. Theres nobody watching over the young boy, he's all alone on a street with strangers selling newspaper. The facial expression on the boy looks so helpless and sad. He's looking up at men walking by as if he's begging them to turn around and buy a newspaper from him. From looking at this photo I can conclude that this boy and his family obviously do not have any money. And everybody else in his family is so busy working wherever they do, that he needs to work on his own. This small child is on his own trying to bring in money for his family, as if he was a father.

Photograph E:
In this photo there are about 20 or so boys, and some teens, working at a coal company. There is a huge cloud of dust over them. And then a man standing in the back watching over them, holding a bar. The dust in this photo is sweltering over all the boys, this is clearly a safety hazzard. The caption of this photo says: "This dust penettrated the utmost recesses of the boy's lungs." This dust was extremely unhealthy for the boys, giving them all very hard trouble breathing. The caption also says, "A kind of slave-driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them to obiedience." This shows that even in these terrible conditions, if you stopped to hit your chest and cough trying to catch your breath, you would be punished. I'm guessing from this picture these boys were really worked in this coal company and had to put aside the necessities of themselves, like stopping to catch their breath.

Photograph F:
In this photo there are about 15 men. It seems to be very dark in in this environment. There are pipes everywhere and theres little room to work around and move. The men in this photo have tears and wholes in the clothes, along with dirt covering their faces and clothes. It's very crowded for this many men and it's clear that they have little room to work and it's obviously not a sanitary working environment.

Photograph G:
In this photograph there are tons of people, but the ones that stick out compared to the taller older women and men, are the extremely small children looking around the age of four. The smallest girl barley has hair, and is very short in size so looks around the smallest. There is also a little boy in the front standing on a single strip of wood balancing him about a small whole. This is very unsafe for that boy. There is clams covering the floor, and every worked are using their bare hands to do the job. This is extremely unsanitary, the men and women don't look clean or cleansy at all they're wearing torn clothes, and are working in a beat town room with little or no light.

Photograph H:
In this photo there about 7 children going off to work at 6pm on a very cold day, it says in the caption they work here till 6am in the morning. When they come home they are drenced on the way home with cold hard rain with very little clothes on.