In the early twentieth century, a young American scholar left his teaching position to devote his time to taking pictures—but not just any pictures. Lewis Hine sneaked into factories and mines where young children worked and photographed them. He often ended up being thrown out or chased away by policemen.

But Hine persisted. He wanted to show the world the social injustice of a system that put kids in horrible industrial working conditions, robbing them of a childhood. He worked with a group of reformers in the National Child Labor Committee. Founded in 1904, the organization spread awareness of the child laborer problem. Photography and photojournalism were still relatively new, and Hine’s striking photos played an important role in bringing public attention to a growing problem.

Production and distribution, a reboot

The nature of work changed a great deal as the Industrial Revolution expanded. The “long nineteenth century” (1750-1914) saw a rise of industrialization and wage labor everywhere, especially in Western Europe and North America. Under industrial capitalism, the systems of production and distribution changed and expanded. That meant fewer family farms and shops and more large factories and industries. This shift had important consequences for how people earned a living, and industry required more and more labor to sustain production. This need for labor pulled in many child workers.

Many parents in need of a steady income went to work at low-wage jobs. Children, who otherwise would have helped out at home, increasingly took on semi-skilled jobs where they were paid about one-tenth the wage adults earned. They could handle simple tasks and were usually obedient workers, so they were in demand. Typically, their work was repetitive and unhealthy.

The need for reform

This system of cheap labor and large-scale production was rapidly growing in many industries. It made products available at a much lower cost and generated a great deal of wealth—for business owners, not laborers. For many people, though, wage labor was the only way to make a living and survive.  

By the beginning of the twentieth century, there was enough dissatisfaction among workers—and socially conscious individuals such as Lewis Hine—to bring about some reforms. This growing awareness was most notable in the United States and Western Europe. There, important liberal reforms in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries created standards for labor. They eventually led to work-free weekends, eight-hour work days, minimum wage, and compensation for workplace accidents. However, in most other parts of the world, industrial capitalism—and the child labor it encouraged—raged on.

The moral objection to child labor

Labor movements grew in strength throughout the long nineteenth century, although not at the same rates everywhere. Though these labor movements had many different outcomes, one trend that emerged in many different places was the decline of child labor. Both moral ideas and economic forces played a part.

Child labor had important moral dimensions, something Hine’s photographs capture powerfully. Earlier cultural movements had changed how people thought about children. Education, creativity, and playfulness had become more valued, especially among the middle and upper classes in the West. But even parents who accepted these views did not always have the choice to keep their children out of the workforce. Many families relied on child labor for financial survival, and children outside of stable families, including orphans, had little choice. The poorest children were often forced into apprenticeships or indentured labor.

To get a glimpse of what life was like for some child laborers, here is an interview from 1832 between a government official and a young English man named Matthew Crabtree. In the interview, Crabtree describes his experiences as a child laborer:

What age are you? — 22

…

Have you ever been employed in a factory? — Yes

At what age did you first go to work in one? — 8

How long did you continue in that occupation? —  

Four years

Will you state the hours of labour at the period when you first went to the factory, in ordinary times? — From 6 in the morning to 8 at night

Fourteen hours? — Yes

With what intervals for refreshment and rest? — An hour at noon

Were you always in time? — No

What was the consequence if you had been too late? — I was most commonly beaten.

Severely? — Very severely, I thought

…

When you got home at night after this labour, did you feel much fatigued? — Very much so

Had you any time to be with your parents, and to receive instruction from them? — No

Because child labor conflicted with emerging moral ideas, many critics began calling for change toward the end of the nineteenth century. One French doctor, Louis-René Villermé, emphasized the poor health of children working in textile factories.

“All pale, nervous, slow in their movements, quiet at their games, they present an outward appearance of misery, of suffering, of dejection ...”

These criticisms led to new laws in Europe and the United States that regulated but did not completely end child labor. In parts of Europe, new restrictions made it costlier to employ children, and such changes led to some declines in the child work force. Countries such as Italy, Russia, the United States, and Belgium lagged behind. Their governments waited much longer to regulate child labor. These reform movements are all examples of political liberalism in action. In the United States, unions managed to get regulations at the state level. Organizations such as the National Child Labor Committee (NCLC) launched public campaigns against child labor. They used posters, exhibitions, and other media—including the photographs taken by Lewis Hine—to show the social injustice of child labor.

Economic reasons to end child labor

As important as the moral arguments were, the economic factors were just as influential, if not more so. As we saw, the most effective reforms were those that raised the cost of child labor. Also, adult workers competed for jobs that children were doing for much lower wages. They often lobbied against child labor just to protect the adult job market. At the same time, machines started to replace many child laborers, who tended to perform simpler tasks that could be automated. Governments, furthermore, were concerned that child laborers made poor soldiers later on, since work took a toll on their health.

Moral and economic forces combined when new regulations made child labor too costly. Some employers stopped hiring kids simply to make greater profits. But child labor was still a cost-effective option for many who were willing to ignore the law.

Education before employment

You might wonder why kids were working at all rather than attending school. In Western countries, government-funded education expanded steadily throughout the long nineteenth century, and many countries required students to attend through a certain age. But the policy was hard to enforce, especially when families relied on income from children’s work.

And the idea that kids belonged in school in the first place was pretty new. In wealthy families, kids often received an education through private instruction. But most other children had worked from a young age, usually helping their families with whatever they did for work, such as farming or working within a trade.

Even after reforms, school didn’t immediately replace work. Instead, children often worked and went to school, particularly in rural and working-class families.

An uneven movement

While child labor declined in the industrialized West, it stayed the same or even increased in agricultural or colonial societies. In societies around the world, the upper classes were able to invest in protecting and educating their children. Despite this trend, child labor remained an economic necessity for many families. For example, in India, most child laborers—as well as adults—worked informally. This made it hard to regulate. Indentured service continued in colonized parts of Asia. In Latin America, working children, especially orphans, were sometimes sent to families in need of extra labor.  

Many children remained trapped in abusive systems of exploitation and slavery—practices that continue to this day. A report in 2017 revealed that child labor continues, with about 152 million children around the world working.

Though that is certainly a bleak reality that activists continue to confront, child labor is far less common than it once was. Around the world, education and literacy rates among children are rising, and protections for children are more regularly created and enforced. They are creating a safer, healthier childhood for many.