The Daily Populous Monday May 22nd, 2023 day edition
Image from preview.redd.it and submitted by Bhazabhaza

radiantwave on May 22nd, 2023 at 02:36 UTC »

Child laborers in Port Royal, South Carolina. Josie and Bertha were six years old and Sophia was ten when this photo was taken. These children labored as oyster shuckers for the Maggioni Canning Company, Port Royal, South Carolina. From an original 1921 photo by National Photo Company. All Rights Reserved © 2012 padre art

Adeep187 on May 22nd, 2023 at 03:45 UTC »

Man they look traumatized

Bhazabhaza on May 22nd, 2023 at 05:20 UTC »

Josie (6 years old), Bertha (6 years old) and Sophie (10 years old) worked regularly at the Maggioni Canning Company. Work began at 4 AM and the three would make from $9 to $15 a week. Sophie would do six pots of oyster a day and her mother who also worked with her said "She don't go to school. Works all the time."

Through such photos, Lewis Hine documented the harsh working conditions borne by thousands of children, who were sent to work soon after they could walk, and were paid based on how many buckets of oysters they shucked daily.

Mr Hines wrote of one photograph: ‘All but the very smallest babies work. Begin work at 3:30am and expected to work until 5pm.’

He covered around 50,000 miles a year, photographing children from Chicago to Florida working in coal mines and factories.

These photos helped to raise an outcry against child labor and made the American public become widely aware of the scope of the problem. This resulted in the establishment of organizations such as the National Child Labor Committee, in 1904, which led the fight against child labor.