Child Labor
Many children worked in mills because they were small, light, and had quick fingers. They would change the bobbins of thread while standing on top of the machines themselves, for they were too short to reach them from the floor. This was quite dangerous, for children would slip and lose a finger or foot. Also, some little girls might be scalped if their hair got caught in the machines. Besides being dangerous, mines were also unhealthy. The younger boys who worked at the mine were called breaker boys. They did not actually work in the mine itself. They sat on long benches while coal flowed along beneath their feet and picked out the bits of rock from the coal. These places were poorly lit, and the boys had constant coughs because of the dust. The moving coal would often cut their fingers, and they could hardly stand up staight because of leaning over the coal for so many hours each day. Also, boys would sometimes fall and get smothered or crushed in the huge piles of coal. Worse yet, when the boys turned twelve they would be sent down into the mines where there was a constant threat of cave-ins and explosions.Canning shilds were places that were often poorly lit where children of an even younger age worked alongside their parents shucking oysters or peeling fruits or vegetables. Farms also employed children. Unfortunately, the children who worked on farms were usually the sons or daughters of migrant farm workers, they weren't just helping out on their parents' farms. Working on a farm was also dangerous, for sharp tools were used to harvest and cut the crops.