Child Labor in Coal Mines
by Megan B.
Industry and progress not only touched the lives of children in the 1890’s, it nearly swallowed some of them whole. Children labored to abusive extents in numerous industries, such as agriculture and textiles. Coal mining stood apart from other industries, as an industry that literally put children’s lives at risk on a daily basis. It was estimated that in the Pennsylvania area alone, there were at least between nine thousand and ten thousand children under the age of fourteen working in coal mines, and very possibly as many as twelve thousand (1).
John Spargo observed and commented on the conditions children experienced working in the coal mines in his widely read piece, The Bitter Cry of the Children, published in 1906. The following is his description of life at the breaker, where the youngest children of the coal mine worked sorting coal:
After working at the breakers, boys moved on to work inside the mine, underground as door tenders, switch boys, or mule drivers. These jobs entailed greater perils for the boys. They worked alone in the darkness of the mine, often for fourteen hours at a time. In addition to the harsh nature of their jobs, the boys were also disciplined harshly. To keep children on task "supervisors often resorted to the switch or whip" (3).
What would a day in the life of a child laborer in the mines be like? The boys working in the mines awoke by 5:30am, dressed in work clothes already covered in coal dust, and were at work by 7:00am. Breaker boys sat along a board over a large chute. Coal passed underneath them through the chutes, and all day long their job was to pick out pieces of slate and rock by hand. As can be imagined, their hands and fingers were cut over and over again performing this task. Coal dust hung in the air and filled their lungs.
The breaker boy advanced to be a door tender. These boys spent their days alone, in darkness, opening and closing the door for men and cars passing through. The door tender advances to the job of mule driver, entailing higher pay but higher physical danger. Mule drivers had to retrieve the mules from inside the mine, clean them, and harness them to the cars before 7:00am. For the rest of the day, mule drivers brought the full cars up to the breakers and the empty cars back down into the mine.
The mule drivers were endangered by the possibility of being crushed by the cars. In general the boys working inside the mines were at a greater risk of serious injury and death than the boys in the breakers were. It was not uncommon for the boys working underground to spend their day "partially submerged in water" (3). They were also at serious risk due to their exposure to mine dust and mine gas, and there was a constant risk of injury or death due to explosions, rock falls, and mine collapses (3).
In 1902 the National Child Labor Committee performed its first investigation of child labor in the coal mines (1). The committee was concerned with the moral effects of the mine work on the children. The committee believed that the children were adversely impacted by performing monotonous labor in dreadful conditions, and also by the influence of the men in the mine, who used profanity and obscenity in the presence of the children, as well as tobacco and alcohol.
In their report the committee commented that “the lives of many of the small boys in the coal region are already so tainted by vicious habits that an almost insuperable obstacle to a maturity of virtue and intelligence is presented” (1). Significantly, the committee also noted that the economic conditions of the coal mines were not such that the labor of the boys was required, but rather the economic conditions of everyday life pushed boys looking for work to help support their families into the coal mines.
Boys working as laborers in coal mines in the 1890's faced serious injury and death, losing their childhood in the process. The boys most often did not receive formal education (1). They worked to help support their working families. The lives of these children of the 1890's are illustrative of the realities of children in this era, which was that there was very little opportunity to live their lives as children.
Works Cited
1. Lovejoy, Owen R. ‘Child Labor in the Coal Mines’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 27 (March, 1906).
2. ‘No Rest for the Weary: Children in the Coal Mines’. Source: John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906), 163–165.
3. Keil, Thomas J., 'The Family Wage System in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region: 1850-1900'. Social Forces, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Sep., 1988).
4. ‘The Life of a Coal Miner’. By John McDowell.
Industry and progress not only touched the lives of children in the 1890’s, it nearly swallowed some of them whole. Children labored to abusive extents in numerous industries, such as agriculture and textiles. Coal mining stood apart from other industries, as an industry that literally put children’s lives at risk on a daily basis. It was estimated that in the Pennsylvania area alone, there were at least between nine thousand and ten thousand children under the age of fourteen working in coal mines, and very possibly as many as twelve thousand (1).
John Spargo observed and commented on the conditions children experienced working in the coal mines in his widely read piece, The Bitter Cry of the Children, published in 1906. The following is his description of life at the breaker, where the youngest children of the coal mine worked sorting coal:
The coal is hard, and accidents to the hands, such as cut, broken, or crushed fingers, are common among the boys. Sometimes there is a worse accident: a terrified shriek is heard, and a boy is mangled and torn in the machinery, or disappears in the chute to be picked out later smothered and dead. Clouds of dust fill the breakers and are inhaled by the boys, laying the foundations for asthma and miners' consumption”.
After working at the breakers, boys moved on to work inside the mine, underground as door tenders, switch boys, or mule drivers. These jobs entailed greater perils for the boys. They worked alone in the darkness of the mine, often for fourteen hours at a time. In addition to the harsh nature of their jobs, the boys were also disciplined harshly. To keep children on task "supervisors often resorted to the switch or whip" (3).
What would a day in the life of a child laborer in the mines be like? The boys working in the mines awoke by 5:30am, dressed in work clothes already covered in coal dust, and were at work by 7:00am. Breaker boys sat along a board over a large chute. Coal passed underneath them through the chutes, and all day long their job was to pick out pieces of slate and rock by hand. As can be imagined, their hands and fingers were cut over and over again performing this task. Coal dust hung in the air and filled their lungs.
The breaker boy advanced to be a door tender. These boys spent their days alone, in darkness, opening and closing the door for men and cars passing through. The door tender advances to the job of mule driver, entailing higher pay but higher physical danger. Mule drivers had to retrieve the mules from inside the mine, clean them, and harness them to the cars before 7:00am. For the rest of the day, mule drivers brought the full cars up to the breakers and the empty cars back down into the mine.
The mule drivers were endangered by the possibility of being crushed by the cars. In general the boys working inside the mines were at a greater risk of serious injury and death than the boys in the breakers were. It was not uncommon for the boys working underground to spend their day "partially submerged in water" (3). They were also at serious risk due to their exposure to mine dust and mine gas, and there was a constant risk of injury or death due to explosions, rock falls, and mine collapses (3).
In 1902 the National Child Labor Committee performed its first investigation of child labor in the coal mines (1). The committee was concerned with the moral effects of the mine work on the children. The committee believed that the children were adversely impacted by performing monotonous labor in dreadful conditions, and also by the influence of the men in the mine, who used profanity and obscenity in the presence of the children, as well as tobacco and alcohol.
In their report the committee commented that “the lives of many of the small boys in the coal region are already so tainted by vicious habits that an almost insuperable obstacle to a maturity of virtue and intelligence is presented” (1). Significantly, the committee also noted that the economic conditions of the coal mines were not such that the labor of the boys was required, but rather the economic conditions of everyday life pushed boys looking for work to help support their families into the coal mines.
Boys working as laborers in coal mines in the 1890's faced serious injury and death, losing their childhood in the process. The boys most often did not receive formal education (1). They worked to help support their working families. The lives of these children of the 1890's are illustrative of the realities of children in this era, which was that there was very little opportunity to live their lives as children.
Works Cited
1. Lovejoy, Owen R. ‘Child Labor in the Coal Mines’, Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, Vol. 27 (March, 1906).
2. ‘No Rest for the Weary: Children in the Coal Mines’. Source: John Spargo, The Bitter Cry of Children (New York: Macmillan, 1906), 163–165.
3. Keil, Thomas J., 'The Family Wage System in Pennsylvania's Anthracite Region: 1850-1900'. Social Forces, Vol. 67, No. 1 (Sep., 1988).
4. ‘The Life of a Coal Miner’. By John McDowell.
posted by Leslie Madsen-Brooks at 9:43 AM
6 Comments:
We have discussed the role of children in the labor force of the 1890's numerous times in this class. Each time, it breaks my heart over and over. I cannot imagine the kind of life little children like that led. I wonder if they comprehended the seriousness of the situations they were put in. I wonder if families gave them ultimatums. What if a child refused to work?
While my grandfather did his stint as a child in the Pennsylvania coal mines in the early 1900s, from what I was able to gleen from his siblings (he would never discuss it), the coal industry hadn't changed much. Coal companies owned the town, the housing, the general store. You literally owed your life to the mines in those days.
Stephanie you asked what would happen if a child refused to work in the mines and I doubt that would happen; they (the child and their families) didn't have alternatives. Even today, coal mining towns are some of the most severely impoverished settings you'll see in this country. If we use my grandfather as a typical example of a child in the mines, he was the eldest son of 11 children of immigrant parents. His father disappeared (presumed to have run off) when he was in fourth grade and, by the end of that year, he was working in the mines while his mother and older sister took in laundry to pay to feed the family. He made twice as much as his father had in the mines because of the danger involved with the work he did and his working that particular job was the only way to feed everyone and make enough to save to leave that environment (other families weren't so lucky). If he hadn't gone to work in the mines, he, his mother, and siblings would have starved to death. So, while it was a harsh life, it was the only life they had. I can't imagine that anyone living in such desparate situations doesn't know the harshness and unfairness of it. As Crane's narrative of the mines suggests, people living in those conditions used cynical humor and stories to deal with the situation.
Thanks for the story about your grandfather Carolyn, it puts what the children in the mines had to go through in a more personal perspective. I agree with you about Stephanie's question, I don't think children had much choice about whether they worked or not. I'm totally guessing here, but I imagine the only way to not do the work your family wanted you to do would be to run away.
The fact that children has to work in such harsh and dangerous conditions is terrible. I agree with your point how young children are losing their childhood. The long hours, and frequent accidents are bad enough, yet their hard work is still compensated much less than an adult. Is it really worth risking such young lives? I also wonder to what extent the National Child Labor Committee took in trying to protect these children?
This is a very good post. I was pleased and disturbed with what your research found. The picture painted of what the child labor experience was like in the coal mine is some of the most freightening piece of literature i've ever read.
Putting aside the little to any wages they recieved for their labor, its the psychological effects on the child, the health risks that siginificantly shorten their life span, and the emotional impact they recieve amongst an audience of men who lack discretion.
Really interesting post - cannot imagine what it would be like to work so hard at such a young age! Not a childhood that any child should have to put up with!!
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