Child Labor Laws

For many young people, children as well as teens, the Industrial Revolution of the late 19th century signified not an era of new inventions, travel opportunities or progressive education, but a time of hardship and labor. This lesson plan is designed to introduce students to a topic which should surprise and shock many 16 year olds. Perhaps it will also allow them to see through different eyes the conditions in which they themselves labor. 

Weblink address (URL): 
Child Labor Laws
Home Page- source

Standards & Objectives

Essential and guiding questions: 
  • How did the demand for labor affect the lives of young people in the United States with an emphasis on Tennessee?
  • What early attempts were made to counteract the harmful conditions in which these children toiled?
  • Who were the competing forces and what reasons did they give for the exercise of working young people?

Lesson Variations

Blooms taxonomy level: 
Applying

Helpful Hints

Materials Needed:

  • Reading of John Spargo, Child Labor in the Coal Mines (1906), excerpt from John Spargo, The Bitter
  • Cry of the Children. (New York: Macmillan, 1906), pp. 163-165.
  • Pictures of child laborers in New York City, excerpts from How the Other Half Lives, Jacob Riis
  • In the Playtime of Others: Child labor in the Early 20th Century. Art to Zoo, News for Schools from the Smithsonian Institute, Office of Elementary and Secondary Education, Washington, D.C. 20560. December 1988.
  • Confronting the Modern Era: Child Labor, Tennessee4Me, National Endowment for the Humanities. Website developed and maintained by: The Tennessee State Museum.
  • News article, A Workforce of Children by George Zepp (Included at the end the of lesson plan)
  • The History Place. Child Labor in America. 1908-1912. Photographs by Lewis W. Hine.
  • Video, Lint Heads, Cotton Mills Workers
  • The Child Labor Amendment, 1924-1934. A document from the CQ Researcher archives.
  • Governor Hill McAllister Papers 1933-1937. File 5, Box 72. (Tennessee State Library and Archives)
    • Women of Wesley Class No. 3. Carroll Street Church, 1/27/1935
    • Sweetwater Hosiery Mills, 1/24/1935
    • Columbia Produce, 1/23/1935
  • Various political cartoons on child labor (Included at the end of lesson plan. Each cartoon is linked to a website with more information)