Child Labor (Babies In the Mill / Dark as a Dungeon)

[order57]

Poor young girls and boys.

[dayspeace]

quite sad to know how this children were treated n this kind of situation when they should be given much more care. They should be given a chance to have education instead of working in a harsh conditions.

[TheSeer101]

Conversation bewteen a 12 year old boy and his mother, one in 1911 another in 2011. In 1911: After a bad case of pneumonia, son says "Mom, I am sorry I had pneumonia. I will work twice as hard to make up for it." Mother says "Please son do not go out in the rain and sell papers." Son walks out the door and says "I love you mom." In 2011: While playing a computer game, son says, "Mom why didn't you cut the crust off my bread? Mother says "I am sorry" Son replies "Damn you!!"

[nausinora]

All those uncaring businesses that hired children to go down into those mines for next to no pay made such massive profits. It's sickening. Absolutely sickening.

[TheBarbie1969]

my dad picked cotton when he was only 3 years old

[Sohave]

Thumbs up for Dorsey Dixon, Lewis Hine and last but not least all thoes children.

[DraganGrazic]

the first song is from Dorsey Dixon

[TuboEspectador]

Very good slide show. I expected the historical shots, but then you included current day photos of kids working. And that is the exact point! My thanks!



[Francesko263]

Now I can see why at that time humans breed many children...and today we do not breed anymore....

[TheRealTDITilly]

@JeremyPassarelli You're kidding right?

[RinEdition]

they still lost fingers and sometimes hands. :( so sad. and those hours had them falling asleep in th

[LakesideArt]

My Dad had to work starting at 3 am in a bakery at age 7 when he first came to this country. If he finished his work, then he could go to school that day.

[xboxboy93941]

Do you have the source for the first quote? I'm using it in a paper and the citation has to be MLA style.

[broncrider49]

The boys in these photos grew up to be men, respectable, honest, hard-working men. Men are few and far between these days and have only become men due to working since they could. Modern times place more value on the eductaion a person has, and not as much on his work ethic, for i know more men without a degree that are smarter, more honest, and harder working than the one born with the silver spoon.

[Sshelly34213]

@broncrider49 I'm going to guess that they grew up to be very screwed up people who drank, womanized, and ended up beating or verbally abusing their kids. Kids who are abused as children, grow up to abuse people later in life.

Sending a 3 year old into a mine shaft is child abuse.

[farmer63980]

great song

[farmer63980]

@farmer63980 Great songs amen

[licensenj]

Republicans would put poor children back in the mills if they could.

[Sshelly34213]

@licensenj Actually it was a Republican, Teddy Roosevelt, who was adamantly against child labor.

It's was never Republican issue, it was a conservative issue. If businesses use child labor do they get much respect for that? I personally refuse to buy products from anyone who would do that.

[ibejamesbrown]

This video aches my heart.

[acerb45666555]

this hell of factories! it was bad back then, i would picked the Army!$! :)

[rickster348]

I worked in a donut shop when I was 14 years old. Was I a victim?

[killyrboyfriend]

Did you work on a concrete floor with less than a living wage and were you not paid for your overtime? Were you working in dangerous conditions with no chance at medical care when you were hurt? I would love to verbally rape you and insult your obvious lack of humanity, intelligence but I am TRYING to be a better person and then people like you come along and derail the shit train and I get disgusted and OOOOOPS, I just said some unkind things. You need to evolve. srsly.

[JaphyMagoose]

Oh, come on....working in a donut shop at 14 is a little different from working at age 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, grueling 12 to 14 hour days every day, and forcibly, not by choice, not being allowed to take any kind of break that whole time. These kids had no choice, and they were far younger than 14, and never went to school, and were not protected by any kind of laws. They could be injured on the job; that was their problem. I worked at age 14 too, in a coffee shop, but this is no comparison!

[rickster348]

So, What do we do now, turn back time? Have yourselves a good cry and get over it. Things are different now. There's more important things to worry about, like our future.

[Mrmonk9]

Working in a donut shot<Working in a mill at age 3.

Sorry bud.

[rickster348]

Working in a mill AT AGE THREE?? C'mom, you blowing your cause with that one, dumbass.

[babybookworm003]

actualy no children needed to be small for certain jobs the small children would probably be what they called piecers they would go under the machines and such

[annaliserules]

no they were orfans or poor peoples children that were made 2 work

[griffcats]

I believe this song was written and recorded by Dorsey Dixon. He's singing it on youtube elsewhere.

[paljim24]

I think he sings it much better. Check it out. Thanx for posting this; it's a great resource for my students.

[jjenson2006]

This is not Capitalism. It is bad parents that forced their kids to work. They didn't have to work; it's just the greedy parents made them work.

It is no different than how we went from a one worker household to a two worker household. We didn't need to do that; it was just that people demanded a higher standard of living than they really needed. By doing that, it forces the cost of living up for the rest who don't have a two income household.

[vktrsx]

5 stars!

This is capitalism working as intended. Child labor and sweatshops are the predictable outcome of the profit-driven "free market." Such atrocities can only be prevented by collective defense against capitalist tyranny. Markets of the workers, by the workers, and for the workers, with the capitalist middlemen cut out of the equation.

[CalvinJGreen]

Believe whatever you want about capitalism, the fact of the matter is that many if not all of these people depicted would have simply died of starvation if they had not had some means of supporting themselves and their families. Before the industrial revolution such an outcome was ubiquitous, during the late 1600s to the early 1700s 5-6 children would not live to the age of eight years old! I agree the working conditions were terrible,but you cant compare then to now cause there is no likeness!

[CalvinJGreen]

This term of collective defense you used really put a smile on my face, because of course youre referring to the government, IE: a minority group of people with a monopoly on the use of force. I find it so intriguing that you have to use euphemisms to keep yourself distant from this reality.

[vktrsx]

"of course youre referring to the government"

False.

Incidentally, "the gubmint" is run by and for capitalists.

[CalvinJGreen]

True, a mixed capitalist/socialist economy propagates a symbiosis between the state and the corporate special interests, incidentally that is called corporatism.

[vktrsx]

If corporate personhood were abolished (as it should be), the state would remain in the hands of capitalists. Attempts to wriggle out from under this, by coining terms like "corporatism" and drawing a distinction between it and capitalism, are ridiculous.

The sort of "mixed economy" you speak of is pure mythology: socialism is where production is democratically controlled by the producers (workers). Regulated capitalism is in no way "socialist." Nor is "redistribution." These are stopgaps.

[rickster348]

Your a moron.

[vktrsx]

"Your a moron."

What is an "a moron"; when and how did I acquire one; and where is it?

[zenbrenzz]

RedCeltic..Thanks much for posting.

[zenbrenzz]

I'm hearsick at these photos.

My mother started working in a cotton mill in Marion, NC at the age of 12 in the 1920's. She had polio when small and wore braces on her legs, and had to stand on a box to reach the looms.

I am, understandably, a socialist liberal, but I have older siblings who are raging GOP capitalists.

The biggest mass conspiracy ever is the communism/socialism fear, brainwashed into the US public's minds.

All in the name of our one true god, capitalism.

[ginsushark]

when travelling in india i was shocked that most of the waiters at restaurants were kids

[KhmerD0g]

many of the pictures were from pre-WWII era. U.S. now has labor laws. the U.S. will ban this law once the economic crisis reaches it peak come 2010. we are back to those days. history comes a circle

[RedCeltic]

On the sidebar I explain from when and by who the photographs come from...

"The vast majority of these photographs are taken by Lewis Hine, who between 1908 and 1912 traveled around the United States photographing children as young as 3 years old working in mines, factories, fields and mills"

[rickster348]

I don't believe you. I think you just made up the 3 year old thing.

[Mrmonk9]

Didn't you learn anything when you were 14? I guess you were too busy working at that Doughnut shop... They didn't take on large jobs of course, but carrying around thread was a task you would see young children young as 3 working. If a whole family was working then the child would have no one to look after them, so they would work too. And just because child labor laws are no longer in America, dosn't mean there are in other parts of the world...Before you call me a moron, have a reason.

[zenbrenzz]

khmer..get real, the US is backward, compared to most developed countries, but we are not so unenlightened to repeat this evil. Revolution will come in the scenario you mention,

[KhmerD0g]

btw, next week will be the week to watch about the U.S. economic conditions. i believe u must watch this video because it's very important -- your economic survival:

watch?v=Z8EHcHjsZMk

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g No they would never do that no matter how bad things get, we've been in worse depressions than this. people have been much much poorer.

[KhmerD0g]

@Sshelly34213

we are just in the beginning of the Great Depression II. things will get far worst then it was in the 1930 Great Depression. the future is very grim for American 2011 and beyond will be totally different from 2000. i am starting to see many homeless people in my area.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g Oh stop being so over dramatic!! This is absolutely NOTHING like the great depression. People don't have work in America, but no one is starving! No one has to starve anymore, there are plenty of soup kitchens, there is welfare and unemployment.

I see homeless people in my town as well and it's horrible, but you know what you can do? Give them your extra food and clothing, give to can drives, help out at soup kitchens. You don't have to just sit there like a helpless lump on a log.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g That's what we get for being so obsessed with capital, we drove OURSELVES into debt. We said screw you to FDRs programs, we deregulated the system, and the average people stood apathetic, heck some of them even cheered while it occurred. Now you realize that regulation is for a reason.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g Sadly, it's always people who had no part in the problem that have suffer the most. You can be the people who are homeless now are probably people who pay for everything they buy instead of using credit.

Around the world people are suffering a hell of a lot more than Americans are, no one has to starve in the street in the US.

[KhmerD0g]

@Sshelly34213

no one is starving on the street of USA? just wait a few years and u will see america is a third world country.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g They're not going to be, you're completely exaggerating, stop being such doomsayer. If you want to sit alone in your bunker and freak out all day, go ahead, or if you're so convinced people are going to be starving, go help them. I mean really...where are you getting freaking out?

[KhmerD0g]

@Sshelly34213

have u been outside lately? i already saw 5 homeless people around my block. 4 years ago i only see 1. mark my word, we are heading toward Great Depresion II. it will be far worst than the last Great Depression.

it is difficult to find a nice job.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g Were you alive during the Great depression?? Do you know how many people were actually homeless?

4 homeless people? Come! Go live in New York, there's about 4000+ of them on a good day! There are homeless people in the suburbs, sorry to burst your bubble.

Yes there are more of them, the economy is crud, but it's nowhere NEAR the great depression. Absolutely nowhere near, go look at charts and statistics and you'll know what I'm talking about.

[Sshelly34213]

@KhmerD0g You watch CNN and Fox waaay too much, they like people out so you feel more of a need to watch the news. Obviously people love watching the news when they feel like there's a crisis...

CNN and Fox make you want to hide away in a hole all day long, they grossly exaggerate and distort facts. Come back to reality.

Also, homeless does not mean starving..I'd like point that out.

[JTB1956]

@KhmerD0g Interesting parallel. Do you suppose that since we don't have many factories anymore that there would even be a place for children to labor? Coal mines don't employ many people anymore either. My Grandfather picked cotton, was a gandy dancer, and strung wire for the REA in the last depression. I'm at a loss to guess how folks will survive this next one.

[KhmerD0g]

@JTB1956

there will be trade war and protectionism. that will make it worst.

there will be social unrest and possible revolution. american history had many violence social changes from revolutionary war to racial equality movement to labor union formation. i see it will happen again.

people will do whatever it takes to survive. there will be many robbery, illegal drug dealings and prostitution. many corruption and bribery will be the norm in america for years to come.

[sociomike]

@KhmerD0g I think you're right. What's scary is that the government has already paid Halliburton to build detention centers around the country in anticipation of social unrest. Those centers are operational......complete with a rail system to deliver cargo/people to them. No joke.

[KhmerD0g]

@sociomike

We are living in a trying time.

[zenarrrow]

I wish I could put my kids to work in a coal mine. And I could stay home and eat cake.

[jedimasterbooboo]

Our country will never not be capitalist, it will only keep working with some socialist structures to keep it propped up. So I don't get these capitalism VERSUS socialism arguments. They are too extreme. Thank God for liberals, though, who put an end to this child labor.

[drndlop]

Hasn't anyone time to mention that Merle Travis' DARK AS A DUNGEON is possibly the best song of its kind ever written? He was a master.

[scotishjohn]

i served my aprenticship in the pits

then maggi thatcher

closed them down

and decimated whole communities and a way of

life

[oleiros70]

Socialism or barbarism!

Once again, thanks and congratulations on your magnificent videos.

Galiza and Eire united against predatory capitalism and murderer imperialism .

Viva Galiza Ceive e Socialista!

[ComradeFlorian]

The only hope for mankind is to do away with the capitalist system.

Workers of the world, rise up and overthrow the greedy and heartless bosses!

[generationy1992]

you're talking the best for mankind?

Is North Korea your answer for it?

[crb4059]

Although child labor was a shameful chapter, ultimately people chose to send kids to these places to work, no one forced them outside of their parents. Same as in other countures today, no one is forcing them to hire children. These ppl would starve otherwise.

[RedCeltic]

When my Grandparents were growing up in Scotland, the idea of sending your children off to school was a luxury their parents could not afford. The truth is that my Grandfather who worked from the age of 6, did so not because his parents chose to, but because if he didn't his family would not survive. You drive wages down to the point that even mom & dad's wages don't pay the rent and put food on the table, you have little choice but to send the kids off into the factories.

[RedCeltic]

And you will see today that child labor continues among those who do not make a living wage. Do you think that poor people send their children off to work because they care less about them then rich families do?

[ComradeFlorian]

In fact, child labour continues in the West even today- mainly among poor immigrants. True, it has substantially decreased over the past decades, but this was mainly due to the fact that capitalist OUTSOURCED child labour to poorer countries. They figured that by doing this they would keep their "own" workers in check.

[crb4059]

Your arguments all smell of a liberalism that lacks any coherent, logical backing. Your arguments always stem from "feelings" rather than any logic. I am a conservative, I believe all children should receive education and not have to work. Families send their children to work are doing so under their own volition and not from any mandate, so it isnt forces, and thus your argument fails...miserably. It has been shown that these ppl would starve to death without that labor.

[ComradeFlorian]

So you give them a simple choice: either starve to death or agree to be WORKED to death.

What a lowlife bastard you are!

Under Socialism EVERYONE will have decent jobs, so there will be no longer a question of starving to death or being worked to death

[Licmycat]

This is the kind of attitude that will lead to a revolution, when people begin to see the brutality and coldness of attitudes of you and your 'class'. I see the workers rising up and taking your lands and property by court order under the criminal and human abuses that are perpetrated on the poor and disenrfranchised by you and ur cohorts. Much the same way drug dealers are treated when caught. GOD didn't give u ur riches, you stole it thru filthy ursury and murder.

[crb4059]

Bla bla, you sound like a typical commie, warfare for material wealth gains rather than working for it honestly and ethically. Trust me bud, your angle has been tried about hundred years ago in the cold war and has failed miserably. Your a typical commie socialist pig, stealing rather than earning.

[Licmycat]

Funny when u and ur kind is supporting communism by trading with communist countries like China and shopping at Wal-mart. You don't have a moral leg to stand on, propagandist. Besides it takes one to know one, what a childish attitude you have.Not to mention cold-blooded.

[crb4059]

So your notion is to artifiically drive up salaries, simply because they deserve more? Trust me your arguemtns have been reverberated billions of times over the eons, its nothing new. Capitalism allows for maximum effieciency, I dont believe ppl should be allowed to be paid more artificially, especially not by some bureacrat demanding so. Minimum wage laws INCREASE Unemployment, this has been observed and proven by economists and agreed upon even in socialist countries.

[ComradeFlorian]

Of course workers deserve more, cause they're the ones who work. Capitalists are just big, fat, bloated parasites.

[wudunion]

Oh, yes, let's look at the marvelous efficiency of capitalism: the housing crisis...Oh, I almost forgot the "efficient" Iraq war. Oh, maybe you're going to say that the problem is just that government is getting in the way and should just let the new private armies take over...oh, wait, we already did that and it's a sick murderous capitalistic mess. Yeah, "free enterprise" is good! Oh, yeah! Let the oil wars roll on, but why don't you go fight them instead of my son you asshole!

[crb4059]

Ppl like this make me proud to be an American. moral, upright citizens contributing thorugh hard labor. Today we have a growing entitlement class demanding their welfare checks and their sec.8 vouchers. Perfectly healthy capable ppl who rather have the govt feed them, yet these frail undernourished kids worked and I bet NEVEr would have asked for assistance. God bless.

[ComradeFlorian]

Yes, they worked, and this is the reason so many of them died of overwork or professional disease

[ComradeFlorian]

Capitalism kills.

[crb4059]

Capitalism kills poverty. Dont take it for granted, commie.

[ComradeFlorian]

It's the other way around: capitalism GENERATES poverty and Socialism kills it.

This is why East European workers are much worse off than 20 years ago- for example

[crb4059]

Socialism is nothing more than govt enacted protectionoism, in other words it places artifical impediments to financial success. Captialism is free market, the key word is free. The American society is built upon freedom, religious, socialliy, civically, and economoically. Anyone opposed ot these God given rights are tyrannical in nature. You are really lost I am afraid.

[ComradeFlorian]

The key world is OPPRESSIVE. Freedom under capitalism means exclusively freedom for the rich and especially the very rich.

Death to capitalism!

[crb4059]

Please explain how its oppressive, socialism is oppressiv because no one has the choice to succeed. Capitialsim allows anyone to become rich, not everyone has the smae skills talent and education to succeed and thus fail. I bet youre a prime example of that, socialism is alwyas desired by poor people to ensure no one becomes rich, and everyone is poor. Pathetic.

[ComradeFlorian]

"Capitalism allows everyone to get rich"- yeah, sure.

That's why the gap between rich and poor keeps growing.

That's why most East European workers are WORSE OFF than 20 years ago.

That's why thousands of people starved to death in Argentina during the 2001 crisis.

The workers work, the greedy employers lives OFF his work. That is how matters stand under your beloved capitalism.

[crb4059]

You know why they are worse off? Becuase they DONT HAVE FREE MARKETS. Their systems arent purely captitalistic, they have heavy influences of socialistic, redistributive policies that force the redistribution of wealth. Business have NO incentive to operate in these places instead they go to an environment favorable to them. Therefore millions gpo unemployed and thus starve. Europe continues to implement anti free amrket policies that hence have weakened their markets.

[ComradeFlorian]

There is no such a thing as a purely capitalist economy. The capitalist market cannot be 100% free, because the big capitalists themselves won't allow it. America also has a regulated market- even libertarians admit it. Protectionism, the Federal Reserve etc. There can be no such a thing as "pure capitalism". For the capitalists it pays to have the state on their side.

[crb4059]

you continue to ramble on changing the subject with every successive post knowing I defeated your last frivolous argument. The bottom line is free amrket capitalism is infintely btetter than socialism. The collpase of the USSR proved that. The emergence of China under free market induced expansion proves that. The greateness of America proves that. Go away troll. Ironic you are posting ona website that ONLY capitalism would allow to produce. You enjoy the fruits of capitalism every day!

[ComradeFlorian]

The bottom line is that East European workers became WORSE OFF following the collapse of Socialism. These countries may not be "purely capitalistic", but you can't deny that they are much more "free" than they were 20 years ago- according to your skewed definition of "freedom", that is

[crb4059]

Is it any coincidnece that the most free markets are the most prosperous? I dont know about east europe, nut I am sure their weakened economic state comes form govt controls preventing freedom.

[ComradeFlorian]

They are prosperous mainly because they live off the superexploitation of third world workers. Higher wages in the West generally correlate with starvation wages in the East and South. Western and Japanese multinationals operating in poor countries pay much lower wages than at home.

This is one of the reasons.

But even in prosperous first world countries the social gaps are growing and real wages are stagnating or falling.

This is capitalism- the ruthless exploitation of the working class

[randyflats]

With much sadness I must say that this abuse is more prevalent now than ever.. I'm not sure that many "get it", they still support these exploitations ....BOYCOTT ! !

[fucktubereligion]

I think we need to form a childrens labour union.

[exxlaw]

Beautiful! We do a bunch of Dorsey Dixon songs and I even have the Babies In the Mill CD, but had missed this song. You do it more than justice. I'd better take another look at Dorsey's CD. Great slide show, too.

Bill Dillof

Moonshine Holler

[PonderingStudent]

Under the capitalist pressures it is always, sadly, going to be more economic to employ children. We haven't changed much - we've just globalised the action. Sometimes I despair.

[RedCeltic]

Great post! That was my point in a nutshell.

[crb4059]

Riiight, as if socialism and communism is waaay better. Millions will die not more than few decades after these photos were taken from your beloved communism, that continues to claim lives to this day libtard.

[Syndicalistgirl]

potent sad stuff. :(:( Again, Good work, mike! Now to check out greanteawoman's video.

..

[RedCeltic]

Damn! I'm never online at the same time as you. :( well anyway, thanks and I hope you have a great New Year. Hasta la victoria siempre!

[RedCeltic]

Thank you. Actually it looks like you added yours a few days before I put mine up. I would have used Dorsey Dixion's version, (Because Dorsey wrote it) but I didn't have a copy. My grandmother went to work in textile mills in Scotland at the age of 9. My grandfather worked from the age of 6 in a Glasgow shipyard.

Child labor continues to be a problem for poor strugling people across the world, and is not just a thing of the past.

[greanteawoman]

This is wild red! I just posted a video about this with Dorsey Dixon's original recording as the sound track. I had not seen yours before I put mine up. It's a small world! Great version, BTW! :-)

[davidgriffen]

Riveting.