Lewis W. Hine and Child Labor on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
/// Library of Congress /// Photography of Lewis W. Hine /// Petar's Treasure // J. Paul Getty Museum ///
This is Rosie
"She's 7-years old, and she's been shucking oysters for two years." Lewis Hine, 1910
Source; Library of Congress
Child labor in America
Source; Library of Congress
Lewis Hine, a New York City schoolteacher and photographer, believed that a picture could tell a powerful story. He felt so strongly about the abuse of children as workers that he quit his teaching job and became an investigative photographer for the National Child Labor Committee. Hine traveled around the country photographing the working conditions of children in all types of industries. He photographed children in coal mines, in meatpacking houses, in textile mills, and in canneries. He took pictures of children working in the streets as shoe shiners, newsboys, and hawkers. In many instances he tricked his way into factories to take the pictures that factory managers did not want the public to see. He was careful to document every photograph with precise facts and figures. To obtain captions for his pictures, he interviewed the children on some pretext and then scribbled his notes with his hand hidden inside his pocket. Because he used subterfuge to take his photographs, he believed that he had to be "double-sure that my photo data was 100 percent pure--no retouching or fakery of any kind." Hine defined a good photograph as "a reproduction of impressions made upon the photographer which he desires to repeat to others." Because he realized his photographs were subjective, he described his work as "photo-interpretation." Source: National Archives
Photography as an educational tool
Photography as an art form began with the influence of Alfred Stieglitz, who had organized the Photo-Secession group, which promoted a “painterly” style of photography. The characteristics of this type of photography were romanticized images produced in a “soft-focus.” Trickery of the actual image-making and its production were the heart of creating this type of photography. Hine once questioned the group's artistic methods, from their ivory tower, how could they see way down to the substrata of it all? Hine, from the beginning, considered his photography as an educational tool in addition to an art form.
Source: International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum
Source: International Photography Hall of Fame and Museum
Child labor at sea
Source; Library of Congress
"The incident I am about to relate is one that has often occurred to sailors-boys before my time, and no doubt will occur again, until governments make better laws for the regulation of the merchant service, with a view to control and limit the far too absolute power that is now entrusted to the commanders of merchant-ships. It is a positive and astounding fact, that many of these men believe they may treat with absolute cruelty any of the poor people who are under their command, without the slightest danger of being punished for it!
Many a poor sailor of timid habits, and many a youthful sailor-boy, are forced to lead lives that are almost unendurable, -- drudged nearly to death, flogged at will, and in short, treated as the slaves of a cruel master." Ran Away To Sea, Captain Mayne Reid, 1845
For more children's ebooks that are downloadable for classroom use, go to; openlibrary.org
Many a poor sailor of timid habits, and many a youthful sailor-boy, are forced to lead lives that are almost unendurable, -- drudged nearly to death, flogged at will, and in short, treated as the slaves of a cruel master." Ran Away To Sea, Captain Mayne Reid, 1845
For more children's ebooks that are downloadable for classroom use, go to; openlibrary.org
Fair Labor Standards Act
Source; Library of Congress
In the United States it took many years to outlaw child labor. By 1899, 28 states had passed laws regulating child labor. Many efforts were made to pass a national child labor law. The U.S. Congress passed two laws, in 1918 and 1922, but the Supreme Court declared both unconstitutional. In 1924, Congress proposed a constitutional amendment prohibiting child labor, but the states did not ratify it. Then, in 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act. It fixed minimum ages of 16 for work during school hours, 14 for certain jobs after school, and 18 for dangerous work. Today all the states and the U.S. government have laws regulating child labor. These laws have cured the worst evils of children working in factories.
Source: Scholastic.com
Source: Scholastic.com
Child labor in the seafood industry on the Mississippi Gulf Coast
Source; Library of Congress
In Mississippi, a 1908 law during the administration of Governor Edmund Noel made it illegal for factories to hire young children under age 12 to work in factories and established a 10-hour work day and a 58-hour work week. Prior to passage of the law, factory managers liked to hire children because children worked cheap. The children under age 12 who had worked in factories would now be able to attend school instead. Six years later while Governor Earl Brewer was in office, the legislature raised the work age limit for girls to 14 years, and left the age limit for boys at 12, but limited the work day to eight hours with a 48-hour work week for boys under 16 and girls under 18. Source: Stephen Cresswell, Ph.D., “Was Mississippi a Part of Progressivism?”, Mississippi History Now, June 2004._
By the 1911 date of the Hine photographs, one can see that the law was ignored by the owners of seafood canneries on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
By the 1911 date of the Hine photographs, one can see that the law was ignored by the owners of seafood canneries on the Mississippi Gulf Coast.
In 1880, the seafood industry was small and limited to what the local population could consume when the steam engine, new canning methods, and ice production changed everything. As the canneries sprang up along the coastal towns the factories found it difficult to find enough workers to do the degrading work they called 'shrimp picking'.
"In 1890, an annual processing of two million pounds of oysters and 614,000 pounds of shrimp was reported by Biloxi’s canneries. By 1902, those numbers had skyrocketed as twelve canneries reported a combined catch of 5,988,788 pounds of oysters and 4,424,000 pounds of shrimp. By 1903, Biloxi, with a population of approximately 8,000, was referred to as “The Seafood Capital of the World.” Source: Deanne Stephens Nuwer, Ph.D, Mississippi History Now, 2006
"In 1890, an annual processing of two million pounds of oysters and 614,000 pounds of shrimp was reported by Biloxi’s canneries. By 1902, those numbers had skyrocketed as twelve canneries reported a combined catch of 5,988,788 pounds of oysters and 4,424,000 pounds of shrimp. By 1903, Biloxi, with a population of approximately 8,000, was referred to as “The Seafood Capital of the World.” Source: Deanne Stephens Nuwer, Ph.D, Mississippi History Now, 2006
The Peerless Oyster Co. in Bay St. Louis, established in 1901. Source; Unknown
Source; Library of Congress
"In order to ensure the success of his company, Dukate traveled to Baltimore, Maryland, which had long been established as a successful model of the seafood industry. He learned the skills and techniques necessary to generate that same success in his own business. This included using not only the same business practices but the very same workers found in the Baltimore seafood factories....it was the immigrant families from Baltimore that migrated south for the winter that built the shrimping industry. Entire families were encouraged to travel south together. This benefited not only the laboring families but the cannery owners as well. On one hand families could remain a unit while on the other hand owners could put to use people of all ages." Source: Macky Lawernce, Mississippi: Shrimp Pickers, Child Labor in the American South
"When the first group of Bohemians arrived, the local townspeople turned out to gawk at the immigrants, most of whom still wore their drab grey and black peasant clothes and odd round hats from Europe. The arrival caused such a stir that a reporter from the Biloxi Herald, with tongue firmly in cheek, noted that, "a close examination proved that they had neither tails not tusks, but were very much like other people." Source: When Biloxi was the seafood capitol of the world, David Sheffield, Darnell Nicovich
Source; Library of Congress
"Row houses" where the families of the Bohemian laborers from Baltimore stayed during the seafood seasons in Biloxi. The last of these camps disappeared in the 1950s. Photograph by Joe Scholtes
Eastern European immigrants known as 'Bohemians' traveled in special railroad cars from their homes in Baltimore to work the canneries along the coast during the winter oyster season . They lived in factory-owned camps near the canneries, and the children rarely attended the local schools. Many of the Baltimore families stayed on after the oyster season and became permanent residents.
"In May 1901, a special train consisting of three coaches and a baggage car and transporting about eighty Bohemians laborers, who were employed by Lopez & Dukate, left Biloxi for their Maryland homes to work in the seafood industry there in the summer months." Biloxi's oyster industry was closed until cooler weather in the fall. Source: biloxihistoricalsociety.org (The Biloxi Herald, May5, 1901, p.8)
"The Poles would not come if they were not allowed to work the children. The whole families come out at four or five in the morning and shuck oysters or pick shrimp. The children under [age] six huddle up against the steam boxes where it is warm, where the children over six work." Source: biloxihistoricalsociety.org Supervisor, Dunbar, Lopez, & Dukate Company of Louisiana
Eastern European immigrants known as 'Bohemians' traveled in special railroad cars from their homes in Baltimore to work the canneries along the coast during the winter oyster season . They lived in factory-owned camps near the canneries, and the children rarely attended the local schools. Many of the Baltimore families stayed on after the oyster season and became permanent residents.
"In May 1901, a special train consisting of three coaches and a baggage car and transporting about eighty Bohemians laborers, who were employed by Lopez & Dukate, left Biloxi for their Maryland homes to work in the seafood industry there in the summer months." Biloxi's oyster industry was closed until cooler weather in the fall. Source: biloxihistoricalsociety.org (The Biloxi Herald, May5, 1901, p.8)
"The Poles would not come if they were not allowed to work the children. The whole families come out at four or five in the morning and shuck oysters or pick shrimp. The children under [age] six huddle up against the steam boxes where it is warm, where the children over six work." Source: biloxihistoricalsociety.org Supervisor, Dunbar, Lopez, & Dukate Company of Louisiana
Source; Library of Congress
Another group of immigrants from Southeastern Europe known as Austrians settled along the coast during the 1880s. These immigrants were from a coastal region of Yugoslavia known today as Croatia. Many worked in the canning factories, but unlike the Baltimore families, many had specialized skills in boat building and seamanship. They were known for their strong work ethic, and great value on independence.
Source; Library of Congress
Another immigrant group of seafood workers filtered in from south Louisiana. They were the decedents of Catholic French-Canadian settlers who were expelled from Canada. Like the Baltimore families and the Yugoslavians, the 'Acadians' branched out into many occupations along the Mississippi Coast related to the seafood industry. In more recent times, the seafood industry attracted another group of immigrant workers to the Gulf Coast, the Vietnamese.
"View of the Gorenflo Canning Co., Biloxi, Miss. Taken at 7 A.M. Many tiny workers here, some of whom began to arrive as early as 5 o'clock, and [sic] hour before they were allowed to begin work, and long before daylight on a damp, foggy day. The whistle had blown and they came and stood around merely to hold their places. When the "catch" has been good they begin work early, but today it was not good so they were waiting for daylight. In this group I ascertained the ages of a few, as follows, 1 child of 6 years, 1 of 7, 2 of 8, 1 of 10, and there were many others." Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"Some of the young shrimp-pickers working at the Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Co., Youngest five and eight years old." Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
Editor’s Note: Lewis Hine used the term 'shrimp-pickers', as the local community did, as a generic phrase for all laborers in the seafood industry. He photographed the Gulf Coast in the winter months during the oyster season. In the summer months these same children would be peeling shrimp or packing fruit and vegetables, although some of canneries closed in the summer.
Editor’s Note: Lewis Hine used the term 'shrimp-pickers', as the local community did, as a generic phrase for all laborers in the seafood industry. He photographed the Gulf Coast in the winter months during the oyster season. In the summer months these same children would be peeling shrimp or packing fruit and vegetables, although some of canneries closed in the summer.
Source; Library of Congress
10-year-old Jimmie. Been shucking 3 years. 6 pots a day, and a 11 year old boy who shucks 7 pots. Also several members of an interesting family named Sherrica. Seven of them are in this factory. The father, mother, four girls shuck and pack. Older brother steams. 10 year old boy goes to school. Been in the oyster business 5 years. Father worked for 25 years in the Pennsylvania Coal Mine, and the oldest brother there[?] They said they liked the oysters business better because the family makes more.
"Some of the shrimp-pickers in an Oyster Co. The bosses refused to allow the children to be in the photo, so I was compelled to wait until they had gone home to dinner, before I could get this." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"Shucking oysters in the Alabama Canning Company (Dunbar Lopez, Dukate Co.) Small boy on left end is Mike Murphy, ten years old, and from Baltimore." Lewis Hine, Bayou La Batre, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"All these children (except babies) shuck oysters and tend babies at the Pass Packing Co. I saw them all at work there long before daybreak. Photos taken at noon in the absence of the Supt. who refused me permission because [of?] Child Labor agitation. Factory belongs to Dunbar, Lopez, Dukate Co". Lewis Hine, Pass Christian, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
In March 1888, Biloxi was described by the Biloxi Herald as follows: Standing on the front gallery of the Montross Hotel one looking to the Gulf would see the line of unsightly bath and oyster houses, dilapidated wharves, and high piles of oyster shelves. If the bath and oyster houses are to remain in [sic] cannot they be made neat and handsome and the large oyster piles-are they to remain and offend the eyes and noses of the denizens and visitors? Source; Library of Congress
"A few of the young shuckers at the Pass Packing Co." Lewis Hine, Pass Christian, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
Source; Library of Congress
On November 10, 1899, Lopez & Dukate advertised in The Biloxi Daily Herald for fifty boats to fish on the oyster banks and pay oystermen 40 cents per barrel of oyster. They would pay for fifty boats to transport oysters from the reef to the factory wharf for 40 to 50 cents per barrel. The factory also sought one hundred oyster shuckers.
Two boys harvesting an oyster bed using oyster rakes called tongs. The gaff rigged catboat had the virtues of simplicity, ease of handling, shallow draft, and large capacity. Source; Library of Congress
Source; Library of Congress
Oysters were first shipped out by schooner, in bushel sacks to nearby points. With the coming of the railroad in 1870, they were shipped by rail to new markets in Montgomery, Vicksburg, and Memphis.
"Dunbar & Dukate oyster cannery. According to the testimony of a number of the parents and children, this factory reverses the child labor law to suit its own convenience, and probably to avoid detection. Instead of excluding the young children from work before six o'clock according to the law, they let the young children work from four until seven, and then send them home."
Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
Children who should have been in school.
"All are workers in a Pass Christian oyster cannery. Going home at 5 P.M. The youngest ones shuck before and after school. Two youngest are Lillie and Sadie Bilski, 8 and 6 years old. They shuck regularly. " Lewis Hine, Pass Christian, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
Alma's Story
“It was hard times back then. That house they were living in looks like a rundown shack. I’d seen some of those shacks down in Biloxi when I was a kid. You could see through the walls when you went in them.” -Joseph Olier, son of Alma Alves
"Alma Crosien, three-year-old daughter of Mrs. Cora Croslen, of Baltimore. Both work in the Barataria Canning Company. The mother said, “I’m learnin’ her the trade.” Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1911. Source; Library of Congress
"Some of the younger workers (not all) who work in the Biloxi Canning Factory. On right-hand end of photo is Lazro Boney, 12 years old, been working 4 years at this factory. Both he and his mother said he makes $1.75 a day when shrimp are large and plentiful. He made $57.00 last year in 3 months. His brother Ed (not in photo) 14 years old, makes $2.25 on good days. Another brother, Pete, (one of the smallest in the photo) and 10 years old makes 50 cents a day. Two other brothers work at raw oysters; one, 17 years old, makes $4.00 a day. Eight ch[ildre]n in family. The mother said, "Lazro goes to school when he ain't workin; but he's gettin' so he'd rather stay home with the boys than go to school." Family lives at 616 Charter St. Next to Lazro (in photo) is Jim Kriss, 11 years old, been working at this factory two years; makes $1.50 on good days. His brother Jo Kriss (in photo next to girl on left end) 12 years old, makes $1.00 a day. Another brother Ed, not in photo, 14 years averages $2.50 a day. Sister Marie 7 years old (see photo at home) works when not tending the baby, and makes 25 cents a day. Mother picks also. Youngest boy in photo is Tommy Davis, 8 years old. 918 Charter St. Worked last year. Ester Barton, a 12 year old boy also is the photo, couldn't spell his own name. Been working two years. "Teeny" Adams, girl on left end of photo, 11 years old, makes $1.15 some days. Missed three weeks of school last month, working. Works now before school, or all day." Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
To read the story of Lazro Boney by historian Joe Manning, go to: morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/18/lazaro-boney
To read the story of Lazro Boney by historian Joe Manning, go to: morningsonmaplestreet.com/2015/01/18/lazaro-boney
"Manuel the young shrimp picker, age 5, and a mountain of child labor oyster shells behind him. He worked last year. Understands not a word of English." Lewis Hine, Biloxi, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"Maud Daly, five years old. Grace Daly, three years old. Pick shrimp at the Peerless Oyster Co. Their mother said they both help, and their sister said the little one worked the fastest. Many little ones like them work here." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"School [Taylor School] located near the homes of the cannery workers. The teacher told me that only three of the cannery children attended her school, and they were not Baltimore people." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
"Sadie Kelly, 11 years old, Picks shrimp for the Peerless Oyster Co. Picked 7 pots yesterday, 5 pots today at 5 cents. Picked last year." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"Joe Davis, a ten-year old going home from cannery at 5 P.M. He said he had shucked ten pots since 4 A.M. that day."
Lewis Hine, Pass Christian, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
Lewis Hine, Pass Christian, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
"Lillian Dambrinio, an eleven-year-old shrimp picker in Peerless Oyster Co. She is an American and lives here. Says picking makes her hands sore. (Not[e] the condition of her shoes. One worker told me, "The acid in the shrimp eats the shoes off your feet.") She says she earns a dollar a day when shrimp are big. Goes to school, but not when factory is busy." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"St. Joseph's Academy. The assistant to the Father in charge told me that none of the cannery children attended the academy, although he admitted that most of them were Catholics." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1916 Source; Library of Congress
"Some of the shrimp-pickers in an Oyster Co. The bosses refused to allow the children to be in the photo, so I was compelled to wait until they had gone home to dinner, before I could get this." Lewis Hine, Bay St. Louis, 1911 Source; Library of Congress
"Henry, 10-year-old oyster shucker who does five pots of oysters a day. Works before school, after school, and Saturdays. Been working three years. Maggioni Canning Co., Port Royal, South Carolina." Lewis Hine, February 1912. Source; Library of Congress
Source; Library of Congress
Source; Library of Congress
