The Breaker BoysLast evening I watched a show called "The Irish: Two Nations-One Heart", this unique documentary includes interviews and cinematography shot on-location in the Donegal and Mayo counties of Ireland, as well as several counties in northeastern Pennsylvania. It presents the full story of Pennsylvania's Irish and the emotionally compelling testimony of an extraordinary journey that continues to this day. The second part focused on the coal mines that are well known in NE Pennsylvania, and about "The Breaker Boys." I was so very touched by the story that I spent a good part of this morning reading about them and thought I would share a little of their story.
Smaller lumps of coal in the mines had to have the impurities removed and this was done by hand, usually by boys between the ages of eight and 12 years old known as breaker boys. The use of breaker boys began in the U.S. around 1866. The breaker boys would sit on wooden seats, perched over chutes and conveyor belts, picking slate and other impurities out of the coal.
Breaker boys worked 10 hours a day for six days a week. The work was hazardous. Breaker boys were forced to work without gloves so that they could handle the slick coal better. The slate, however, was sharp, and boys would leave work with their fingers cut and bleeding. Many breaker boys lost fingers to the rapidly moving conveyor belts, while others, moving about the plant, had their feet, hands, arms, and legs amputated when they moved among the machinery and accidentally slipped under the belts or into the gears. Many died when they fell into the gears of the machinery, their bodies only retrieved at the end of the working day. Others were caught in the rush of coal, and crushed to death or smothered. The "dry" coal kicked up so much dust that the breaker boys sometimes wore lamps on their heads to see, and asthma and black lung disease were common.
Public outrage against the use of breaker boys was so widespread that in 1885 Pennsylvania enacted a law forbidding the employment of anyone under the age of 12 from working in a coal breaker, but the law was poorly enforced, and many employers and families forged birth certificates or other documents so children could work. Estimates of the number of breaker boys at work in the anthracite coal fields of Pennsylvania vary widely, and official statistics are generally considered by historians to undercount the numbers significantly. Estimates include 20,000 breaker boys working in the state in 1880, 18,000 working in 1900, 13,133 working in 1902, and 24,000 working in 1907. Technological innovations in the 1890s and 1900s such as mechanical and water separators designed to remove impurities from coal significantly reduced the need for breaker boys, but adoption of the new technology was slow. By the 1910s, the use of breaker boys was finally dropping because of improvements in technology, stricter child labor laws, and compulsory schooling laws. The practice of employing children in coal breakers largely ended by 1920 because of the efforts of the National Child Labor Committee, sociologist and photographer Lewis Hine, and the National Consumers League, who educated the public about the practice and succeeded in passing child labor laws.
Here is an interesting clip also from YOUTUBE...
and this ...
7 comments:
Can you imagine how horific, these conditions were to have to be in 10 - 12 hours a day. Bad enough for adults. But children. I think films like this should be shown in schools too our young people, least they have some sort of reference to how hard our family's before us had to work every day, little or no food, or health care. At least in this country this is now unheard of. But it was not that long ago.
But as americans somewere we have missed some sort of balance, for our youth--a lot of young people today, do not even know how to make their own beds, let along work at anything. Thats very sad. Some one recelently told me that I had to get the internet at home, but as a last resort she could send me something snail mail. I said goody, if some one does not use it, there go the mail men & woman, and they can be replaced with a young person, sitting on ass all day long getting no physical extersize, just like my job. And they wounder why everyone is overweight and depressed, etc....
This was an excellent post M.
I am Joe Manning, an author and historian. You will be interested in my Lewis Hine Project. I have tracked down the life stories of over 150 of Hine's child laborers by finding and interviewing their descendants. See the results at www.morningsonmaplestreet.com/lewishine.html
Great post. I'm going to include this information in my history class when we cover the industrial revolution and child labor laws. Awesome, I'd never heard about these boys.
Great job, Mar.
Wow. I had no idea about his. Those poor boys. I can't imagine how horrific that had to have been and being left with no choice but to keep going back and hope you survive. Truly sad.
Thank you for sharing these photos.
I am using them for research on some artwork I'm doing. Beautiful innocent boys.
I was researchin coal mining cause my grandfather did that for awhilein Avella PA or nearby. I've been unemployed for quite awhile (teacher) and am drinking maxwell House instead of Starbucks and buying generic food (at one point, a deep humiliation).
What do you think the parents were like? Were they starving and had no choice. I know I'd do everything in my power to keep my little boy out of there. Man's cruelty to man continues.. Think of the Coal Baron (Carnegie?) or one of those guys with their 'summer cottages' in Newport. I don't know how people like this sleep at night.
My dad just passed away and my mom is rapidly sucumbing to Alzheimers so I'm documenting everything I can. Thank you so much for the information, so beautifully presented.
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