Timeline

1836

Massachusetts becomes the first state to create a state child labor law requiring factory children under 15 to go to school for at least 3 months a year.

1881

The American Federation of Labor calls for states to enact legislation to ban children under 14 from wage labor.

1883

The New York Labor movement attempted to end child labor in the cigar industry by successfully sponsoring legislation that banned production in tenements.

1889

Florence Kelley publishes her book "Our Toiling Children," which outlines the reality of child labor.

1899

The National Consumers League launched its "white label" to help consumers choose products made without child labor.

1901

Janes Addams founds the Juvenile Protective Association to advocate against many things, including child labor.

1903

Mother Jones organizes working children into a "Children's Crusade" march from Pennsylvania to the home of President Theodore Roosevelt in New York. This brought the issue of child labor to the front of public attention.

1904

The National Child Labor Committee is formed to abolish all child labor.

1916

Congress passed the Keating-Owen Act, which banned the sale of products created by factories that employed children thirteen and under.

1924

Congress adopted a Constitutional Amendment barring child labor; not enough states ratified the child labor amendment for it to become law.

1938

President Franklin D. Roosevelt signs the Fair Labor Standard Act that limits the vast majority of child labor.

1949

An amendment to the Fair Labor Standards Act directly prohibits child labor for the first time.

Sources

Fliter, John A. Child Labor in America: The Epic Legal Struggle to Protect Children. University Press of Kansas, 2018.

“Redirecting,” n.d. https://www.google.com/url?q=https://stopchildlabor.org/timeline-of-child-labor-developments-in-the-united-states/&sa=D&source=docs&ust=1681794765613563&usg=AOvVaw32i5AzSmUH19uHnUGJbB-y.

Schmidt, James D. Industrial Violence and the Legal Origins of Child Labor. Cambridge University Press, 2010.

Social Welfare History Project. “National Child Labor Committee,” January 5, 2021. https://socialwelfare.library.vcu.edu/programs/child-welfarechild-labor/national-child-labor-committee/.

The Library of Congress. “Accident to Young Mill Worker. Giles Edmund Newsom (Photo October 23rd, 1912) While Working in Sanders Spinning Mille [i.e., Mill], Bessemer City, N.C., August 21st, 1912, a Piece of the Machine Fell on to His Foot Mashing His Toe. This Caused Him to Fall on to a Spinning Machine and His Hand Went into Unprotected Gearing, Crushing and Tearing out Two Fingers. He Told the Attorney He Was 11 Years Old When It Happened. His Parents Are Now Trying to Make Him 13 Years Old. The School Census Taken at the Time of the Accident Makes Him12 Years Old (Parents’ Statement) and School Records Say the Same. His School Teacher Thinks He Is 12. His Brother (See Photo 3071) Is Not yet 11 Years Old. Both of the Boys Worked in the Mill Several Months before the Accident. His Father, (R.L. Newsom) Tried to Compromise with the Company When He Found the Boy Would Receive the Money and Not the Parents. The Mother Tried to Blame the Boys for Getting Jobs on Their Own Hook, but She Let Them Work Several Months. The Aunt Said ‘Now He’s Jes Got to Where He Could Be of Some Help to His Ma an’ Then This Happens and He Can’t Never Work No More like He Oughter.’ Location: Bessemer City, North Carolina.,” n.d. https://www.loc.gov/item/2018677308/.

The Library of Congress. “Coal Breaker Boys,” n.d. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016806752/.

The Library of Congress. “WILSON, WOODROW. SIGNING CHILD LABOR BILL,” n.d. https://www.loc.gov/item/2016853943/.