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Go all the way down. The last photo is one of the most impressive. Children working with "guards" ready to beat them with a truncheon.
by neves 9y ago
Go all the way down. The last photo is one of the most impressive. Children working with "guards" ready to beat them with a truncheon.
- alex_duf 9y agoYes, heartbreaking
- _trampeltier 9y agoAnd the air, you almost can't see the people in the background.
- hackeraccount 9y agoIs that really what's going on in that picture?
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- goodcanadian 9y agoWell, on the one hand, I doubt they were using the threat of violence to get them to work. On the other hand, they were probably watching out for theft, and I have little doubt that they would have administered a beating if they caught someone pocketing coal.
- kps 9y agoThe original caption, > A view of Ewen Breaker of the Pa. [Pennsylvania] Coal Co. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrates the utmost recesses of the boy's lungs. (See labels 1927 to 1930 for names of some of these.) A kind of slave driver sometimes stands over the boys, prodding or kicking them into obedience. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania. via https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004002610/PP/ https://www.loc.gov/item/ncl2004002610/PP/
- lakkal 9y agoAs a little girl during the Great Depression, my grandmother and her friends used to throw rocks at the engineers on trains, to provoke them into throwing pieces of coal back at them. They'd then take the coal home for warmth.
- zodPod 9y agoThat seems like a ton of effort. I know coal burns well but is it really worth that kind of effort in that quantity? (This isn't scrutinizing I'm just curious if this was a practice that was fruitful or if it was just kids thinking they were helping or something?)
- reaperducer 9y agoCoal is still a very popular heating method in large swaths of the eastern U.S. If you have a coal stove heating your home, coal is what you need.
- lakkal 9y agoSadly, I don't know (or remember) any more of the story than that, and she's not around anymore to ask... It doesn't seem likely that they would have gotten huge amounts of coal by doing it.
- robotresearcher 9y agoYou have enough money for food or coal. It's below freezing. Someone is prepared to throw coal at you for yuks. Easy choice.
- reaperducer 9y agoAs of the 1990's, when I last saw it, children were still following coal trains in the poorer parts of West Virginia, picking up what falls off to bring home or sell. There is some seriously extreme poverty in parts of America that most people don't realize.
- NotSammyHagar 9y ago
- Deadsunrise 9y agoI believe they just used the bars to break the big coal pieces as they pass through the conveyor. . hopefully
- DanBC 9y agoWikipedia has a nice article about "breaker boys": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_boy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaker_boy
- neves 9y agoVery nice. Ah! The good days of Capitalism: Public condemnation of 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,[3][13] but the law was poorly enforced; many employers forged proof-of-age documentation, and many families forged birth certificates or other documents so their children could support the family.[3][13] 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.[3] One estimate had 20,000 breaker boys working in the state in 1880,[3] 18,000 working in 1900,[12] 13,133 working in 1902,[3] and 24,000 working in 1907