That is heartbreaking.

Poor little child, my heart bleeds

Shoeless. That poor kid.

I can only think how easy it was to prey on these children

My husband did this in the early 1960's. The whole family worked. His mother would cut the bags in half and tie the ends, for the younger children. This photo is not dated, but probably about 50 years earlier.

Oysters being a luxury food for rich people. I'm sure they had no thought for the people who did this kind of work.

I've seen this picture before, and I remember that these boys worked in total darkness too.

Their eyes... they look like ghosts

Cynthia, ignore joe. He is an ignorant jackass

People say nowadays children grow up to quickly, to be honest, I think these children and the old days grew up way too quickly! At 9 I was just going to school in grade 3 or something learning about how to count back in 3s and playing with my toys not this which is heart breaking this boy should be out playing with his toys, going out with friends it is very sad

I can't imagine growing up in that time with no legs.

We studied this picture in history class.

She should be in school. I hope there was a better future for her--that she escaped this poverty, somehow.

Out in southwestern Oklahoma, some of the dryest and hottest areas of the country that is not a desert.

I bet the owner of that company's children didn't have to work like this.

Good lord

seriously? almost all of them are young

ok yeah the other ones are horrible but these guys seem well cared for

Pin monkeys, they were called.

that is back-breaking work for an adult.

Her face says so much.

I'll buy those last 4, sweetheart, so you can go home and get some rest.

May have been sisters.

The practice of employing children to process tobacco continued into the 1970's in Connecticut. For me and other teenagers, working in agriculture was one of the few summer jobs we could get. We could be hired from 14 and up but couldn't operate machinery until we were 18, unless we were family members. Family members worked at even younger ages.

"So we can control the..." Control!? Because they were seen as animals :(

The hats are torch lights. Necessary to see a couple of feet in front of you whilst in the pitch-black mines. Just as we have hats with reflectors and flashlights on them, these workers had their own "technology."

Poor pit ponies had a rotten job as well.

My father in law was shining shoes around 12 years old, in the late 50s...

Glass works!!! Dangerous.

Sometimes height was the only way to assess the subects potential age. As seen, many had no idea how old they were or were accustomed to denying their youth in order to continue working to support families dependent on them.

I wonder if allot of the children from these pictures also took the job to help the family.?

I would buy them all even though I am not a fan of them, then I would give her a lot more money... Sweet lassie

Adults have kids cigarettes to cope with being hungry, so they could work all day and everyone thought it was fine. My dad was given cigarettes by his dad at 8 years old to work their cattle ranch

Such a pretty little girl.

They carried heavy pails of grease. Dangerous work. Taken 1910.

Precious little boys. They deserve to be in school.

Calling it a "dirty" tenement seems like an undeserved indictment of this poor widder-woman with three mouths to feed. I see poor, but I don't necessarily see dirty.

First thing a mother did was teach her daughter how to sew.

Imagine her hands. They must have so many cuts and callouses

This was common. Jewish people are not allowed to do certain things on the Sabbath, so often they would have a gentile to assist them in starting fires, taking them out.... The gentiles that helped were paid and treated well though.

Took time out of his day to pose. Maybe the only break he got all day.

a man in my dad's small town had been left in New York City by his parents when they returned to Poland. He worked the elevator in an apartment building, sleeping in the elevator or under the stairs. He eventually walked to Canada, by himself.

Joe is bored, joe has no friends, this has turned joe into someone who needs attention

I imagine there were people who would try to cheat these children. Sad.

This has got to be one of the most heart wrenching of all of these photographs. There is absolutely nothing redeemable in her face, her dress, her situation in it's entirety. Only sadness....

At least he’s clean and fed. Love his smile.

Far from it.

That's a child on the left? He looks like an old man.

At that pace, no wonder she had trouble keeping up.

A shrewd businessman, eh?

boy in the left has a toned arms from working contrary to his young face.

I guess they bought the girls baskets for 5...

All their faces look to old for their ages. A sad fact.

That's sad when her own parent is exploiting her.

Pugnacious... Little dude didn’t take any guff!

Those spinning machines are terrible, fast, catch hair/clothing. I did quality control in a spinning mill for a short while and god these poor kids.

So they ran some of these factories 24 hours a day?

Big John, you'd still have five-year-old Breaker Boys in the coal mines, wouldn't you?

I'm going to guess that since he's with a bicycle that red light dangers have to do with traffic lights at intersections--and a working child's disregard for them.