The Heartbreaking Story Of Child Workers Of Maine’s Sardine Canneries, 1911

In 1908, the American Child Protection Council hired  Lewis Hine, a photographer, to document and investigate the conditions and look into the exploitation and working conditions of underage labourers and child workers in the United States.

Lewis began touring the country, interviewing and documenting thousands of children and their working conditions. He photographed their savage living conditions and the brutal realities of the lives of these bike messengers, newsies, miners, and other workers.

He soon visited the origin of the American sardine industry, Eastport, where many children still worked as child labourers. Eastport is a small town in Maine that comprises a group of small islands. These children were used because they provided very cheap labour.

Eastport was the second largest trading port in the country after New York City in 1833. They had a grain mill, a carding mill and a box factory while producing hay and potatoes on their farms. Most of their economy was largely dependent on the sea.

The first sardine factory was established in 1875. As a result of how successful it was, the island population grew. By 1886, the island had 13 sardine factories that functioned round the clock every day of the week—these plants employed over 800 men, women and children.

Most of the children made an average of $1.50 daily from performing physically strenuous and demanding factory work. It was hazardous because they had to exercise caution to prevent packing their fingers with sardines. Hence they had conflicting goals.

When doing his research, Lewis Hine found out that the children often experienced accidents, which were very painful due to working for long hours with sharp knives in a cramped environment. They also gave the children incentives to make them pack as many sardines as possible.

Lewis Hine’s photographs were eventually used as evidence by The American Child Protection Council to pass a law that forbade children from working in industries. Eastport was declared a city on March 18, 1893, and in 1937, the city said bankruptcy after the fishing sector collapsed and people relocated.

Leave a Reply

1660 Shares