Children at Work: Exposing child labor in the cotton mills of the Carolinas
Critically analyzing primary documentsIn this lesson, students will read two primary source documents: a 1909 pamphlet exposing the use of child labor in the cotton mills of North Carolina, and a weekly newsletter published by the mill companies. Students will also listen to oral history excerpts from mill workers to gain a third perspective. In a critical analysis, students will identify the audiences for both documents, speculate on the motivations of their authors, and examine the historical importance of each document.
A lesson plan for grades 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies
RELATED TOPICS
In this lesson, students will learn about the use of child labor in the cotton mills of the Carolinas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They will learn what life was like for a child worker — how much money the workers earned, how many hours they worked each day, what their homes were like, and what they did for fun. Students will then write an investigative news report exposing the practice of child labor in the mills, using quotations from oral histories with former child mill workers and photographs of child laborers taken by social reform photographer Lewis Hine.
Learning outcomes -- Students will:
Activity one: Listening to the mill workers
Activity Two -- The Mill Mother's Lament
We leave our homes in the morning,
We kiss our children good-bye,
While we slave for the bosses,
Our children scream and cry.
And when we draw our money,
Our grocery bills to pay,
Not a cent to spend for clothing,
Not a cent to lay away.
And on that very evening
Our little son will say:
“I need some shoes, Mother,
And so does Sister May.”
How it grieves the heart of a mother,
You everyone must know.
But we can’t buy for our children,
Our wages are too low.
It is for our little children,
That seems to us so dear,
But for us nor them, dear workers,
The bosses do not care.
But understand, all workers,
Our union they do fear.
Let’s stand together, workers,
And have a union here.
ELLA MAE WIGGINS
Ella Mae Wiggins was born in Tennessee in 1900. Her father was a logger, and she grew up poor, moving frequently with her family. Before she was twenty years old, both her father and mother died. At the age of twenty, she married John Wiggins.
John suggested that they move to a textile mill town in order to have steady work and better pay. They moved to South Carolina and began working in the mills. While Ella and John lived and worked in South Carolina, they had nine children, four of whom died of whooping cough.
The Wiggins family eventually relocated to North Carolina, and John abandoned his family. Ella was left alone to raise five children on the meager wages she earned working twelve-hour shifts at the textile mill.
Wiggins joined the union movement in North Carolina. She was one of the few union leaders who tried to organize white and black workers into the same union, something that was often met with hostility by other white union leaders.
As a union leader, Ella Mae Wiggins went to Washington and testified in front of Congress about the deplorable conditions in mills and mill towns. Her own experience gave her authority to speak of her hardships: When she had lived in South Carolina and her four children had become sick, she asked her boss to let her work the day shift and stay with her children at night. He refused, so she quit her job, but without her income there was no money for medicine, and her children died. She also spoke of the difficult lives of mothers who worked long hours in the mills to provide for their families, but could not because the wages were so low.
In 1929, Wiggins went with other union leaders to support the striking workers at Gastonia. Her truck was turned away and they never made it to the mill. As the union leaders were returning to their camp outside of Gastonia, a group of armed men stopped their car and fired on the union leaders. Ella Mae Wiggins was shot in the chest and died at the age of 29.
PROTEST SONGS
Ella Mae Wiggins wrote a number of ballads, or songs, that striking workers sang to raise their spirits. “The Mill Mother’s Lament” portrayed women as providers for their families who were forced to choose between caring for their children and the demands of mill work. Sung to a familiar tune that the workers had heard on the radio, Wiggins’ ballad became an anthem for cotton mill workers across the South.
As you read the lyrics to “Mill Mother’s Lament,” what images of motherhood did Wiggins use in her ballad? Do you think this would have been an effective protest song? Why or why not?
Does Ella Mae Wiggins fit the criteria for The Hero?
Learn more
This lesson plan is adapted from material provided by LEARNNC.org , a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education and by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South
A lesson plan for grades 9–12 English Language Arts and Social Studies
RELATED TOPICS
- Learn more about North Carolina,history, oral histories, textile mills, and work.
In this lesson, students will learn about the use of child labor in the cotton mills of the Carolinas during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. They will learn what life was like for a child worker — how much money the workers earned, how many hours they worked each day, what their homes were like, and what they did for fun. Students will then write an investigative news report exposing the practice of child labor in the mills, using quotations from oral histories with former child mill workers and photographs of child laborers taken by social reform photographer Lewis Hine.
Learning outcomes -- Students will:
- know details about the lives of child workers in the cotton mills of North Carolina during the early 20th century, and learn about the movement to end child labor.
- empathize with former child laborers after listening to their oral histories as they talk about their experiences in the mills.
- narrate a news report with appropriate structure, detail, point of view, and use of grammar and spelling, and may use technology to add an image to their news report.
- Information about the Industrial Revolution and child labor around the turn of the century
- Information about the use of child labor in Southern cotton mills, from “Websites” below or from your school’s library
- Access to oral histories and photographs from UNC’s Documenting the American South collection (see “Websites”)
- Oral history excerpts:
- Transcripts of oral history excerpts for each student (available at the links above.)
- Computer with internet connection and speakers, or a CD player if you have burned your own CD.
Activity one: Listening to the mill workers
- Briefly review the rise of the Industrial Revolution with students, mentioning the increase in factories and mills.
- Introduce students to the issue of child labor during the Industrial Revolution, especially children working in the cotton mills of the South. (For more information, see “Websites” below.)
- Introduce the concept of oral histories, and discuss their value as we study important events. Mention that oral histories provide a chance for the “regular person” to record his or her experiences, not just the well-known or famous people often recorded in written history. Ask students to come up with more reasons we should value oral histories — such as allowing minority groups to record and publicize their experiences, making connections between generations, and passing on the art of storytelling. (For more about oral histories, see the LEARN NC guide “Oral History in the Classroom,” and other websites under “Supplemental information” below.)
- Hand out the transcripts of the oral history excerpts to students.
- Ila Hartsell Dodson oral history excerpt
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
Ila Hartsell Dodson was born in 1907 in South Carolina and began working in the Brandon Cotton Mill at age 14. Her mother, father, and all of her nine siblings worked for various cotton mills in North and South Carolina. She met her husband working in the mill, and spent all of her young life living in mill villages. Here, Ms. Dodson speaks about her strong desire to begin working, despite her parents’ hope that she will continue attending school. - Play the excerpt for students. (2 min 5 sec)
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording - Discussion questions:
- Why was Ila so eager to start working in the mill?
- Why did Ila bring the family Bible with her to City Hall to get the worker’s permit?
- What were Ila’s reasons for not attending high school?
- Would you rather go to high school or work 8 hours a day, 6 days a week making money at the cotton mill, as Ila did? Why would you make that decision?
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
- James Pharis oral history excerpt
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
James Pharis began working in the cotton mills in Eden, North Carolina at age 8. He worked for 11 hours a day and earned 25 cents a day for several years. He met his wife, who also began working in the mill at age 8, at a square dance in the mill village sponsored by the mill owners. Here, Mr. Pharis remembers smashing his hand while working in the mill as a 9 or 10 year old, and having to wait hours for the mill doctors to help him. - Play the excerpt for students. (2 min)
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording - Discussion questions:
- How did James injure his hand?
- How would you react if you were in James’ place: a small boy with a painful injury and no one to help?
- How could such injuries have been prevented?
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
- Alice P. Evitt oral history excerpt
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
Alice P. Evitt was born in 1898 and began working at the cotton mills near Charlotte, North Carolina in 1910 when she was 12 years old. She worked 12 hours a day, every day except Sunday, and earned 25 cents a day for her work. In this except, Ms. Evitt talks about the terrible working conditions in the mills she worked in as a young girl. In particular, she remembers the awful heat in the mill. When she was an older adult, she worked in a mill with air conditioning, but the first mills she worked in had no air conditioning at all. - Play the excerpt for students. (31 sec)
Download recording (Right-click or option-click) | About the recording - Discussion questions:
- How would the heat have affected the child workers like Alice?
- Along with the oppressive heat, what other conditions in a mill or factory would child workers have suffered?
- Do you think Ila, Alice or James fit the qualities of The Hero?
- Read students this introduction to the oral history:
- From Documenting the American South:
Activity Two -- The Mill Mother's Lament
We leave our homes in the morning,
We kiss our children good-bye,
While we slave for the bosses,
Our children scream and cry.
And when we draw our money,
Our grocery bills to pay,
Not a cent to spend for clothing,
Not a cent to lay away.
And on that very evening
Our little son will say:
“I need some shoes, Mother,
And so does Sister May.”
How it grieves the heart of a mother,
You everyone must know.
But we can’t buy for our children,
Our wages are too low.
It is for our little children,
That seems to us so dear,
But for us nor them, dear workers,
The bosses do not care.
But understand, all workers,
Our union they do fear.
Let’s stand together, workers,
And have a union here.
ELLA MAE WIGGINS
Ella Mae Wiggins was born in Tennessee in 1900. Her father was a logger, and she grew up poor, moving frequently with her family. Before she was twenty years old, both her father and mother died. At the age of twenty, she married John Wiggins.
John suggested that they move to a textile mill town in order to have steady work and better pay. They moved to South Carolina and began working in the mills. While Ella and John lived and worked in South Carolina, they had nine children, four of whom died of whooping cough.
The Wiggins family eventually relocated to North Carolina, and John abandoned his family. Ella was left alone to raise five children on the meager wages she earned working twelve-hour shifts at the textile mill.
Wiggins joined the union movement in North Carolina. She was one of the few union leaders who tried to organize white and black workers into the same union, something that was often met with hostility by other white union leaders.
As a union leader, Ella Mae Wiggins went to Washington and testified in front of Congress about the deplorable conditions in mills and mill towns. Her own experience gave her authority to speak of her hardships: When she had lived in South Carolina and her four children had become sick, she asked her boss to let her work the day shift and stay with her children at night. He refused, so she quit her job, but without her income there was no money for medicine, and her children died. She also spoke of the difficult lives of mothers who worked long hours in the mills to provide for their families, but could not because the wages were so low.
In 1929, Wiggins went with other union leaders to support the striking workers at Gastonia. Her truck was turned away and they never made it to the mill. As the union leaders were returning to their camp outside of Gastonia, a group of armed men stopped their car and fired on the union leaders. Ella Mae Wiggins was shot in the chest and died at the age of 29.
PROTEST SONGS
Ella Mae Wiggins wrote a number of ballads, or songs, that striking workers sang to raise their spirits. “The Mill Mother’s Lament” portrayed women as providers for their families who were forced to choose between caring for their children and the demands of mill work. Sung to a familiar tune that the workers had heard on the radio, Wiggins’ ballad became an anthem for cotton mill workers across the South.
As you read the lyrics to “Mill Mother’s Lament,” what images of motherhood did Wiggins use in her ballad? Do you think this would have been an effective protest song? Why or why not?
Does Ella Mae Wiggins fit the criteria for The Hero?
Learn more
- More about Ella Mae Wiggins A brief biography from the North Carolina Museum of History.
- Search LEARN NC for more resources on Ella Mae Wiggins, Gaston County,Gastonia, North Carolina,history, industry, labor,labor unions, music, strikes, and textile mills.
This lesson plan is adapted from material provided by LEARNNC.org , a program of the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill School of Education and by UNC Libraries / Documenting the American South
Part 2: Use of Google Map or Earth
Locate a textile mill in your state.
Research a mill on the internet and locate it on a map. Go to our map; locate your mill, place a pin for your mill and label it with the name of the mill. Put your name and a link to the website where you found the information. If someone else has chosen your mill, you'll have to place a different mill.
The most important thing are accurate GPS coordinates. The GPS coordinates for the position of a mill, you can easily read in google earth. First, make sure that the coordinates are set to decimal degrees. Click on "Tools", "3D-View" and then select the parameter "decimal degrees". Now you can close the Preferences window. Zoom now as close to the mill and place a placemark on the mill. In the window you can now read the longitude and latitude. Copy these values without the ° (degree) sign and add them each in a separate table cell in the table similar to the sample excel files. Depending on which country the mill is, the degrees can get negative values, in this case it's absolutely important to copy the "-" sign!
Research a mill on the internet and locate it on a map. Go to our map; locate your mill, place a pin for your mill and label it with the name of the mill. Put your name and a link to the website where you found the information. If someone else has chosen your mill, you'll have to place a different mill.
The most important thing are accurate GPS coordinates. The GPS coordinates for the position of a mill, you can easily read in google earth. First, make sure that the coordinates are set to decimal degrees. Click on "Tools", "3D-View" and then select the parameter "decimal degrees". Now you can close the Preferences window. Zoom now as close to the mill and place a placemark on the mill. In the window you can now read the longitude and latitude. Copy these values without the ° (degree) sign and add them each in a separate table cell in the table similar to the sample excel files. Depending on which country the mill is, the degrees can get negative values, in this case it's absolutely important to copy the "-" sign!
Common Core State Standards ENGLISH LANGUAGE ARTS (2010) -- Grades 11-12
Common Core State Standards SOCIAL STUDIES (2010) -- Grades 11-12
North Carolina Essential Standards SOCIAL STUDIES (2010)
- 11-12.LH.6 Evaluate authors’ differing points of view on the same historical event or issue by assessing the authors’ claims, reasoning, and evidence.
- 11-12.LH.7 Integrate and evaluate multiple sources of information presented in diverse formats and media (e.g., visually, quantitatively, as well as in words) in order to address a question or solve a problem
- 11-12.LH.8 Evaluate an author’s premises, claims, and evidence by corroborating or challenging them with other information.
- 11-12.LH.9 Integrate information from diverse sources, both primary and secondary, into a coherent understanding of an idea or event, noting discrepancies among sources.
Common Core State Standards SOCIAL STUDIES (2010) -- Grades 11-12
- Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
North Carolina Essential Standards SOCIAL STUDIES (2010)
- USH.H.1 Apply the four interconnected dimensions of historical thinking to the United States History Essential Standards in order to understand the creation and development of the United States over time. USH.H.1.1 Use Chronological thinking to: Identify the...
- USH.H.4 Analyze how conflict and compromise have shaped politics, economics and culture in the United States. USH.H.4.1 Analyze the political issues and conflicts that impacted the United States since Reconstruction and the compromises that resulted (e.g.,...
- USH.H.8 Analyze the relationship between progress, crisis and the “American Dream” within the United States. USH.H.8.1 Analyze the relationship between innovation, economic development, progress and various perceptions of the “American Dream” since...