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In the first picture of the article there is a picture of a group of breaker boys. Their faces all black due to the constant flow of coal around them. Their faces drowned of happiness due to the work.

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In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change. He traveled the country, going to fields, factories, and mines-sometimes working undercover-to take pictures of kids as young as four years old being put to work.

Partly as a result of Hine's work (as well as that of Mary Harris Jones, who Mother Jones is named after), Congress passed the Keating-Owens Child Labor Act in 1916. It established child labor standards, including a a minimum age (14 years old for factories, and 16 years old for mines) and an eight-hour workday. It also barred kids under the age of 16 from working overnight. However, the Keating-Owens Act was later ruled unconstitutional, and lasting reform to federal child labor laws didn't come until the New Deal.

In 2004, retired social worker Joe Manning set out to see what had happened to as many of the kids in Hine's photos as he could find. He's documented his findings-showing the lives of hundreds of subjects-on his website, MorningsOnMapleStreet.com.

FACT:

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The Photos That Helped End Child Labor in the United States

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In the early 1900s, Lewis Hine left his job as a schoolteacher to work as a photographer for the National Child Labor Committee, investigating and documenting child labor in the United States. As a sociologist, Hine was an early believer in the power of photography to document work conditions and help bring about change.

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These young boys some as young as 6 years old would sort the slate and stone. The reason they had to do this was because the slate and stone could not burn like coal. The work was long and had the boys hunched over for most of the job. It was also hurtful to their lungs due to the excess coal

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As the caption says the boys couldn´t see in front of them due to the abundance of dust. Another challenge was the coal itself, coal dust coats your lungs causing all types of deadly consequences short term and long term. Last but not least there was a high chance of you dying due to complications with machinery. You could get mangled and smothered in the constant flow of coal and die.

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Not only was work hard for the breaker boys. It was dangerous, work could get you killed. For instance a young boy they called Mickey was ground up with the coal never to be found again. Another tragedy was 2 unknown breaker boys were smothered to death.

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Something the breaker boys remind me of is child soldiers in Africa. These children very young go out doing their job dying in the process. The adults at he top do not care one bit about the children's life. They are treated like waste just like the breaker boys. Just expendable items

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0:00 / 5:33•Watch full video

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The reason society allowed children to work in the breaker was because they were cheap and in abundance due to their parents needing the money. But these kids were dying all the time, so obviously the parents wanted justice. How do they get justice? By banning child labor indefinitely.