Children Working the Fields

Children Working the Fields — page 1

Children Working the Fields — page 2 — CHAPTER 1 FINGERS TO THE BONE Until the 1930s many factories mines and farms in the United States relied on the labor of children But in 1938 the US Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act This law limited the number of hours children could work It also restricted the types of jobs they could do However the law did not protect children working in agriculture Children as young as five continued planting and harvesting crops Children in the fields often carried water jugs for the other workers 5

Children Working the Fields — page 3 — After World War II 1939 1945 most US citizens did not want jobs in agriculture Many people took factory jobs that paid better This created more jobs in agriculture In the 1950s the role of Mexican Americans in seasonal farmwork grew Many Mexican Americans were desperate for jobs They had little choice but to accept low wages and travel for work Many of these migrants worked with their families including their children Migrant children never had a shortage of work For example children pulled up sugar beets in Michigan picked tobacco in Kentucky and harvested cherries in Colorado However life in the fields wasn’t easy Many employers treated migrant families poorly Children often slept in barns or shacks with no toilets Sometimes they did not have enough food 6

Children Working the Fields — page 4 — In the migrant families earnings barely covered the cost of rent that farm owners charged In 1949 the US government passed new laws to help children in the fields Children younger than 16 could no longer work on farms during school hours But some towns did not provide education to migrant children And employers often got around the law by paying parents for their children’s work It wasn’t until the 1960s that the government launched programs to help children of migrant field workers But today some children still work with their parents in the fields 7

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