Child labor in cotton mills during the early 20th century

This lesson will provide students with a look into mill life and child labor in the South in the early 20th century, as part of the story of American industrialization. Students will examine a poster from a mill village as a focus and review activity and students will read a document calling for an end to child labor in Southern cotton mills, especially focusing on ending the employment of females under 14 years of age.

A lesson plan for grades 11–12 Social Studies

By John Schaefer and Victoria Schaefer

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Related topics

• Learn more about American history, United States, child labor, cotton mills, history, oral histories, and social studies.

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Learning outcomes

Often the textbook references the mills of Lowell, but provides little information about others. This lesson plan supplements information in the text about what life in the mills really looked like and about the routine employment of children.

Teacher planning

Time required for lesson

1-2 hours

Materials/resources

• access to the document “Child Wages in the Cotton Mills” by Alexander Jeffrey McKelway, either electronically or printed out.
• copy of Guided Reading for each student (see attached).

Technology resources

Optional use of internet for electronic use of selected document.

Pre-activities

Students will need to understand Industrial Era in United States, as well as controversies that surrounded use of child labor.

Activities

1. Teacher should project the “White Oak Cotton Mill NOTICE!”on the screen. Have students read the notice and answer the following questions (10 minutes):
1. Why would the White Oak Cotton Mill sponsor such a contest and award prize money?
2. Why would last year’s winner be ineligible for 1st or 2nd place, but eligible for 3rd place or lower?
3. What is your opinion of this contest? Was it a good thing? Why?
2. After collecting responses, the teacher should discuss this slide with the class. The discussion serves as an introduction to the next assignment, which is a guided reading for the document “Child Wages in the Cotton Mills”.
3. Teacher should provide students with both the document and the guided reading. Students may work in teams or independently on this assignment. Teacher may use it as a class assignment or homework assignment.
4. Teacher should use the guided reading to facilitate a class discussion about child labor in mills, the workday, and the concept of the mill village.

Assessment

Teachers can grade responses for the Focus Activity, the Guided Reading, and the letter.

Supplemental information

Step 5 — Followup Assignment
Ask students to pretend to be a mill worker in the early 1900s and write a letter to their Congressman asking that he pass a law ending child labor. Explain in the letter what the typical day looks like for children employed in the mills.

This lesson plan was created at the 2004 Documenting the South Summer Writing Institute and made possible through funding provided by NC ECHO, Learn NC, the UNC-Chapel Hill School of Education, and the UNC-Chapel Hill library system.