Breaker boys, Woodward Coal Mines, Kingston, Pa. c. 1900“Breaker of the Chauncy (Pa.) Colliery, where a 15 year old breaker-boy was smothered to death and another badly burned, Jan. 7, 1911. (Photo of newspaper clipping #1946.) The Coroner told me that the McKee boy was but a few days past his 15th birthday when he was killed, and that the evidence seemed to show that he was at work in another breaker before his 14th birthday. (He will report to us on that point, further.) Location: Chauncy, Pennsylvania.”Lewis Hine, “A view of the Pennsylvania Breaker. The dust was so dense at times as to obscure the view. This dust penetrates the utmost recess of the boy’s lungs. Location: South Pittston, Pennsylvania.”Breaker boys, Woodward coal breakers, Kingston, Pa. c. 1900Lewis Hine, “Group of Breaker boys. Smallest is Sam Belloma, Pine Street. (See label #1949). Location: Pittston, Pennsylvania.” 1911Frances Benjamin Johnston, “Breaker boys in Kohinor mine, Shenandoah City, Pa.” c1891“Mr. A. Langerfeld and one of his machines for picking coal which does away completely with the use of breaker boys. The percent of slate that goes in with the coal separated by this machine is 1% to 2%, where the percent with the old primitive method of using boys is from 15% to 60%. This picture was taken at the breaker of the Spencer Coal Co., at Scranton, Pa., on March, 18, 1913. Location: Scranton, Pennsylvania.”
In the late nineteenth century, young “breaker boys” worked in anthacite coal mines in Pennsylvania removing impurities such as slate from the coal before it was shipped out. The coal would be broken into smaller pieces in the coal breakers and the young workers, hunched over conveyor belts, would pick through it to remove contaminants.
In 1908, the National Child Labor Committee hired the photographer Lewis Hine to photograph children at work. Hine’s photos of the “breaker boys” and other child miners helped build public support for legislation barring child labor.
What do you imagine this work would have been like physically? What would it have been like socially and economically, as a young teen, to work as a breaker boy?
