A Question. Lincoln and Child Labor issue.

[Mylye2222]

We know that AL didn't like the farm work and would rather had spent more time in a classroom.
We know that during his first Legislature campaign, he spoke endorsing public instruction as large as possible.
But what were his wiews regarding child labor? Did he wanted to reform it, or did he accepted the fact people got illiterate their whole life as an unchallengable necessity to deal with ? Do you have any documentation about that? Since he was obviously sollicitous to kids, his own and others, I'm wondering.

Thank You.

Émilie.

[RJNorton]

Good question. I checked the Collected Works , and Abraham Lincoln never mentioned child labor in a speech, letter, etc.

[Mylye2222]

(05-07-2020 12:19 PM)RJNorton Wrote:  Good question. I checked the Collected Works , and Abraham Lincoln never mentioned child labor in a speech, letter, etc.

BTW was it already an issue among the progressives of the day? No proof but my guts tell me he might have been sensitive to it, although he might have thought of it as a necessity. Maybe would he had wanted to favor work and schooling at the same time. We already know he was sensitive to some social issues, like poverty, destitution, children's welfare around him, and needy people in general.

[Susan Higginbotham]

There seem to have been a few efforts afoot but I think in Lincoln's time it was overshadowed by other concerns, especially slavery (which of course had its own form of child labor). The child labor reform movement was more of a late-19th-century development, and even then substantial progress wasn't made until well into the 20th century. There's a timeline of developments in the United States here:

http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=1795

[Gene C]

This subject of "child labor" reminds me of a song.
They just don't write music with such meaningful lyrics like this anymore

Get A Job, by The Silhouettes
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o1BHiy8qv4Y

[David Lockmiller]

(05-07-2020 10:37 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  There seem to have been a few efforts afoot but I think in Lincoln's time it was overshadowed by other concerns, especially slavery (which of course had its own form of child labor). The child labor reform movement was more of a late-19th-century development, and even then substantial progress wasn't made until well into the 20th century. There's a timeline of developments in the United States here:

http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=1795

If you recall Mr. Lincoln's "first dollar" story to Secretary Seward, he made the comment that "I belonged, you know, to what they call down South, the ‘scrubs;’ people who do not own slaves are nobody there."

For the "scrubs," everything had to be done by the family, including the children. Education had to be purchased and was therefore a luxury. All of this was a "fact of life" for many families.

[Mylye2222]

(05-08-2020 09:24 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  

(05-07-2020 10:37 PM)Susan Higginbotham Wrote:  There seem to have been a few efforts afoot but I think in Lincoln's time it was overshadowed by other concerns, especially slavery (which of course had its own form of child labor). The child labor reform movement was more of a late-19th-century development, and even then substantial progress wasn't made until well into the 20th century. There's a timeline of developments in the United States here:

http://stopchildlabor.org/?p=1795

If you recall Mr. Lincoln's "first dollar" story to Secretary Seward, he made the comment that "I belonged, you know, to what they call down South, the ‘scrubs;’ people who do not own slaves are nobody there."

For the "scrubs," everything had to be done by the family, including the children. Education had to be purchased and was therefore a luxury. All of this was a "fact of life" for many families.

Was "scrubs" a precedent pejorative term for poor Whites, alike "White Trash"?