For More Information:

The History of Child Labor

• Websites
  • "Child Labor" - North Carolina Experience - Collection of primary resources related to child labor, such as pamphlets, photographs and legislative documents, from Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina
  • Child Labor in America 1908-1912: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine - Collection of photos and captions from Lewis Hine's investigation of child labor
  • Child Labor in U.S. History - Timeline of events and legislation, created by the Child Labor Public Education Project at the University of Iowa
• Books
  • Freedman, Russell. Kids at Work: Lewis Hine and the Crusade Against Child Labor. New York: Clarion Books, 1994.
  • Kemp, John, ed. Lewis Hine: Photographs of Child Labor in the New South. Jackson: University of Mississippi Press, 1986.

Child Labor Today

• Child Labor - Human Rights Watch
• Child Labor FAQ's - Child Labor and the Global Village
• About Child Labor - Child Labor Public Education Project, University of Iowa
• What You Can Do to Help - Free the Children project
• Children's Rights Information Network
• International Programme on the Elimination of Child Labour - International Labour Organization

The History Of Southern Cotton Mills

• Websites
  • "Textiles" - North Carolina Collection - Collection of primary resources related to the history of the textile industry in the South from Documenting the American South at the University of North Carolina
  • Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World - Companion website to the book of the same name. Contains many excerpts from the oral histories from mill workers featured in this site.
  • "Description of a Mill Village" - The impressions of a writer from the Federal Writers' Project of Royal Cotton Mill Village in Wake Forest, NC in 1938. (To access the document, type the search term "Description of a Mill Village" into the search box.)
  • Carolinas Textile Exhibit - Images from the Gaston County Museum, including photographs of the community, technology and economy surrounding the textile industry in Gaston County.
  • A Southern Mill Village: History of Old West Durham - A history of the Erwin Cotton Mill and mill village, including photographs and interviews with residents, created by the Old West Durham Neighborhood Association
  • "Labor Photos Shed Light on Family History" - National Public Radio story about Joe Manning, a historian who is tracking down the desecendants of child laborers in the photos taken by activitist Lewis Hine during the early 20th century.
• Books
  • Salmond, John A. Gastonia 1929: The Story of the Loray Mill Strike. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995.
  • Hall, Jacquelyn Dowd, Jim Leloudis, Robert Korstad, Mary Murphy, Lu Ann Jones and Christopher B. Daly. Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World. New York: W.W. Norton and Co, 1989.

Search for Articles

• America, History and Life (UNC Affiliates Only)
• Sociological Abstracts (UNC Affifiliates Only)
• Historical Newspapers (UNC Affiliates Only)

Citation Information

How to cite oral histories:

• MLA -
  Evitt, Alice P. "Oral History Interview with Alice P. Evitt, July 18, 1979. Interview H-162. Southern Oral History Program Collection #4007". Southern Historical Collection, Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Documenting the American South. 2004. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Date you accessed site. <http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/H-162/menu.html>.


• Chicago -
  Evitt, Alice P. July 18, 1979. "Oral History Interview with Alice P. Evitt, July 18, 1979. Interview H-162. Southern Oral History Program Collection". Documenting the American South. University Library, The University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, 1979. http://docsouth.unc.edu/sohp/H-162/menu.html.

How to cite this page:

• MLA -
Child Labor in the Cotton Mills. 2006. University Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Date you accessed site. <http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/cotton/index.html>.

• APA -
(2006). Child Labor in the Cotton Mills. Retrieved (date you accessed site), from University Library, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, NC. Web site: http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/cotton/index.html.

• Chicago -
University Library, University of North Carolina. "Child Labor in the Cotton Mills ". http://www.lib.unc.edu/instruct/cotton/index.html.