A fifth of American children worked for pay by 1900

Evidence

According to the 1870 census, one out of eight children was employed; more than one out of five by 1900. Children worked in mines and in factories. In 1900, 25,000 out of 100,000 workers in southern textile mills were children under sixteen. — Lawrence M. Friedman, A History of American Law, 3193

Categorization

• SEED: Census-scale numbers here could ground an essay on how quantification itself drove the child-labor reform movement.
• QUESTION: Southern textile mills employed 25 percent children under sixteen in 1900 — worth checking how this compares to England at a similar industrial stage.