CHILD MORTALITY
In Puritan America, one out of every two children died
before they reached their teens. Child mor tality
remained high throughout the 18th and 19th
centuries. Common causes of death for children were
cholera, smallpox, diphtheria, and dysentery.
CHILDREN IN THE MILITARY
From the American Revolution until World War I, boys
14 and younger served in the United States military.
Some as young as six were musicians and aides in the
army and marines, while others served as deckhands
and cartridge carriers in the United States Navy.
CHILDREN AND CAPITAL PUNISHMENT
Colonial law forbade the execution of children under
14, but exceptions were made. In December 1786, in
New London, Connecticut, 12-year-old Hannah Ocuish
was hanged for killing a six-year-old girl who had
accused her of stealing strawberries.
CHILD LABOR
Apprentices who learned a trade could later go into
business for themselves, but children who worked in
factories had no such future. Virtually every industry
in the country depended on child labor. Children
worked in mills, mines, factories, and laundries.
IRESEARCH LINKS
CLASSZONE.COM
Launching the New Nation 189
LEISURE
Young people from the country gathered for events
that were both entertaining as well as practical, such
as the “husking bee” pictured here. Huskers were
divided into teams, and the team that stripped the
husks off the most ears of corn was the winner.
Cheating, though resented, was expected and was
usually followed by a fight.
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WORK
Country children were expected
to work alongside their parents
from the time they were about
six. Even when children went to
school, they were expected to
put in many hours performing
such chores as chopping wood,
watering the horses, gathering
vegetables, and spooling yarn.
City boys as young as eight
years old—especially poorer
ones—went to work as
“apprentices” for a tradesman
who taught them such trades
as printing, or, like the boys
pictured here, dying cloth.
Other boys worked in shops or
went to sea. Girls learned from
their mothers how to sew, spin,
mend, and cook.
Young people
from the city gath-
ered for cultured
social events such as
the cotillion, or dance,
pictured at right. Young men
and women were expected to follow the lead of their eld-
ers with regard to the strict social codes that determined
how one behaved in polite society.
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THINKING CRITICALLY
THINKING CRITICALLY
CONNECT TO HISTORY
1. Identifying Problems
What types of physical hard-
ships were young people exposed to during this period
in history?
SEE SKILLBUILDER HANDBOOK, PAGE R5.
CONNECT TO TODAY
2. Researching Jobs
In our own day, young people work
at many different kinds of jobs. Some have even start-
ed their own businesses and have been very success-
ful. Research some of the businesses that youths run
on their own and present a repor t to the class.
Child Labor Data
• 1790: All of the workers—seven boys and
two girls—in the first American textile mill in
Pawtucket, Rhode Island, were under the
age of 12.
• 1830s: One third of the labor force in New
England was under the age of 16.
• 1842: For the first time, Massachusetts law
limited the workday of children under the
age of 12 to ten hours a day.
