Turpentine Blues.

Home of turpentine worker near Cordele, Alabama. Father's wage is one dollar a day. This is the standard of living the turpentine trees support. 1936 July (Photo: Dorothea Lange)

Tampa Red, the “Guitar Wizard”, recorded the song Turpentine Blues in Chicago on 7 May 1932 for Vocalion. It’s on the CD “Legends of the Blues Vol. 2” (Columbia Roots ‘n’ Blues series).

The turpentine business that Tampa Red refers to, offered some of the worst working conditions and only the most underprivileged classes – mostly Black – were willing to take the jobs. As described in Paul Oliver’s “Blues Fell This Morning”: […] the turpentine workers who “guttered” the slash pines with their knives, collected the resin and pressed and distilled the turpentine. Working often in unbearable heat and using material which was dangerous to health, they lived in camps under the crudest of conditions, fenced in by barbed wire and suffering miserable privations.

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An American Girl.

Mildred Griffiths, 9 Pleasant St., 13 yrs. old. A regular packer in Blanchard's Sardine Factory. Makes $1.00 to $2.00 a day. Sometimes works until midnight. Location: Eastport, Maine. 1911 August (Photo: Lewis Wickes Hine)

(The History Place) In 1904, the National Child Labor Committee was organized by socially concerned citizens and politicians, and was chartered by Congress in 1907. From 1908 to 1912, photographer Hine documented numerous gross violations of laws protecting young children. At many of the locations he visited, youngsters were quickly rushed out of his sight. He was also told youngsters in the mill or factory had just stopped by for a visit or were helping their mothers.

Attempts at child labor reform continued, aided by the widespread publicity from Hine’s photographs. As a result, many states passed stricter laws banning the employment of underage children. In 1938, Congress passed the Fair Labor Standards Act, better known as the Federal Wage and Hour Law. The Act was declared constitutional in 1941 by the U.S. Supreme Court.

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