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Cannelton Cotton Mills’ Child Labor Legacy in Indiana
The Cannelton Cotton Mill opened in 1851 as the largest industrial building west of the Allegheny Mountains. Most of its 400 workers were women and girls.
By 1890, men made up just 78 of 309 workers, with dozens of children still toiling there in 1900. Kids as young as seven worked twelve-hour days, six days a week, often starting with six weeks of unpaid “training.”…