The little worker whose photo helped change labor laws (6 photos)
The girl in the photo with a serious look is only 7 years. But she, like the other 1.75 million children according to the 1900 census in USA, already worked. 
The story of little Rosie Burdich, a cleaner oysters, became the starting point in changing the legislation, aimed at combating the exploitation of child labour. 
The picture was taken in 1913 at the Varn & Cannery Platt Canning Co in Bluffton, South Carolina by photographer Lewis Hine. For 16 years he photographed children and teenagers who fully worked in factories, factories, ports and even mines in order to collect as much as possible for the National Child Labor Committee material. During this time, he took about 5 thousand pictures.
Rosie was born in 1905. And the moment it was done photo, worked as a shaker-cleaner for two years. Like the rest of the kids Berdich, who, in addition to Rosie, were three in the family. 
I must say that the performance of children was lower. Accordingly, they received much less compared to adults. Poor nutrition and lack of medicines did not contribute to the duration the lives of small workers. 
But this girl is lucky. The fact is that the blond girl so fascinated the photographer that he took her pictures again, after a few years. And he provided one photo with the inscription: “Little Rosie, one of our ex-friends I found in Bluffton 3 years ago. She stopped work because her mother is afraid of the law and goes to school regularly.” 
Rosie in the 70s
Already at the beginning of this century, historian, journalist and genealogist Joe Manning became interested in archival photographs and tried to find out what happened to the children with Hine's photo, to find out their fate, to find relatives.
Fate was kind to Rosie. She married James DeChrist. The guy was a plumber, then he bought a little farm where Rosie hosted. The couple had five children. Just the youngest daughter Mary Agnes and found Manning. 
She told the researcher that the mother never spoke about working at such a young age, nor about going to school. But read Rosie knew how. Moreover, she knew several languages. She devoted her whole life to her family, maintained impeccable cleanliness in the house, bred flowers and pampered family with delicious food. She was especially good at baking.
The woman died in 1990 at the age of 85. Thanks to pictures of Rosie and other little workers National Children's Committee Labor first secured age limits for workers under 12 years of age. Subsequently, a law was passed that prohibited child labor up to the age of 14.
