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| Lonnie Cole, 11 years old, Birmingham, Alabama, November 1910. Photo by Lewis Hine. |
"OUR BABY DOFFER" they called him. Donnie Cole. Has been
doffing for some months. When asked his age, he hesitated, then said, "I'm Twelve." Another young boy said "He
can't work unless he's twelve." Child Labor regulations were conspicuously posted in the mill. Location: Birmingham,
Alabama, November 1910, Lewis Hine.
"When he was around, all of the kids loved to be with him,
because he would play with them and joke with them. And he would help with the chores. He was an all-around good person."
-Dorothy Cheatham, niece of Lonnie Cole
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| Lonnie Cole, Birmingham, Alabama, November 1910. Photo by Lewis Hine. |
"OUR BABY DOFFER" they called him. This is one of the machines
he has been working at for some months at the Avondale Mills. Said, after hesitation, "I'm 12," and another small
boy added, "He can't work unless he's twelve." Child labor regulations conspicuously posted in the mill. Location:
Birmingham, Alabama, November 1910, Lewis Hine.
Avondale Mills opened in 1897. Its founder and first president was Braxton
Bragg Comer, a cotton farmer and businessman. It was built in Avondale, a neighborhood in Birmingham. Other mills were opened
in Alabama as the company expanded. Within a year, the Birmingham mill employed more than 400 people. In 1906, Comer was elected
governor of Alabama, but continued to serve as the company's president. The cotton mill was strongly criticized by social
activists for their child labor practices, and for opposing legislation to restrict such labor. One investigation in 1900
showed that about 25% of its employees were between the ages of eight and fifteen. The company ceased operations in 2006.
A detailed history of the mill and its working conditions can be found in the Encyclopedia of Alabama. See the link
at the end of this story. The task of a doffer was to replace
the bobbins on the ring bar, remove the bolts of yarn, and replace the spindle with empty bobbins. Typically, the room would
fill up with lint, getting in the workers' lungs and all over their clothes. Children were chosen for this repetitive job
because it required only practice and a good pair of small hands. A year before little Lonnie was photographed, Alabama passed
a law setting the minimum age of a child worker at 12, and limiting the maximum hours a child could work per week to 60. Lonnie
was just 11 in the photographs, so he was under the legal age. In 1915, the minimum age was raised to 14.
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