Woodcut of "Trapper" Working in Mines

During the industrial revolution, implementing children into the labor force became widely prevalent.  From the United Kingdom and the United States to nations such as Chile, countries all over the world allowed citizens to take advantage of children in the pursuit of greater prosperity.  The children who were forced into labor at a young age often belonged to underprivileged families or those of the lower or working classes.  Children were employed in various types of labor, such as working in textile or meat factories.  The item that I have provided, as well as Baldomero Lillo’s short story “Gate Number 12,” however, depicts child labor in the mining industry.

Lillo’s “Gate Number 12” is the story of a father who must take his child with him to work in a Chilean mine and force him to work in order to acquire enough money to support the family.  The story gives a dark and harsh example of work in a mine and the child labor that took place in those deep caverns.  My item connects with Lillo’s story because it gives a visual example of the work that the child was forced to do in the story.