The move away from engaging children in economically productive labor occurred within the last 100 years. Now, nearly 110 years after the story of the chieftain was told, the overt presence of widespread child labor in New York or any other American city no longer exists. From the Industrial Revolution through the 1930s was a period in which children worked in a wide variety of occupations. Upon the completion of the chieftain’s journey, several Christian men asked him, “What is the most surprising thing you have seen?” The chieftain replied slowly with three words: “little children working.” 2Īlthough the widespread presence of laboring children may have surprised the chieftain at the turn of the 20th century, this sight was common in the United States at the time. He observed the comfortable masses gathered in amusement at the circus and the poor huddled in tenements. On this excursion, he saw the soaring heights of the grand skyscrapers and the majesty of the Brooklyn Bridge. The chieftain was given a tour of the modern city of New York. The September 1906 edition of Cosmopolitan magazine recounts a story once told of an old Native American chieftain.
