The Howard family Works the Tobacco Fields
In addition to capturing the Mitchell children working on their father’s farm, Hine photographed other child laborers. Charlie Howard, a tenant farmer on the Mitchell farm in Trigg County, -Gracey, Kentucky, works alongside his boys, Robbie, age six, and Willie, age eleven. The boys spent their days worming and suckering the tobacco leaves.
The Howard boys had an opportunity many child laborers did not; their father told Hine the boys would attend Rocky Ridge School when it opened. This image is one of the rare instances of Hine photographing African-American subjects, although African American children participated in the labor market at a higher rate than white children.
