•Introduction and Thesis•
The United States Industrial Revolution had negative aspects: child labor and unsafe working conditions perpetuated by corporate greed. Due to conflicting interests, newspapers and politicians largely ignored the issues. Mary Harris Jones, a poor, elderly Irish immigrant, became Mother Jones, an unlikely hero to the working class. In 1903, she took a stand against child labor, parading young, crippled workers through the northeastern states, giving impassioned speeches along the way. Though the odds were stacked against her, Mother Jones successfully raised public awareness about the horrors of child labor, leading to nationwide reform.
_______________________________________________________________________________
Photograph: A young girl working in a textile mill. Lewis Hine, Nov. 1913, Library of Congress.