
The grim reality of manual child labor in the early 20th century has been captured in a series of heartbreaking images.

The images have been colorized to fully capture the tragedies the children were forced to endure at ages as young as 12.

One of the images shows a 14-year-old Italian girl working in a paper box factory in 1914. Another captures a young girl working on artificial flower petals.

A photograph captured a young boy working as a doffer in Alabama. When asked how old he was, he hesitated before replying: 'I'm 12.' Labor regulations mandated a minimum age of 12 for children to work.

The first federal child labor law in the U.S. was signed into law in 1916 by President Woodrow Wilson. The law regulated interstate commerce involving goods produced by employees under the ages of 14 or 16.

UNICEF estimates that 168 million children aged five to 17 are currently involved in forced labor. However, globally the incidence of child labor has decreased from 25 percent to 10 percent from 1960 to 2003.

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Donnie Cole hesitated before he said he was twelve years old. Another young boy nearby said: 'He can't work unless he's twelve.' Child labor regulations were conspicuously posted in the mill in Birmingham, Alabama

This photograph captures a young girl working on artificial flower petals. She was 'goffering' rose petals in 1905

This photo shows a little spinner in Globe Cotton Mill in Augusta, Georgia. The overseer at the mill admitted that she was regularly employed

Little Jennie was just 51 inches tall when this photograph was taken in December of 1908. Jennie was one of thousands of children forced into manual labor in the early 20th century

This photograph captures the tragic face of a 14-year-old Italian girl who was forced to work in a paper factory in 1913

This photograph was taken in November of 1910 and shows a young boy who worked in a cotton mill. It is unknown his name or how old he is