A breaker boy was a coal-mining worker in
the Anthracite Region of Pennsylvania. His job was to separate impurities from coal by hand in a coal breaker. Breaker boys were primarily children between the ages of 8 and 12 years old. Sometimes elderly coal miners who could no longer work in the mines because of age, disease, or accident were also employed as breaker boys.
For 10 hours a day, six days a week, breaker boys would sit on wooden seats, perched over the chutes and conveyor belts, picking slate and other impurities out of the coal.
Breaker boys were known for their fierce independence and rejection of adult authority. They often formed and joined labor unions, and precipitated in a number of important strikes in the coal fields.
It is estimated that in 1880, 20,000 breaker boys were employed in northeastern Pennsylvania where 80 percent of all the world's anthracite coal is located. (Thanks to Wikipedia.)
Con Carbon - the best known balladeer in the region - was born in Hazleton, Pennsylvania and became a breaker boy at the age of 9. According to folklorist George Korson his songs "brought a ray of light and some cheer into the lives of the anthracite miners."
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Con Carbon (1871-1907)
Minstrel of the Mine Patch |
One of his songs, "When the Breaker Starts Up Full Time" was sung in an Irish dialect and poked fun at the poor breaker boy who dreamed of all the money he would earn.
Me calico shirt I'll throw into the dirt
In me silk one won't I cut a shine?
Cheer up Mrs. Murphy, we all will eat turkey
When the breaker starts up at full time.
(As it was sung by Joe Glazer.)
