this post was submitted on 21 Jul 2026
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"The Canner Kids of Baltimore, 1909 Baltimore’s oyster and vegetable canneries ran on children. “Canner Kids” started at 4am, shucked oysters or snipped beans for 14 hours, and slept in the cannery. Ages 4 to 14. No school. No gloves.

8-year-old Mamie “Bean” Kowalski was a bean snipper. Her job was to break off the ends – 2 tons per day to make $1. Her fingers bled into the beans. At night she hid under the tables and slept there because the walk to the tenement was too far.

In 1909, Lewis Hine photographed her. He asked her age. She said “I don’t remember.” He asked what she wanted to be. She said “I’d like to go to school.” The photo ran nationally with the caption “The Price of Beans.”

Public fury forced Maryland to pass its first child labor law in 1912. Mamie got to 4th grade before she had to work again. She kept Hine’s photo her whole life.

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[–] Deebster@infosec.pub 8 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

I'm suspicious of this particular image, but Lewis Hine absolutely took similar pictures: https://time.com/3805208/tracking-down-lewis-hines-forgotten-child-laborers/

[–] Redjard@reddthat.com 13 points 6 hours ago* (last edited 6 hours ago) (1 children)

Not doubting the story, but I almost took a completely wrong fact from the image.
I noticed the hairstyle and went "guess that cycle is similar now to 1909". But no, that's ai generating a modern high-end styled haircut with rubber hairband into an image where that factually makes no sense.

Edit: Maybe

[–] nutbutter@discuss.tchncs.de 1 points 1 hour ago* (last edited 1 hour ago)

I don't think it's AI. Like, look at the bean snipping tool she is holding. Is AI capable to generating this much accurate detail? Also the machinery looks very real in the BG. The composition is also not perfect. It could be AI upscaled, though.