The mill on Olympia Road

South Carolina · United States · Mill

Children worked in this mill. What is said about the owner and the furnace did not happen, and what did happen is documented.

The abandoned mill near the fairgrounds at Columbia, South Carolina attracts a story about a deranged owner who worked children to death and burned their bodies in the furnace.

That did not happen, and it should not be repeated.

What did happen is in the record and needs no invention. Children worked in the Carolina cotton mills in enormous numbers, from the age of eight or younger, twelve hours a day, six days a week. They were used as doffers and sweepers because they were small enough to reach under the machines while the machines were running. They lost fingers and hands. They developed lung disease from the cotton dust. Some died.

Lewis Hine photographed them in South Carolina mills in 1908, and those photographs are why child labour laws exist.

The mill buildings have been converted.

The site is private property.

FAQ

Where is The mill on Olympia Road located?

The mill on Olympia Road is in South Carolina, United States.

Image: Upstateherd / CC BY-SA 4.0 / Wikimedia Commons