Child labor on the canal

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Doug Farley is director of the Erie Canal Discovery Center. His column runs every Saturday.

January 1, 2011

The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Sat Jan 01, 2011, 03:29 AM EST

Life on the Erie Canal represented a way of life, all its own. Its unique culture included its own vocabulary, its own laws, its own dangers and its own beauty. In the view of some, it was a hard, demanding life, and no doubt it was for many of the 50,000 or more folks whose livelihoods depended on it during the canal’s peak years. In spite of its hardships, it offered special rewards that many of the same people found irresistible.

The canallers had colorful vocabularies and were among the most creative word-coiners in American history. Many of their expressions found a permanent place in America’s speech, but most of them disappeared at the end of the canal era. For example, a “hoodledasher” was a hookup of two or more empty cargo boats to a full cargo boat so that one span of mules could pull all three at the same time. To “hit the logs” had the same meaning as today’s “hit the road.” The roads then were mostly the “corduroy” type with a log base. “Long-eared robins” referred to mules; so did “hayburners.” A “hoggee” was the term for a boy driver, an outgrowth of an English word, “hogler,” which meant a field laborer of the lowest class in early England.

Child labor was an accepted part of the national scene in America during the 19th century, and young boys found ready employment on the Erie Canal. The glamour of canal life naturally had a great attraction for youths, just like going to sea or joining the circus or even being a future president of the United States. Among the children of the canal era was James A. Garfield, who at the age of 16 became a canal boat driver. His father had been one of the workers in the construction of the canal. A Capt. Parkhurst of the boat “Blue Bird” had a story that he liked to tell, of the time he witnessed a fight between a boatman and a heavy-set, muscular boy, the driver of the canal boat, “Evening Star.” “The boatman reached the lock first and a taunting remark by a member of the crew caused the boy driver to take the black-snake whip from around his neck and pitch it at the fellow, knocking him down, with the result that the boy’s boat entered the lock first. This boy was afterwards President Garfield”

A church report in 1848 claimed that some 10,000 boys were employed on the canals of New York. Nearly all of them worked as drivers; that is, they walked the towpath with the mules and horses, keeping them in line and moving at the necessary speed. It was not an easy job, nor were the employers generous in the pay they provided the youngsters. Boy drivers made from $8 to $10 a month, the very bottom of the canal’s financial scale. Many of the boys did not even receive the pittance due them. The boys customarily were paid their wages in full at the end of each navigation season, but it was not uncommon for unscrupulous captains to cheat the youngsters out of part or all of their earnings.

Doug Farley is the director of the Erie Canal Discovery Center and his column runs every Saturday. The Discovery Center is closed for the season and will reopen May 1.

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Canal Discovery w/ Doug Farley

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CANAL DISCOVERY: Facelift for Buffalo’s Inner Harbor
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CANAL DISCOVERY: Fighting along the Erie Canal
Some of the most interesting stories of the Erie Canal tell of the hand-to-hand combat that took place along the canal.

January 28, 2011 1 Photo
CANAL DISCOVERY: Story of ‘Fat Man in a Berth’
“I awoke in the night with a dreadful feeling of suffocation. Cold perspiration stood on my forehead, and I could hardly draw my breath; there was a weight-like lead on my stomach and chest."

January 15, 2011 1 Photo
Child labor on the canal
Life on the Erie Canal represented a way of life, all its own. Its unique culture included its own vocabulary, its own laws, its own dangers and its own beauty. In the view of some, it was a hard, demanding life, and no doubt it was for many of the 50,000 or more folks whose livelihoods depended on it during the canal’s peak years

January 1, 2011 1 Photo
CANAL DISCOVERY: Railroads along the canal — part one
Very different, yet still very similar, the Erie Canal and the American railroads carved their own path through history.

August 30, 2010 1 Photo
CANAL DISCOVERY: Garrity, Cook — Part 2
We have learned much about life on the Erie Canal from one of its best friends, Richard Garrity of the Tonawandas.

August 21, 2010 1 Photo
CANAL DISCOVERY: Garrity, cook — part two
We have learned much about life on the Erie Canal from one of its best friends, Richard Garrity of the Tonawandas. His remembrances of growing up on the canal help us to picture the scene in our minds eye. The following narrative about cooking on the canal is graciously attributed to Garrity and is continued from last week’s edition of Discovery.

August 20, 2010 1 Photo
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Canal Discovery w/ Doug Farley

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