Moon Child

Character Moodboards // Queen of Hearts

Off with her head!

“Breaker boys” worked to sort coal from other minerals as it came out of the mine. It was dangerous — the sharp, slick coal would cut the boys’ hands, and the fast-moving conveyor belts would often sever the boys’ fingers or take off their hands. There actually were state laws regulating the minimum age of breaker boys, but they were frequently ignored.

These breaker boys worked in a mine in Pennsylvania:

Hine managed to capture not just the grime and danger of child labor, but the monotony of it, too. Here’s Vance, a “trapper boy” in a coal mine, whose job was to sit on a bench all day and occasionally open and close this door: