Child labor was commonplace in the U.S. -- and legal -- until the 1930s. Children had long worked on family farms, but Portland author Phil Hoose, a National Book Award winner, points out that the first nine factory workers in U.S. history were children, each under the age of 12, who, in 1790, when to work in a textile mill in Pawtucket, Rhode Island. Hoose talks with MPBN Morning Edition host Irwin Gratz.

Phil Hoose, (above) of Portland, is the author of "We Were There Too: Young People in U.S. History."