Editing Chesapeake and Ohio Canal (section)

====Children====
[[Image:Children on C and O Canal Boat in Cumberland.jpg|right|thumb|200px|Children tethered to canal boat. This photo was probably taken in one of the Cumberland basins.]]
The U.S. Department of Labor stated that only the limitations of physical strength prevented the children from performing all operations connected with handling boats.<ref name="Springer p. 6"/> Otho Swain reported he saw a ten-year-old girl put a boat through a lock (i.e. snubbing the boat so it would stop), but that would have been a child who grew up on the canal.<ref>[[#Kytle|Kytle]] p. 133</ref>

Children generally did the mule driving, except perhaps at night when the captain might do so. In wet weather, the towpath was muddy and slippery and shoes wore out quickly. One man thought himself to be a good father because he provided his boys with rubber boots.<ref name="Springer p. 6"/>

One boatman said, "A boat is a poor place for little children, for all they can do is go in and out of the cabin." His son attended school 94 days out of a possible 178, and the father regretted it, but needed the family to help boat as he could not afford otherwise.<ref>Springer p. 7</ref>