11/25/07 VERSION: BEDSOLE HISTORY FROM 1673 ... - NCGenWeb

eally tight. The shirt collars were buttoned all the way up. The shirt sleeves were
rolled all the way down and tied tight around the wrists. Still, the velvet got inside the
shirts, up the sleeves, up the pants legs, and inside the clothes. With the weather
around one hundred degrees in the summer and the humidity at about ninety-five
percent and these beans being down among the corn where no breeze could get to
the workers, picking them dressed as they were, was pure torture for days on end.
The weaker workers frequently fainted from aggravation and heat exhaustion.
Gathering Corn
The ears of corn had to be pulled from the stalks and put in a sack with a strap
which was worn around the neck. The leaves on corn stalks are also lined on each
side of the leaf with reversed needle-like stingers and a leaf will cut ones skin like a
knife. Then the sweat would get in the cuts and burn like fire. By the time they had
been carrying that fifty pound bag of corn around their necks and dumping it in the
wagon for twelve hours, their shoulders and backs would be throbbing and hurting
so badly, they could hardly keep from crying. Working among the stalks of corn
meant no breeze could get to them and the heat was torture. Every time their sacks
were full, it was carried and emptied into the mule-drawn wagon. When the wagon
was full, the corn was hauled to the barn and unloaded and stored inside. With one
hundred or more, acres of corn, this was no small job. Corn was used primarily for
animal feed and for meal and
human consumption in the form of cornbread. If the family had children age five or
higher, they did much of this work. Its hard to imagine today’s children doing any
such job, even for five minutes.
Picking Cotton
This was one of the worst, hottest, time-consuming jobs that ever existed in any
Bedsole’s life. With a 7-foot long canvas sack strapped around ones neck and
shoulders, the cotton was picked and put into the sack, which dragged on the
ground behind the worker, who was either bent over at the waist, or on their knees,
down among the cotton stalks. The cotton bolls all had needle-sharp prongs
surrounding the ball of cotton and when the picker tried to get the cotton, these
prongs would inevitably stick into the finger tips and break off under the skin,
causing the pricks to fester and become swollen, red, inflamed and extremely
painful. Within the short span of one day, several of these sores would already be
infected in all the fingers which only made the work more painful and being more
careful when picking the cotton, only added to the amount of time to harvest it. When
workers were paid for this work, even in the 1940’s, it was half a cent per pound
picked. A normal cotton picker would usually pick 100-125 pounds in a day. That
would yield the mind-boggling sum of fifty to sixty five cents for the entire
twelve-hour day. Of course, back in the 1700-1800’s, it was a lot less. When picking
in the early morning, the landowner would pay a lot less per pound due to the dew
being on the cotton which he claimed, added false weight to the cotton.