Cotton Mill Girls

3 ill girls, It' heed times, It's

cot- ton mi 3 cot-ton mil] girls

hard times ev - 'ry = where. In where

I've worked in the cotton mill all of my life,

And I ain' got nothin' but a Barlow knife.

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times everywhere.

It's hard times, cotton mill giris,

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times evenpwhere.

In nineteen fifteen we heard it said,

"Move to the cotton country and get ahead."

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times everywhere.

Us kids work twelve hours a day

For fourteen cents of measly pay.

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times everywhere.

Every morning just at five,

You gotta get up, dead or alive.

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times everywhere.

Ain' it enough to break your heart?

Hafta work all day and at night it's dark.

It's hard times, cotton mill girls,

It's hard times everywhere.

When I die don' bury me at all,

Just pickle my bones in alcohol,

Hang me up on the spinning room wall-

It's hard times everywhere.

In the 20's and 30's, large numbers of southern U.S. hill farmers, adults and children, found

work in the cotton mills. Malnutrition and bad working conditions caused 36% of the young

mil] workers to die before they were 25, usually from "brown lung" caused by breathing the

lint filled air.