I was probably 10 or 11 when I first started working on my grandfather's tobacco farm. We didn't just harvest. We planted in the spring, riding on a setter behind a tractor. In the summer, we harvested. Adults cut and staked, and everyone came later and hauled the stakes onto wagons. We children weren't allowed to stake, or touch the machetes or razor-sharp spikes. Many of us cut firewood at home; the machetes weren't nearly so dangerous as the spikes, which would go through your palm like butter. Yeah, kids couldn't touch those. I have no idea what that is. Must be a different method. We then hung it in barn rafters 4-5 stories high, handing it up from the wagons. I loved that part; I've always loved heights. No more dangerous than climbing trees at home. Finally, in the winter, we pulled it down and stripped the dried leaves, and put them in a baling compactor. Was it dangerous? No more than playing in our backyard at home. Never happened to me, nor anyone, adult or child, I knew. I suspect this is grossly exaggerated. If you're working in the sun for days at a time, at some point you're going to get a headache or feel nauseous. Only if you're a nitwit and don't wash your hands first. Water is always available, you can't work in the heat without it. Tobacco gum is sticky, but it comes right off with a modest amount of scrubbing. We usually wore gloves anyway. What I earned, and every kid I knew, got to keep. We earned $100-300 a week back when the minimum wage was $5.15. As a kid, it seemed perfectly reasonable to me, and in retrospect taught a valuable lesson of the correlation of hard work and money. I don't know any kids who worked in tobacco who didn't do it for a relative, and as far as I know kept the pay. Yeah, in the trees behind the field. That was neither unusual nor unhealthy. Anyone who grew up with land probably did that on a weekly basis voluntarily anyway. Are there kids forced to work for no pay, 12 hours a day, and made or allowed to use dangerous implements like spikes? I'm sure there are. And I wholeheartedly agree their parents should be investigated for abuse. On an individual basis. But I never met one. As someone who grew up doing this, I think the article is way overblown, and the data overly anecdotal, cherry-picked, and manipulated to support preconceived notions.hand-pulling tobacco and panning it with a harvester
Nearly 75% reported a range of devastating symptoms
eating lunch with tobacco gum all over your hands
the money was given directly to her parents.
no place to go to the bathroom
I was listening to NPR today and they were interviewing people who did a study about children working on tobacco plantations. There was also a farmer on the panel who said essentially what you've said. Nobody wants 10 year old kids to get hurt or to be treated like slave labor. Currently, the age is 12 in NC when a kid can work. While I think 12 is a bit young, it obviously wasn't a bad experience for you. I appreciate you sharing your first hand account. I wish you could have called in to the radio show. You can listen to that broadcast hereAs someone who grew up doing this, I think the article is way overblown, and the data overly anecdotal, cherry-picked, and manipulated to support preconceived notions.
In Texas I believe it's technically 14 -- I got my first paid-by-check job at around 15. If you could've gotten across to me the immediate, positive lifestyle changes this would bring I would've start at 11 in a heartbeat. Kids grow up at different ages. Plenty of inner-city kids in Chicago work, it just isn't what their moms want them to be doing. I don't know what my point is ... there definitely needs to be a hard and fast law but it kinda screws over the exceptions.Currently, the age is 12 in NC when a kid can work. While I think 12 is a bit young, it obviously wasn't a bad experience for you.