This digital story recording was created in conjunction with the Smithsonian's Museum on Main Street program and its Stories from Main Street student documentary initiative, called "Stories: Yes." The project encourages students and their mentors to research and record stories about small-towns and rural neighborhoods, waterways, personal memories, cultural traditions, work histories, as well as thoughts about American democracy. These documentaries are then shared on Smithsonian websites and social media.

Recorded by Buffalo Island Central High School, EAST Students, in conjunction with the Buffalo Island Museum, Arkansas.

Freida Lawrence recalls what it was like when she was a young child and her mother worked in the cotton fields in Arkansas.

This story is part of Buffalo Island Central EAST's online story map From Swamp to Farmland and exhibits at the Buffalo Island Museum, which both trace the the history of agriculture in the area.

Freida Lawrence (00:00): In 1961, I was about 2 years old, and I remember my mama picking cotton and she would put it in this long white cloth bag that had a shoulder strap. And sometimes her hands would bleed from the holes because they were dry, and she would wrap rags around them and just keep working.

Freida Lawrence (00:28): And I remember her dragging that, she called it pick sack. So she'd drag it to the field and I remember riding on it. And when she got it full, I think it held to 80 pounds, when she got it full, it was weighed, and my dad would lift it onto this big hook with a scale on it.

Freida Lawrence (00:48): But they would weigh it and it was how much a cent percent each pound weighed. That's what she would make a day. She would pick like 200 pounds a day, and if it was 3 cents a pound should work from daylight to sundown for $6.00, $6.00.

Asset ID: 2018.20.20