My Dad's family grew cotton in central Louisiana, 1920's-early '40's. There are endless family stories from the cottonfields.Two things I haven't seen mentioned here are pricked fingers & snakes.
Apparently, cottonbolls are surronded by thorns/stickers. By mid-morning, they often had to wrap their fingers with strips of rags to not get blood on the cotton. They would drag bags to place the cotton in & a good day was when a woman could pick 115 pounds of cotton in one day ( in 100+ degree heat).
Another issue was snakes, at least in the lower south. My grandmother could "smell" rattlesnakes. They would send her into the fields to sniff them out. She said they smelled sort of "rotten-sweet". When she smelled one or more, the men would hunt it/them down & kill them. Remember, grade-school children were picking, and toddlers often rode on the ends of the bags that moms were dragging on the ground.
We have nothing to complain about.
When I became interested in quilting, my grandmother was gone. My mom would lood at the small pieces & intricate patterns I was making, and said "Your Grandmother would have said, 'Child, you must have a lot of time on your hands!'" :wink: