2-832-322 - Heritage Art/Heritage Images

Very young children stand alongside adults in the cotton field. The women wear dresses, and one young boy can be seen holding a hat. Enslaved people brought to the United States were the main work force on cotton and tobacco plantations in the Antebellum South. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1863-1865 most stayed in farming as very poor sharecroppers, who rarely owned land.