Up Before Daybreak: Cotton And People In America
Starred Review.Grade 4-8–Making excellent use of primary sources (even noting when these sources may be less than accurate) and extended with black-and-white photos and period reproductions, this excellent work gives a detailed picture of the effect of cotton production on the social structure of the United States. From 1607, when the earliest English settlers arrived in Virginia, cotton was among the plants grown in colonial gardens. With the onset of the Industrial Revolution in England, the demand for it increased, and the southern colonies found it lucrative to step up production. That cotton culture was part and parcel of the slave system becomes clear in this thoughtfully composed volume. Hopkinson also considers the young women who flocked to Lowell, MA, and the surrounding area to work in the textile factories. After the Civil War, the southern economy remained dependent on cotton, trading the slave system for a sharecropping system, and moving many of the mills to the south. Following workers' histories up through the Great Depression, the final chapter discusses child labor in the past and present. This informative work extends titles such as Arthur John L'Hommedieu'sFrom Plant to Blue Jeans(Scholastic Library, 1998). A first-rate report and research source.–Ann Welton, Grant Elementary School, Tacoma, WACopyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.