child labour

1. Which job is shown? -bobbins

2. What was the daily work schedule in this job that they had to follow? 6am to 6pm. 12 hours a day.

3. Were their any penalties for not meeting expectations on the job site? yes, you were scolded

4. What were the physical challenges of the job? tying the knots on the small threads in time.

5. Was this job dangerous? How? yes, you could lose a thumb in the machine.

6. Do you think that it was fair that children worked during this time period? its not fair, but on the otther hand, if they didnt work they would starv. so i guess working is better then dying.

7. In what parts of the world do children work today? Find a picture and put a caption on it to post to the blog.

this is in india, children our hired to build walls and other stuff.

Cotton gin timeline ☺

backround info

A cotton gin is a machine that quickly and easily separates the cotton fibers from the seeds, a job previously done by hand. These seeds are either used again to grow more cotton or, if badly damaged, are disposed of. It uses a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through the screen, while brushes continuously remove the loose cotton lint to prevent jams.

Time line

The earliest versions consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood.

The first documentation of the cotton gin by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century AD. Visual evidence of the single-roller gin exists in the form of fifth-century Buddhist paintings in the Ajanta Caves in western India.
These early gins were difficult to use and required a great deal of skill.
A narrow single roller was necessary to expel the seeds from the cotton without crushing the seeds. The design was similar to that of a metate (a stone thing), which was used to grind grain.

The earliest history of the cotton gin is not so believed, because archeologists likely mistook the cotton gin's parts for other tools.

<<<<"The First Cotton Gin" - 1869. This carving depicts a roller gin,

Between the twelfth and fourteenth centuries, dual roller gins appeared in India and China. The Indian version of the two roller gin was throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the sixteenth century. This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power
The modern version of the cotton gin was created by the American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 to mechanize the cleaning of cotton.
Many people attempted to develop a design that would process short staple cotton; Hodgen Holmes, Robert Watkins, William Longstreet, and John Murray were all issued patents for improvement to the cotton gin by 1796

The modern process

Cotton arrives at the gin compressed. The feeder breaks them apart using spiked rollers and extracts some foreign material from the cotton. The dryer removes excess moisture. The cylinder cleaner uses six or seven rotating spiked cylinders to break up large clumps of cotton. Finer foreign material such as dirt and leaves passes through rods or screens for removal. The stick machine uses centrifugal force to remove large foreign matter such as sticks and burrs while the cotton is held by rapidly rotating saw cylinders. The gin stand uses the teeth of rotating saws to pull the cotton through. which pull the fibers from the seeds which are too small to pass through.. The bale press then compresses the cotton into bales for storage and shipping.

This blog will follow both of them in the book. The yellow text represents the view point from Arlene. The pink is Pauline’s view point.
Make sure to remember that :D

So here is a little background info before we start the project.
The industrial revolution was from 18th to the 19th century where major changes in agriculture, manufacturing, mining, and transport had a major impact on the way people live conditions starting in the United Kingdom, then spreading throughout Europe, North America, and eventually the WORLD!!!!. Mwahahahah!!!
The story I am being forced to read in S.S is January 1905 by Katharine Boling.the main chericters are twins names are Pauline and Arlene. They are almost identical in every simple way, except Arlene has a cleft foot. Because of this foot she cant work at the mill with her mother and sister, she feels completely left out and alone doing all the chores around the house, she envys her sister so much that she hates the fact that her sister was born perfect and she is deformed.
While her sister Pauline envies the life her sister has. She has to get up early every morning and go to the freezing, loud and dirty mill and work for 12 hours while her sister stays home and sleeps and dose a few chores in peaceful silence.

Journal Entry 1.

My name is Pauline, "I am full of hate, and that, i know, is wicked "-quote from page 1. Every morning i wake up and I am already full of hate. I slowly get out of the nice warm bed and step onto the cold wooden floor. I try to get dressed as quickly as possible so the cold doesn’t get me, but I can never get dressed fast enough, the cold always gets me. As I am getting dressed in the cold, I can see my twin sister Arlene, still asleep in the warm bed with a comfy quilt draped overtop of her. I despise her so much.
I make my way over to the door, I don’t even bother to put on shoes, and I must be first to the out house. If I am not then I have to wait in line, growing colder. I can here my brother josh waiting outside, he has not learned my trick about the shoes and so I will be first for another day.

The moon still illuminates the azure sky; the stars are just beginning to abate. I head back into the house and enter the stove room; I hurry and run up stairs to grab my shoes, as I am half way up the stairs I can smell the delicious sent of bacon on a frying pan. I hurry and run into our bedroom, as I enter the door I can see my sister still asleep in her warm comfy bed. I run back down the wooden stairs and into the stove room, i can see dad cooking bacon, he is missing two fingers on his right hand. I turn and look at mama, "the kerosene lamp shines on her face like an angel. I do not know what time mama gets up, only that she is already dressed and has the fire going by the time she wakes me up."-qoute
By the time josh and I wake up, mama has put a plate of grits already on our plates with a curl of bacon, she hands around biscuits leftover from supper. We pray before we eat our food and when we finished, daddy and josh make snuffling noises as they eat, everyone is to busy eating to talk. When were done, mama yells into our room that were leaving now. I say nothing. Yes were leaving now. The dark still hunkers over the mill, but were going out into the blackness yet again, while you, the favoured one, sleeps as late as you like. Enjoying the

warmth of the quilt, and soft bed. I think to myself as I open the rusty door handle.
We head out the door, down this dirty street every morning. Margaret and Katie pass us in the dark. There best friends, there eleven like me and Katie has her younger brother jimmy by the hand. I do not think they see me.
"I wish there was only one of them, Katie or Margaret, then maybe I can be one of there best friends. "-qoute
By the time Arlene brings my dinner pale, I will have tide more threads then I can count.

When we get to the mill, I have completely lost all feeling in my body from the cold. The heat in the mill is starting to make my fingers tingle.
"The whistle blows and I turn to look at the bobbins. I don’t dare to look at them before the whistle; I shall be staring at these bobbins for 12 hours today." -qoute
What I do at the mill is wait for the thread to break, climb up and find the two ends and tie them back together.
The lint from the thread twirls in the air and slowly settles on the ground and on our clothing. We must get rid of the lint when it piles up around the bobbins.
Also in the mill there are sweepers that push piles of fluffy lint into the corners. Edwin is the youngest of the sweepers. He day dreams by the window, sucking his thumb. If the supervisor catches him sucking his thumb, Mr.godbold would have a spaz attack and drag him back to his pile of fluffy lint by the ear!
Mr.godbold has one lazy eye, he combs his hair into a pompadour in front, and it’s thick like his big ugly bushy eyebrows. I hate Mr.godbold; he touched me inappropriately as I was climbing to the spools. And when I turned around, he was grinning creepily. (Pervert!!!) I shudder, saying nothing. It dose not do to make trouble. I just stay out of his way and try and dose what he says.
I work only one row of machines, mama works three. She is tall and can reach the treads I have to climb for. The room grows hotter and fluff fills the windows making it impossible to see outside.
At home Arlene can see the clear azure sky. All because I have two good feet I have to stay and work here 12 hours a day while Arlene gets to do a few choirs, sit when she wants, drink when she wants and so much more.

"My name is Arlene, and I am full of hate, and that I know is wicked. My mother wakes Pauline. I cannot fly. Pauline cannot fly. In that we are the same, just like our faces and the part in our hair, everything about us is the same, only not! "-qoute
They think I am sleeping, but I am not. I have to stay awake to keep from wetting my bed, my turn comes later when the rest have left. I her mama yell that they are leaving; Pauline says nothing, she must be glad to leave here, to be with Margaret and Katie, laughing all day. While I stay home alone all day, in this eerily quiet house.
I quickly pull of the quilt and hobble my way out of the warm bed. I quickly throw on shoes; one like Pauline wears on my left, and one josh use to wear on my monstrously huge left foot. I rush down the stairs and make my way out the door and into the outhouse. "Before we were born, when did it happen? When did it become my foot and not hers? Did she wrest a good one from me in exchange for the one I have? I should ask her if she remembers. Or was it when my mother named us? This is Pauline the perfect one, and this one we will cal Arlene because of her monster foot."-quote from page 11.
For breakfast I have the cold, stiff grits in the bottom of the pot, the one at the bottom are a little burnt. The bacon is barley warm and limp. After I must do the dishes and clean this 4 roomed house, infested with lint from the mill. All while Pauline tells jokes to her friends at the mill.

I scrape the cold grits from the pot into the chicken pen. Then head inside to clean. Four rooms make up this old wooden house, three bedrooms and one we live in, the stove room. Soon lint will fill this house once more, everyday I clean the lint out but it will recollect every ware in the house. No one invites it in, it rides along there clothes as they enter the house. If I didn’t keep cleaning the lint out if would completely cover the house in a swarm of white fluffiness. It would be like living in a cloud, but worse.

Journal entry number 2

"As we wait for the whistle to ring and let us out for dinnertime, Mr.Godbold watches us carefully. He doesn’t want us to move a single step towards the door or leave one string dangling. "-qoute
Its noon and the whistle blows allowing us to leave this retched hell hole for an hour. I rush down the stair to find Margaret and Katie and we head outside. Nether of us want to spend anymore time in this place then we have to. Margaret and Katie put on there sweaters. I forgot mine inside, but I do not dare return there for another moment then necessary. Mamma and the other women eat there dinner inside but us three flee to the sunny outside waiting for our pails to be brought to us. Katie says to Margaret that she brought her ball and jack-stone and wants to play after dinner. I desperately wish they would ask me to join them. The other girls open there pails and start eating, I wonder were mine is.
I see Arlene walking towards us. Katie giggles and says she walks like a drunk, maybe if I make fun of her to they will let me play with them after. As she hands me my pale I do not dare took at her. But I make sure to yell ‘your late’ loud enough for the other girls to hear.
After dinner they invite me to play with them ☺. We played three times, I won one but I made sure to let them win the other ones. Nobody wants to play with a person who wins all the time.
We hear the whistle blow and we hurry back to our stations as fast as we can. If were not there by the time it stops, mr.godbold will be furious.
The cold leaves and its back to the boiling room with thick, hard to breathe air. Five more hours to go before were done for the day.
I try not to think about Arlene going home at a leisurely pace and eating her dinner. Then again, "she might eat it first, while its still hot and the butter melting onto the biscuits, The cabbage still crisp and not wilted and the rice as perfect as pearls. And after she will sleep in her comfy bed the rest of the day till we get home."-qoute
As I am working, a strange man appears. He is dressed very well and has a camera with him. I just stop there and stair at him. Suddenly he snapped a photo, of ME!!. He has stolen my photo without any permission from me!
Mr.Godbold sees and he is furious that the man is here, but the man leaves as quickly as he came. What would he possibly want with my photo?

"I make sure I out an extra biscuit on top of daddy’s and josh’s pale, that way they don’t miss having cake."-qoute. I hear the whistle blow and I hurry to them, I am slow but like the tortuous I shall win. I hurry my way over to dad and hand him the pail. Dad looks happy about the extra biscuit. Then I head over to josh and hand him his pale, his hair is in a complete mess. He opens the pale and sees the hot buttered biscuits and grins happily at me.
Mama is easier to find, she is always in the same room with the other women and they great me. No one has ever called me Pauline by mistake. It’s because of this foot. P is for perfect Pauline and A is for awkward Arlene.
I go and find Pauline last, as I hobble my way over to her. Margaret and Katie giggle at something; I am not sure what though. When I hand Pauline her pale she snapped at me and yells that I am late. She won’t even look me in the eye.

Pauline’s so lucky, her dinner brought out to her in the sun with her friends. Laughing at there jokes and doesn’t have to worry that the laundry is done. How I envy her. As I am walking home I hear someone calling my name, I turn around to see Miss Bertha our granny women who comes when someone is sick. She says she needs help with Francine.
What about the mess in the stove room, or the washing, but I do as I think mamma would want and I go with her.
We walked into Francine’s home; it’s a lot like ours, so I feel cozy here. Miss bertha has already laid down her jacket, she tells me to get lots of hot water and cloths. Francine is having a baby!

Journal entry #3!!!

as im working I start day dreaming, and all of a sudden I hear Mr.Godbold yell at me to catch the thread. Luckily I did. Now that it is later in the day, I tend not to move as fast as I do right after supper.
I would love to just stop working and sit down on the cool floor and hide from Mr.Godbold and never work again! A scream ring out nearby, it is louder then the whistle itself, and I feel a thud on my foot.
When I look down, jimmy is crumpled atop my leg, his waight pins me to the floor and I am unable to move away. He is now hurting my foot so I try and roll him over, but his eyes are closed and he is not responding. He starts to cradle one of his arms. I notice something is missing, I can see white bone. I can feel the tast of cabbage in my mouth but I try hard to swallow it, and I yell as loud as I can “MR.GODBOLD!!! MR.GODBOLD, COME QUICK!!! THE SPINNER HAS TACKEN HIS THUMB!!” blood drips onto the floor, seeping into jimmy’s azure sleeve, looking like a scene from a horrible horrible nightmare.
Mr.Godbold is no were to be seen so I shout again as loud as possible.
As I in hail to scream again I ihhail a lot of the dry cotton in the air. One pf the sweeping boys see’s and he just stands there like an idiot! So I scream at him not to stand there like a jackass but he still remains.
Finnaly mr.Godbold comes and with a couple other men and they carrie jimmy away. When jimmy finially is off of my foot, its compeatly numb!! I cant feel a ting. That is until pins and needles start to start on my foot.
Edwin stands beside me and says he can tend to jimmys station. I argue with him for a while that he is to small, but he ends up deminstraiting that he can. Mr.godbold sees and he moves edwins broom to the corner.

More then likely mama will do the punding for jimmy, like she and the other laides do when times are hard. They go through and try and find a pound or two of this and that to take over to there familys. But its not the best time to get hurt, food isn’t as plentifull as it is in the fall. As I await for the whistle to blow and tell me its time to go home, I imagine the food and sweet milk awaiting me at home. The whistle finaly blows and we rush to the door, but mr.godbold cathches me and asks if I have a sister named Arlene, well of course I do . a monster of one. But I only nod. Since we are short a sweeper tomarow he wants her to work. My sister will learn what work is the hard way.

Its almost dark outside and cold. As me and mama make our way home I limp, my foot dosnt want to cooperate, I try and step on it as little as possible. Katie and Margret go past, they say is that you Pauline. Then josh and dad join us, they also ask if I am Pauline. of course I am, who do they think I am-arlean? As we get closer, there is no light, not evan smoke from the chimney. This time mama and dad will catch lazy Arlene sleeping and they will scold her. As we enter she is nowear to be seen. Her dinner hasn’t been eaten eather, she probably ate sweets at the stor or something. Mama says she might be with miss bertha delivering a babay, but dad said he has seen mr.harrell at the store and was in no hurry to go home. I do not tell mama and dad that she has to work tommarow at the mill. I shall wait till later when Arlene is home.
Dad says we have to wait for Arlene to eat dinner, and for me to do the ironing. Why not let the lazy Arlene do it, all she has done is sleep and stuff herself on sweets. It takes me a long time to iron the clothes, but I do.
When the door coses mama jumps up and says she has been worried sick. I dry the last dish and put it away in the cubbored. Mama help Arlene tack her swaeter off and asks were she has been. Arlene replies that mrs.Harrell had her baby and miss bertha told her to help. Mama asks if she has had dinner, Arlene replies that she has not. I feel completely invisible. Arlene is the only one mama see’s.
They start talking about jimmy, and his missing finger then mama gets up to get Arlene some food, she tells me to move so Arlene can have my spot. I sit at the table, no one notices how I have to walk now. They are all to fixated on Arlene. At dinner I say that tommarow Arlene must go to work at the mill. To sweep. Arlene says she can manage that and smiles. Her smile puzzles me.




Miss Bertha tackes some herbs and levs and puts them into a cup and strains them out, she says its aquash vine and raspberry leaf with a touch of mint and it will bring her along faster and stronger.
She tells me to cheek on little percy, he is sleeping upstairs. And that we will need a fire later to boil the rags later. Befor I leave miss Betha stairs up at me and says that she remembers the day we were born. She didn’t know there were two of us, a fine joke on everybody.
I wonder if it was me or Pauline who was the one too many. I also cant help but be reminded of the stove room growing cold and the dinner pots white with grease and the clothes on the line. And the fact that I have had no dinner and my stoumach growls in protest. The afternoon has turned gray and I remember Pauline in the mill, warm and with her friends, mamma daddy and josh.

It is now late in the afternoon and I walk past the room were they are in. its quite, miss Bertha is asleep. She was up most of the night tending to miss Louise doughter who has measles and pneumonia. When I go back to the fire I start to hear her scream, the baby must be coming soon.
I go upstairs to see percy, who is crouched by his cot. I touch his arm lightly and he looks scared. So I tell him tha his mama will be okay, she is just going to give him a baby brother or sister.
I notice that his diper is wet so I change him and ask if he would like some food. He dosnt awnser so I carry him downstairs. All of a sudden I feel pain in my shoulder. The chilled bite me!. I put him down and expailn that that is not appropriate. I make him cornbread, and remember my dinner at the back of our stove. As cold as frost.
Suddenly miss bertha rushes into the room and tells me she neds my help. I follow her back to the front room.
Miss Bertha says its time and whenever she says push, for me to push down on her belly. She pushes with all her might but says she is to tierd to continue, so miss bertha puts something to her nose and she starts to sneeze, as she is sneezing I push down. And finally its born. A hndsome baby boy. She has yet to pick out a name though .And finally it’s born. A handsome baby boy. She has yet to pick out a name though.
Although the baby has been born, miss bertha has me do many other things, its grey outside so I have no idea of the time, and I know if I don’t milk the cow tonight everyone will be angry. I go get the baby clothes from upstairs. Then after I stir some dirty clothes in the washpot and fetch the two some tea.
Somebody knocks on the door, he asks if miss bertha is hear. There has been an accedint at the mill. Miss bertha gathers her things and runs out of the room, but before she leaves she tells me to stay with them until sam Harrell comes home and to help out with the wash and ironing.
I hang the clothes on the wash, my face is freezing and I am tierd. I hear the whistle blow. Sam will be home soon. As I walk into the room, she is asleep by her baby. But she wakes up and asks to hold him. I hand her the baby boy. She says she is going to name it Aaron. Aaron and Percy just like Arlene and Pauline, Poor Aaron. Mr.harrell comes home, smelling of beer. He dosnt seem to happy. He asks what is is and when she replies a boy he grumbles and gose to the kitchen. He takes of the lid to the beans I just put on and spits some out. He complains that he is the man and works all day and should not come home to raw beans and corn bread. but al least I can go home now.


Journal entry 4 (not done yet).

Its early in the morning and mama wakes us, already dressed. Its snowing hard outside mama says, Pauline askes if the mill is open, and yes it is. As we are getting ready, Pauline says that her shoe wont go on, sorta like how mine dosnt. I offer the other one of joshes. She is probably jelouse I get to go to work two. At breakfast mama says we will have to have cold dinner at work for there is no one to bring it to us. How selfish I feel. I get to go to work and the others suffer with cold food. Pauline comes in wearing the shoe and mocks how I walk. She try’s to explain that its swollen from when jimmy fell on it. But mama doesn’t believe her.

After we clean up from breakfast, we do not call out good bye Arlene, for she will finally learn what it is to work 12 hours a day. The town is covered by snow. I watch how Arlene walks down the stairs and copy her, for I do not want to fall on my head. Snow fills my sock as I go towards the mill. I fall over, I am unable to get up. Arlene turns and helps me. Probably laughing. Put instead I pull her down. She laughs and says we are like two birds with there wings clipped, no flying today. I push up on her and rise, then turn to help her. Then I follow arlenes footsteps, her back is completely covered in frost and her fingers are as cold as mine.

As I walk into the Spinning room, I hear the very loud machines. Today I am not just a visitor, but a worker. The room is very warm and my cheeks and hands tingle. The snow melts off my clothes and my shoes and my socks are wet.

The whistle blows and it’s not time for me to start the first day. Pauline limps in by me, and Mr. Godbold looks at her and then at me, Pauline points at me. At last, he gestures to a corner were I begin to sweep.
I glance back at Pauline; she is glancing unsurely at the bobbins, unsure of what to do. She takes off her shoes and socks. So now, the mocking one will reveal her true self. We will see now her two flawless feet. The two matching ankles, the ten perfect toes, we will see that she by in the snow trickling me.”
She takes off her socks. I see that she wasn’t lying, her foot is blue and her toes are like swollen sausages on the end of her plumped up foot, Mr. Godbold looks down glaring he shakes his finger before he turns to me again, he tells Pauline to grab another broom, Pauline disappears between the machines as I go hunting for more lint.

One side of me is glad I can see Katie and Margaret and mama at work,the other is ashamed I can only do what the youngest boys do. I then realize that today I willmake a boys wage. The same as Arlene. But Jimmy will probably have no pay, and no thumb. I could put my shoes on but then everyone would think I am Arlene, and mama will see I wasn’t faking it. I stare at her, but she is busy with the machines.

I feel guilty; even though I am earning money I knew at home the chores are left undone. But here I sweep and have a job just like perfect Pauline, who isn’t so perfect now. She could have been the one to teach me perfection, but instead I taught her how to be awkward. I can now mock her.

I have shown my feet and proved I cannot climb. I pick up the dinner pale and wonder where Katie and Margaret will eat. We all sit in the room were the women eat. Margaret and Katie wait there for their dad to bring them there pale. We wait and do not eat ours, for that would be rude. When Katie and Margaret enter the room, they tell mama that the roads are too snowy and the pails aren’t coming. Mama breaks her biscuit in half and gives it to Mrs. Ethel.
Katie and Margaret are playing jacks so I take out the biscuit in my pale and tell them to share it, they say thanks Arlene. I am not Arlene, so I correct them. After they are done eating, they turn their backs to me. I feel like a fool, I have given away my dinner and they didn’t invite me to play. I turn back and see Arlene with her supper, she splits it in half and gives me some, Even though she has nothing to gain.

: I watch as Pauline gives her dinner to the girls then turn around with a disappointed look on her face, it’s when I realized that everything comes in two’s, mama and daddy, Carrie and George, Margaret and Katie, the two of Josh’s old shoes, they all come in two’s, even Pauline and I. So I split my biscuit in half.

It’s Saturday! Today the joke is on the Whistle. She may call for us to go back to work, but today we will only work until noon. I put on my socks and shoes, my feet have turned from a purply blue to a disgusting sickly yellow, the swelling is also less, but I search for Josh’s old shoes anyway. Arlene gets up and we both plump the pillows and laugh. Today we don’t carry dinner pales to work. Today and tomorrow mama will cook us a proper dinner. The snow is almost completely melted. Dad says that Jimmy will be back to work on Monday. If my foot is back to normal by then, then all will be normal. Hot dinners at work and clean clothes, Arlene will see to that. I try and look for my hat, but I cannot find it. I cannot remember where it is.

As we headed back home from today’s work, we will stop by the store for sugar. Today is payday. As we get home mama has pork chops frying on the stove. Mama says to finish the laundry, so I go and start it. Pauline will probably only get in the way, but as I go to the wash pot, she is already scrubbing, so we work together. When we sit down mama already has the food out. We pray before we eat. After dinner we wait for daddy to bring out our money from payday, he hands me 15 cents, I am rich! I can buy peppermint or chewing gum.
Me and Pauline are handed cakes to bring to Mrs. Harrell and her new baby. Pauline offers to help me milk the cow today. We put the cake on her table. She says she has never seen us together before and can’t tell us apart.
We leave and find Jimmy, his hand is in a white bandage and he also says he can’t tell who is who and we give him the cake. Pauline seems happy as we walk to the store.

As we enter the store I can’t decide what I want, Margaret is there, she says that George and Carrie ran away and got married today and that we should serenade them tonight and then leaves. Pauline asks me to tell her how to put stuff on the books to pay for them later. But I tell her that it’s not for games, then decide to use my money to help her buy it. Because we are twins.