Back in 1970's, we lived in rural Western Tennessee, right on the Tennesse/Kentucky state line and raised dark fired tobacco. We had a small allotment, about 2 acres. Yes, our three children did work with us, but only a few times a month and at certain stages of the crop growing cycle.
We started with a cold frame bed where the seeds were planted in the very early spring. Later on, when the danger of frost was over and the plants were large enough to be moved to the fields, they were dug up and transplanted. The old people would take them from the plant beds. My husband and son prepared the fields for the planting. The plants were run through a tobacco planter which placed the plants in the field and local kids walked behind making sure the plants were placed okay and got some water. The teens earned money doing this.
During the growing cycle, only my husband and son handled any pesticides. The younger ones just hand weeded and hoed around the plants. When the plants were big enough to cut, this was a big deal for teenage boys, cause they did the cutting and could earn some serious pocket money. It usually only took a day or two and was a big affair. The women cooked a big noon day meal to feed the field workers and took them gallons of cold water and lemonade.
Once the tobacco was in the "barn" it had to fired and my husband and son took care of that. Once it was ready to sell in December, it was taken down from the barn and "stripped". Stripping tobacco was the traditional work for the older people in the community. They meet in barns or old houses with their chairs with the cut down legs and "strip" the tobacco. It gave them a little extra spending money. Once the tobacco was stripped, it was ready to go to the "floor" to be auctioned off.
This is when the farmer got his tobacco money. Once the bank loan was paid off, the farmer could use the cash to buy a new truck or other vital piece of equipment.
Yes, children do work in tobacco, but it is a crop that requires lots of manual labor and gives periodic employment to people in rural communities who have no other chance to work. It is also a source of cash in hand to the farmer.
It is my understanding from friends and family up in that area, that Mexican immigrant workers are taking over the work done by the children and family members.
So from experience, it is not as bad as the headlines are saying, now conditions might be worse on larger tobacco farms, but at the time when we lived in that area, dark fired tobacco was mostly grown on small farms and the rural area where we lived was very poor with the unemployment rate over 20% and any work was welcomed.
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