Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

DESCRIPTION: "Old Man Sargent, sitting at the desk, The damned old fool won't give us no rest. He'd take the nickels off a dead man's eyes...." The singer describes the bad conditions in the mills, and instructs listeners not to bury his body when he dies
AUTHOR: unknown
EARLIEST DATE: 1939 (collected by William Wolff at the School for Southern Women Workers, according to Doug deNatale and Glenn Hinson, in their article, "The Southern Textile Song Tradition Reconsidered," published in Archie Green, editor, _Songs about Work: Essays in Occupational Culture for Richard A. Reuss_, Folklore Institute, Indiana University, 1993, p. 88)
KEYWORDS: weaving factory technology work hardtimes death burial
FOUND IN: US
REFERENCES (4 citations):
Greenway-AmericanFolksongsOfProtest, p. 144, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text, 1 tune)
Darling-NewAmericanSongster, p. 371, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text)
Silber/Silber-FolksingersWordbook, p. 126, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (1 text)
DT, WNNSBORO*
RECORDINGS:
Pete Seeger, "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues" (on PeteSeeger13)
CROSS-REFERENCES:
cf. "Hard Times in the Mill (I)" (floating verses)
File: Grnw144

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