Nine Foot Sack

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I drag a nine foot sack

like a ball and chain

Though it’s blistering hot

I don’t pray for rain

Should a rain come

I could never forget

I may be a free man

But enslaved by debt

I may be a free man

But enslaved by debt

I got a little chunk of land

Can’t plant nothin’ to eat

I gotta fill it full of cotton

For my quota to meet

Pay my debts

From the year before

Ahead by a ‘Jefferson’

But not much more

Ahead by a ‘Jefferson’

But not much more

They say I’m a good boy

but I’m a man

Providin’ for my family

The best what I can

Blood and sweat

And a sunburnt back

I’m draggin’ my hopes

in this nine foot sack

Draggin’ my hopes

in this nine foot sack

Sharecropping was just another form of slavery. The landowner would rent them a shack, and he also had a general store where the tenant could get food on credit against the future earnings from the cotton crop. The sack that held the picked cotton was nine feet long. It can also be surprisingly difficult to pick cotton just right. The average cotton plant is less than three feet high, so many workers had to stoop to pick the cotton. People who were too aggressive might end up grabbing leaves and the sharp parts of the boll along with the fiber, cutting the fingers. But being too timid meant you would only grab small bits of cotton, leaving the rest behind on the plant. It was brutal, hard work that paid very little. Strangely, when all was tallied at the end of the season, the balance of debt versus profit came out just about, but not quite, even. No way to get ahead or improve their life.