Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People In America

by Deborah Hopkinson

In this stunning nonfiction volume, award-winning author Deborah Hopkinson weaves the stories of slaves, sharecroppers, and mill workers into a tapestry illuminating the history of cotton in America.

In UP BEFORE DAYBREAK, acclaimed author Deborah Hopkinson captures the voices of the forgotten men, women, and children who worked in the cotton industry in America over the centuries. The voices of the slaves who toiled in the fields in the South, the poor sharecroppers who barely got by, and the girls who gave their lives to the New England mills spring to life through oral histories, archival photos, and Hopkinson's engaging narrative prose style. These stories are amazing and often heartbreaking, and they are imbedded deep in our nation's history.

Genres: History, Nonfiction, Childrens, Cultural, American History

128 pages, Hardcover

First published April 1, 2006

About the author

I write nonfiction and historical fiction, picture books, and Golden Books. I speak at school, libraries, and conferences. I also love to garden and offer manuscript critiques. (Deborahhopkinson@yahoo.com)

NEW books in 2024 include DETERMINED DREAMER: THE STORY OF MARIE CURIE, illus by Jen Hill, ON A SUMMER NIGHT, illus by Kenard Pak, TRIM HELPS OUT and TRIM SAILS the STORM, illus by Kristy Caldwell, EVIDENCE! illustrated by Nik Henderson, and a nonfiction work called THEY SAVED THE STALLIONS. I'm delighted to say that Trim Helps Out, Trim Sails the Storm, On a Summer Night and Evidence! are all Junior Library Guild selections.

I live and work in Oregon and travel all over to speak to young readers and writers.

Reviews

[Charlene · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cotton was my grandparents' livelihood from 1910-1950 & it took the labor of the whole family to get their cotton to market. This book covered the history of cotton from field to textile mill, from 1600 to present. Hard to believe how very important it was in the history of the country and of the world.
Middle school non-fiction is great . . . lots of photos, good history but not the great detail and dense text that one gets in some adult nf.

[Richie Partington · Rating 5 out of 5]

13 July 2006 UP BEFORE DAYBREAK: COTTON AND PEOPLE IN AMERICA by Deborah Hopkinson, Scholastic Nonfiction, April 2006, ISBN: 0-439-63901-8

A slave named Henry Kirk Miller was fourteen when freedom arrived with the end of the Civil War. Later he recalled how his former owner had needed money and had sold off one of Henry's sisters, taking cotton in exchange:

" 'I remember hearing them tell about the big price she brought because cotton was so high,' said Henry. 'Old mistress got 15 bales of cotton for sister...It was only a few days till freedom came and the man who had traded all them bales of cotton lost my sister, but old mistress kept the cotton.' "

I'm in touch with cotton on a daily basis. As a matter of fact, what could be closer to me? Closer than my plaid flannel boxers ("100% COTTON, Made in Bangladesh")? Closer than my Beatles Yellow Submarine Picture Book tee-shirt ("100% COTTON, Knit in U.S.A, Assembled in Honduras")? Closer than my Levi Strauss Relaxed Fit 550 Jeans (100% COTTON, Made in Mexico)? Or the soft pillow case under my head as I read this fascinating book (100% COTTON, Made in Bulgaria)? Yup, I've got some significant daily connections to cotton.

As noted by author Deborah Hopkinson, "Growing up, I never fully understood how important those old, run-down mills had been to our country's history. The evidence was right before my eyes, but I couldn't imagine the past. I couldn't see Lowell as a vibrant center of new technology or understand the forces that had left it broken and economically depressed."

Like Hopkinson's experience with Lowell, Massachusetts, I also have a bit of experience with run-down mills. In the mid-Seventies, during my years as an undergraduate student at UConn, I would frequently head down the road to the nearby mill town of Willimantic, whose nickname "Thread City" has since been memorialized by the giant spools of thread upon which the Willimantic Frog Bridge frogs sit. (Check out the bridge at http://www.kurumi.com/roads/ct/br-fro....) My destination in Willimantic was Shaboo, a cavernous club serving up big-name live music that operated -- of course -- in an old textile factory building.

As I learned through a bit of my own searching, the Willimantic Linen Company used to be Connecticut's largest employer. At one time they produced 85,000 miles of thread each day. Its modern-era successor, the American Thread Company, still had a presence in town during my collegiate days. And as I also discovered, another of the old buildings in Willimantic, which has recently been renovated as part of the development of a modern business and technology center, was the world's first mill to be illuminated by electric lights -- said to be Thomas Edison's first paying job!

Whether it be factories, farms, or struggling families, Deborah Hopkinson has done an exceptional job here of researching the various threads of the history of cotton in America, and of pulling them together into an engaging story that, in turn, reveals so much about the broader history of our country. What makes the story most interesting is her ability to repeatedly illustrate significant aspects by referring to the words of real characters she uncovered in her research:

"Laura Nichols from Connecticut wanted to earn her own money. She hoped to get more education, but her parents couldn't afford to help her. So Laura took a job in a mill near her home, determined not to give up her hopes for the future.
"Years later, Laura told her own children how hard she had been willing to work for her dreams. Laura believed there was 'something better within my reach and I must have it or die in the attempt. I began to realize that my future would be largely what I make of it, that my destiny was, as it were, in my own hands.'
"New England girls like Laura were part of a new chapter in American history. The early years in Lowell and other mill towns of New England marked the first time large numbers of women moved away from their families to cities to take jobs far from home."

But, as is seen repeatedly throughout the book, such manufacturing work was initially done for low wages, beginning at incredibly young ages, and was carried out at a rapid pace throughout obscenely long work days with no ventilation, and under conditions that frequently led to permanent injury. Very young people who grew old while literally spending the majority of their lives inside the walls of those mills were the victims upon whose tragic lives the modern era of child labor laws, compulsory education, safe working conditions, and minimum wages were eventually and belatedly built.

Of course, the mills were (and will be) seen by many as an improvement over the lives of sharecroppers and tenant farmers who always faced the possibility of working similarly long hours and of coming away without a cent to show for a hard year's work. For instance, Walter Strange, who began sharecropping in 1911 at the age of 12, and who was interviewed in 1938 explained that:

" 'Last year I planted seven acres in cotton and made only one bale. I used poison, too. But the boll weevil ate up the cotton in spite of it,' said Walter. 'The fertilizer cost me one hundred dollars. I sold the cotton for fifty-two dollars. The loss on the fertilizer alone was forty-eight dollars, not counting the work and the other expense. I had to sell something else to finish paying for the fertilizer.' "

Young readers will undoubtedly be intrigued by Walter's beginning as a sharecropper in his own right at such a young age. In fact, whether it be from the narratives she's uncovered, or from viewing the wealth of photographs included throughout the book, so many of the characters Hopkinson brings us face to face with are very young people.

Thus, UP BEFORE DAYBREAK is an excellent example of bringing American history to life.

Richie Partington, MLIS
Richie's Picks http://richiespicks.pbworks.com
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[Annette Ruane · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was a little iffy reading this book about slavery times because it was written by a white person and the interviews were done by a white person. I understand that the author did their research to probably the best of their ability but over all I don’t see how you can put yourself in someone else’s shoes with such a big cultural difference. I did like how there were interviews done from people of different rolls in the cotton fields giving the reader several different viewpoints of the history. I would have enjoyed if the book was research by people with a more direct connection to slavery. The black and white photographs do bring another layer of reality to this book but I would have liked to seen more pictures. Over all this book still enriched my knowledge of the given topic and I believe that it is helpful to read all view point and to have your own impression of them.

[Becky · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up Before Daybreak is a well-researched and well-written nonfiction book about the cotton industry in America from its humble beginnings in the seventeenth century, to its reign during the eighteenth and nineteenth century before the civil war, and even expanding beyond the civil war through the reconstruction era and the first half of the twentieth century. It is an expansive view going beyond race, ethnicity, and class. Discussing issues such as slavery, sharecropping, and mill factories. Looking at the people behind the work--black, white, young, old, male, female--the common thread is poverty. The workers whether enslaved or paid cheap labor (a few dollars for 70+ hours of labor) their livelihood was dependent on the crop. It is an interesting examination of race, culture, and class. Up Before Daybreak is also well-documented and makes full use of primary documents such as oral histories. Includes selected bibliography, notes, index, and some amazing black and white photographs.

[Priscilla Herrington · Rating 5 out of 5]

Up Before Daybreak is the well researched history of cotton in America and the people who worked it - the slaves and sharecroppers who raised, and mill workers who made cloth from tits fibers. This is a story about labor - hard labor - often performed by children in an earlier time. There are pictures and diagrams to illustrate the varous processes, and there are oral histories - the words of those who worked it.

Hopkinson's work is sufficiently detailed for adults, yet cler enough to be read by grade schoolers. In fact, all children should read this book at soe point, to see what their lives might have been like in an earlier time!

It was named a Carter Woodson Honor Book by the National Council for the Social Studies.

[C. · Rating 5 out of 5]

The book Up Before Daybreak is full of various firsthand accounts of the lives of sharecroppers, tenant farmers, immigrants entering the labor market, and the growth of cotton manufacturing. I appreciated the detailed information on crops, farming, harvest seasons, wages, economic and living conditions, the inception of factory, millwork, and the industrial age. The book covers the period from about 1870 through the 1950s. There is limited remarks on the great depression and child labor laws. If you enjoy history and facts, you will find this book is a great resource.

[Louise · Rating 4 out of 5]

Written for young readers but very informative.

[Alexis Espinosa · Rating 4 out of 5]

Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America: This book traces back in history through the cotton industry in America since the cotton trade began in the seventeenth century. It includes quotes from ex-slaves, mill workers, women in a growing industry, and other hard laborers throughout history as a result of cotton. Through oral histories she captures voices of forgotten men, women, and children who have worked in the cotton industry. It includes stories that are amazing and often heartbreaking as they embed deep in our nation’s history.

Comments/observations: Something that I look for when reading nonfiction is accuracy. How I judge that is the primary documents and quotes used in a book. A strength this book has is its abundance of stories and interviews from people who have lived through the cotton industry and have been involved first-hand. The reading level for this book is seventh to twelfth grade and the themes include agriculture, the industrial revolution, jobs, abolition, and the underground railroad. My emotional readers response was that this book was really informative and although it was long, readers would benefit from everything in this book.

How I could use this book in my classroom: This book includes primary documents and quotes from times of slavery so I would use this book in history when teaching about abolition and slavery. Its important to know what slaves and people in the industrial revolution went through and this books talks about that in depth so students would learn a lot. I would read from parts of the book that talk in depth about the lives of slaves and indentured servants and have students do a project about a person in the book.

Hopkinson, D. (2006). Up before daybreak: Cotton and people in America. New York, NY: Scholastic Nonfiction.

[Becky Tucker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Non-Fiction

This is a book about the history of cotton and the people it effected in America. It goes through the history of cotton, starting with the earliest times in the 1600s when English settlers started harvesting cotton to send to England. It goes through the invention of the cotton gin, slavery in America, the invention of cotton mills, mill girls, sharecropping, mill villages of the south, and through to the end of the cotton mills in America in the 1960s. It has stories of individuals throughout the book and it concludes talking about child labor and how laws were created and where child labor is still being practiced to produce clothing in other countries.

I liked this book because it was easy to read and informative. It seems a bit biased to me and it's definitely not a comprehensive history of cotton in America, but I think it does a good job of introducing the history of it in a way that is pretty interesting and easy for young readers to understand. I like the text to world connection at the end where Hopkinson asks readers to consider where their own clothes come from and the voices that were given attention in this book. That being said, it's a little boring--probably because it's about the history of cotton in America. But it was still fun enough for me to enjoy reading it. I would recommend this to any young reader--even older readers who are interested in the subject. It's a good place to start understanding the roll that cotton has played in America and how labor has changed in America as well.

[Emily Sands · Rating 3 out of 5]

The book is about Cotton and the People in America are voices of the forgotten men, women, and children who once worked in the cotton industry. The voices of the slaves who worked hard in the fields in the South and the sharecroppers who barely got by. The book traces back in history through the cotton industry in America since the cotton trade began near the seventeenth century. It includes quotes for previous slaves, mill workers, and women who fought to enter a growing industry. The book has an abundance of stories and interviews of individuals who lived during that time and through the hardships first hand. This makes the book very personable and relatable. The reading level for this book is seventh to twelfth grade and the themes include agriculture, industrial revolution, and abolition. This book is geared toward emotional readers and informational readers. The major downfall of the book however is that it is written by a white author, and the interviews within the book are also done by the author. I think it would have been beneficial to have an African American writer either co-write or write the book to give it a more authentic identity.

[Nic · Rating 4 out of 5]

In format and reading level, and because of the awesome photos, this reminded me of Freedom Walkers. I love that nonfiction books for younger readers - teens and tweens, I'd say, for these two - don't assume that I know things (especially about history) that I don't. History has never been my subject, so I appreciate a book that nonjudgementally reminds me multiple times when the Civil War happened. Now I think I'll actually remember!

Since I picked this up to actually research cotton and the growing and processing thereof, it was perfect. I especially appreciated that, while it did emphasize that cotton in the southern US used to be deeply connected to slavery, and slavery is awful, it didn't become a book about the horrors of slavery when it was supposed to be about cotton.

The snippets of interviews from the thirties with elderly former slaves and mill workers were super-cool, too.

[Laura Gabica]

Up Before Daybreak: Cotton and People in America is about the history of cotton farming in America. It provides the stories of many people whose lives revolved around the cotton industry, such as slaves, poor farm workers, parents, children, and girls. By having personal narratives in the story, the book helps readers to feel a connection to those who were in the cotton industry, even though a lot of us reading the book do not actually know much about the cotton industry. Another cool aspect of the book was all the photographs. There were photographs on almost every page, which is cool for the reader to look at. It makes us feel more of a connection to what the book is talking about, which is good because most of us do not feel a connection to the cotton industry without helpful tools, such as the pictures. The pictures also had captions beneath them, describing what was happening, which is a very helpful tool. This can be very engaging for young readers.

[Kaye · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book tells the story of 300 years of American history all based on "cotton". Slaves and sharecroppers in the fields to pick cotton, to the mill workers who made thread wove it cotton into cloth. Cotton dominated the American economy before during and after the Civil War. The American Industrial Revolution was based on this one small ball of fluff. The photographs speak for themselves. There is a wonderful annotated bibliography of the Oral histories taken down from former slaves and mill workers. http://wn.com/cotton_mill website has oral interviews with the last of the workers before the mill closed @1950. The workers missed their jobs and the communal families the mill generated. The book reads easily.

331.76 Hopkinson Carter G. Woodson Honor Book AR 7.0

[Krista]

Hopkinson traces the history of cotton in America, from its early roots as a crop in the South, to the growth of the textile industry in the North. Along the way, that history bumps up against slavery, a war, racial prejudice, and the rise of unions. Hopkinson places a special focus on child labor.

While the premise and the photographs are terrific, the book failed to captivate me completely, and many aspects of labor and social history seemed brushed over rather than delved into.

[Sara · Rating 5 out of 5]

I read this middle school book looking for material to add to my pre- Civil War lessons on the South. it's perfect for middle school students and traces the cotton industry from slavery through the mills of the twentieth century. I wish I had time to teach that much depth and breadth on a topic. if I could a class set of this book would be fun....

[Heather · Rating 2 out of 5]

I am sorry to admit that I found myself thoroughly bored by long stretches of this book. I know it was on the Children's Notable List (ALSC), but I can't think of a single child I would recommend it to.

[Kassondra · Rating 5 out of 5]

I really feel that this story will and did inspire alot of people. The author talked alot about the past and its history. I feel that it has helped our country on today. Without the cotton,and people fighting for equal rights this world wouldnt be what it is on today.

[V.L. Brunskill · Rating 4 out of 5]

Another book to help me better understand the period after the Civil War in Savannah, as it pertains to the cotton industry. Written for young adults, the concise style made it easy to use for research. Lots of historical pics. Well done.

[CFAITC]

Trace the history of the cotton industry in America through the centuries, from colonial times to the middle of the twentieth century.

[Concordian Library]

4 Copies Available
2014-2015:

G7 Set

[M. Elizabeth (Marianne) Gage · Rating 4 out of 5]

Well-researched and thought out work on the rise of King cotton and all the heart-ache and tragedy that went into it's production.

[Mike]

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