Why Was Picking Cotton Often Referred to as Backbreaking?

Picking cotton was backbreaking work. Plantation owners sometimes employed indentured servants to pick cotton, but the majority of the people who did such physically demanding work were slaves. The invention of the Cotton Gin made it much easier and quicker to produce clean cotton.

What was picking cotton like for slaves?

Often slaves, and later sharecroppers, would pick cotton from sunrise to sunset. In August, this would result in a 13 hour workday spent in the hot sun. To pick the cotton, a worker would pull the white, fluffy lint from the boll, trying to not cut his hands on the sharp ends of the boll.

How many pounds of cotton did slaves pick a day?

With the invention of the cotton gin, one slave could gin 50 pounds of cotton per day. Did this mean plantation owners needed fewer slaves?