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A TOTALLY different situation and you know it. You were helping out on the farm. You were not part of a slave labor. This farm should have been fined one million dollars as far as I am concerned. It is ridiculous to have children doing this type of work. These kids are forced to do this. I would guess if you refused that you would have gotten out of it, but you loved your grandparents so you helped out........TOTALLY DIFFERENT SCENARIO.

NO IT NOT TOTALLY DIFFERENT TODAY. I hire 18 year olds. They have never worked at anything a day in their lives. They think they are worth 20 dollars an hour. In reality, they aren't worth the air they breathe.

They don't know how to do anything. They have to be taught to do the simplest of things. They can't add, subtract, multiply or divide. They are lazy and fat.

They needed to have worked when they were 10 or 11 and continued to work until they became adults so they would know how to work and be of value.

but you loved your grandparents so you helped out

You bet I did. There were 7 of us (parents, grandparents, uncle and my bother and I) that worked together and ate 2 meals a day together. I could have thrown a rock and hit my grandparents home from our home. It was a great childhood. My brother and I had the run of the place when we were not in the field. We had a jeep that was "ours" and we hunted and fished a lot. We became great shots for quail and dove. We outshot most of the adults. Instinctive quail hunting is a reflex and you never forget it when you learn it.

When I was a kid {born in late 50's} in the 60's and 70's summer jobs for kids in my rural neighborhood were farm jobs. There were no paper routes etc. If it was hay bailing time that meant work beginning in the morning and working till dark or later if weather was a threat and the last bale in the barn safe and dry. Tobacco time? Same thing and that is one hard and sweaty job. I helped out a friend once put his tobacco up because weather threatened.

Strawberries? One neighbor raised them and had a very willing picking crew living next door too him. Nine kids IIRC who's parents were dirt poor and this meant money too the kids they could spend. Money their parents didn't have to give them. When crops came in farmers hired willing too work kids. Yes some parents FORCED their kids to go and work for Farmer Joe even as far as shoveling manure out of his barn. Others send their kids out with the tractor. When I lived in town parents sent kids out with push mowers to earn money. Unfortunately for me allergies kept me out of most farm work as a kid especially with hay and strawberries.

In my state I dare say a neighboring county known as the the tomato capitol uses kid labor for harvest time as well.

BTW my wife spent quite a few years of her childhood in the 50's and early 60's in southeastern Arkansas. One school field trip was a day of picking cotton in a local field. Yes they got paid by the farmer.

I would guess if you refused that you would have gotten out of it, but you loved your grandparents so you helped out........TOTALLY DIFFERENT SCENARIO.

I'm guessing, too, but based upon some knowlege of similar cases: a refusal would have gotten TF an @ss whopping, and he would have also still done the work...and kept at it until finished.