I work in a nursing home and we have a lot of women in their 80s and 90s. Many of them talk of working in the cotton fields when they were young (and they’re white!). Most have only elementary school educations but they worked hard and raised families and contributed to this country. A dying breed indeed.
My grand dad worked the coal mines with a 8th grade education, until he developed Black Lung. With 8 kids, grandma went to work in the local shirt factory, she could neither read nor write, no schooling what so ever. The kids did the chores from cleaning to cooking to cleaning out the out house and taking care of the chickens. Most had only 5-8th grade educations by the time they were grown, this was during the Great Depression. Yet they never went hungry, they gardened and bartered for what they needed. Next generation had more, college, but they have turned into liberals not worth a spit. With the exceptions of the ones who went into the Military.
My f-i-l was born into a family of white “share croppers”. The whole family picked cotton. When he was 18 and with an 8th grade education, he came to Houston. He eventually started a small business and ended up a very successful man. The perfect rags to riches story.