This is a cotton song that I have recently acquired. Sung by The Gordons, and I think they wrote it too. From the perspective of a 12 year girl. A sad haunting sort of tune, about the harshness of life for cotton workers.

COTTONMILL
Sung by The Gordons

Years ago a letter came,
from far across the sea
Saying "Come, orphan child,
to the land of the free
No more shall you be homeless,
I'll pay your daily bread
Come to the great America,
a place to lay your head.

Now I am only 12 years old,
my eyes are growing dim
My hands I've worked them to the bone,
My face is pale and thin
And every hour is like a day,
Each day a year goes by
I wither in the gloomy light,
alone I sit and cry

CHORUS:
Oh cotton mill, you'll never be my home
Seems I've worked a hundred years,
I'll work a hundred more
Oh cotton mill, you robbed me of my soul
I'll never see the sun come up,
behind your cold prison door
                                                                   
Now I live my life in shame,
No-one knows my name
No freedom at the cottonmill,
My journey was in vain
If I   could only fly away,
no more to weave and sew
I'd warn the child who follows me
of loneliness and woe