You might also try "field hands" which was the general term for who was out in the field picking away. I was once a "hay hand" but never laid a hand on cotton.

I wouldn't use "pickaninnies" unless I was using the song in a scholarly workshop.

Now back in the early 1920's that was the term of endearment that my mother's nursemaid used to describe her little daughter, but that was another time.

Cheerily,
Charley Noble