cotton picker
Field harvest machine
A cotton picker is a machine that harvests cotton from plants, revolutionizing an industry that once depended on intensive manual labor.
The term also refers to a person who picks cotton by hand, work historically associated with slavery in the American South and later with exploitative sharecropping arrangements.
Because of this history, cotton picker has been used as a racial slur against Black Americans, making it offensive in many contexts even when referring literally to the occupation.
Agricultural worker outdoors
- laborerPhysical task performer
- sharecropperFarmer paying rent in crops
- boll weevilBeetle infesting cotton plants
- rowLinear arrangement across
stooping · backbreaking · wages · piecework · seasonal · migrant · harvest · dawn
Merge, or harvesting machine
- harvesterCrop-collecting machine
- mechanizationConverting to machine operation
- spindleRotating rod for thread
- basketWoven carrying vessel
moistener · boll · John Deere · header · stripper · lint · defoliant · tractor
Large-scale farming operation
- slaveryOwnership of people
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- sharecroppingFarm rent in produce
- emancipationRelease from legal bondage
Reconstruction · Jim Crow · Old South · Civil War · abolition · enslaved · auction block · overseer
Expressing criticism or disrespect
- racistOne prejudiced by ethnicity
- epithetDescriptive tag for someone
- offensiveCausing displeasure or attack-oriented
- pejorativeTerm expressing disapproval
bigotry · discrimination · hate speech · insult · prejudice · harmful · degrading · dehumanizing
fieldhand
Agricultural worker outdoors
- laborerPhysical task performer
- sharecropperFarmer paying rent in crops
- boll weevilBeetle infesting cotton plants
row · stooping · backbreaking · wages · piecework · seasonal · migrant · harvest · dawn · heat
combine
Merge, or harvesting machine
- harvesterCrop-collecting machine
- mechanizationConverting to machine operation
- spindleRotating rod for thread
basket · moistener · boll · John Deere · header · stripper · lint · defoliant · tractor · diesel
plantation
Large-scale farming operation
- slaveryOwnership of people
- antebellumBefore a war's start
- sharecroppingFarm rent in produce
emancipation · Reconstruction · Jim Crow · Old South · Civil War · abolition · enslaved · auction block · overseer · cash crop
derogatory
Expressing criticism or disrespect
- racistOne prejudiced by ethnicity
- epithetDescriptive tag for someone
- offensiveCausing displeasure or attack-oriented
pejorative · bigotry · discrimination · hate speech · insult · prejudice · harmful · degrading · dehumanizing
- farm workersfarmer, farmworker, hired hand, field hand, farm laborer
- farmworkersfarmhand, farmworker, farm laborer, field hand, farm hand
- laborerslaborers, day laborer, day labourer, day laborers, manual worker
- rural jobsfarmer, rancher, shepherd, farmhand, cowherd
- rural peoplefarmer, villagers, farmhand, farmworker, farmers
- seasonal workersfarmhand, field hand, harvest worker, harvester, migrant worker
cotton pickercombine
Merge, or harvesting machine
combine harvester · grain harvester · corn picker · hay baler · thresher
pick, cotton, picking, picked, picker, pickers, cottony, cottonwood, unpicked