104-Year-Old Grandma Goes Viral On TikTok After Telling Her Granddaughter About Her Life Working On A Cotton Farm At Only 12-Years-Old
After their mother died, Madie Scott raised her granddaughter, Shanika Bradshaw, and her two brothers.
After asking Grandma Madie questions about how she grew up, Shanika started posting their interviews on TikTok.
Born in 1917, Madie Scott recently celebrated her 104th birthday.
In 1929, 12-year-old Madie began working on a farm in Georgia, picking cotton for 14, sometimes 15, hours a day.
“I worked like a dog,” Madie explained. She was paid just 50 cents for an entire day’s work, usually from 3 AM to 5 PM.
Madie moved to Florida in 1933 at the age of 16 to work as a sharecropper to try and make more money.
She explained that the landlord who owned the cotton field also owned the commissary. So, they could charge whatever they wanted.
It didn’t matter how long or how much she worked; whatever money she got from working, the bosses took it all for the food she bought. It was like working for free.
TikTok; pictured above is Madie celebrating her 104th birthday recently
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After listening to her grandmother go on, Shanika solemnly said, “Today was the first day that I felt a little sad.”
“I was asking her about the pay. I asked her if she forgave the people for how she was treated, and she said, ‘Yeah, I did forgive them a long time ago. Even though I was overworked and put in so much work and was paid so little.'”
Shanika, inspired by Madie’s stories, feels “it’s important for me to put this out there so people can hear it firsthand.
TikTok; pictured above is Madie in one video talking about her life
This is what happened, these people, not just my grandmother, but other people who built up America and were never acknowledged for it.”
Reflecting on her life, Madie says, “Ain’t none of these young people have to go through what I went through to get where I am now.”
“Oh Lord, I wish we had that, how y’all got everything laid out for you [in life], and you know where it’s going. When I was coming up, we didn’t know where we were going; all we knew how to do was work.”
After Shanika’s TikTok went viral, she told Madie the news, “Grandma, do you know two million people watched that video?”
In a savvy response, her grandmother answered, “That’s a lot of people! You had me on there looking raggedy!”
@blackbeauty_305 Grandma picked cotton from 3am-5pm every day.. She was paid barely anything. Smh! #storytime
More About:Human Interest
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