"Hard Times in the Mill" is one of a number of songs about the cotton mills. Other songs in this category are "Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues", "Cotton Mill Blues" and an entirely different song also titled "Hard Times in the Mill". The song describes conditions in a 19th century cotton mill. The tune is similar to "Drill, ye Tarriers, Drill". The song is simple enough to be a good starter song for a banjo player. Seeger accompanies it with his Basic Strum (a combination of up and down picking). I have tabbed it out using basic clawhammer strokes. It was printed in Charles W. Darling's The New American Songster: Traditional Ballads and Songs of North America (Revised edition, 1992), Hazel Arnett's I Hear America Singing! Great Folk Songs from the Revolution to Rock (1975) and John Greenway's American Folksongs of Protest (1953). It was recorded by Pete Seeger on American Industrial Ballads (1956) (reissued in 1992).