They could and did. They hired help or used the labor of their children. If the farm was a profit making enterprise, they hired a ramrod to control and direct the help. Please, do not take the counsel of fiction in novels and movies to form your knowledge of those times. Most do not relect the truth of the man/woman relationship then under the law. If you want to get a true picture, read the law from that time and read appelate court cases using that law. 