1922 Perverts

First of all I'd like to know what does pig meat mean? It was probably there slang back in that time, but it sounds funny and doesn't sound anything close to what I would consider a compliment.  The guys seem kinda perverted. But  most of that stuff still happens even now so its not a big surprise. But its still a little weird especially that part were it talks about " peeking at their cotton underwear" lol like who does that. When I read about how the Irish kids use to pick on the black kids I was like dang what if it was the other way around they wouldn't be doing what there doing. But when Nel stood up for herself and scared those two Irish kids away by cutting her finger and telling the " if i can do this to myself just imagine what I would do to you. I was like dang she's a bad ass. But I would never cut my own finger, that's crazy and it hurts. When Mrs. Wright was telling Nel to pull her nose I was wondered if pulling your nose actually worked, it seems kind of stupid to me. I'm still a little confused on why Chicken drowned. I mean why didn't anybody go save him. It just didn't make no sense to me but I guess that's a story for you.