Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section20/LollyBleu

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Biography[edit | edit source]

Early Life & Childhood[edit | edit source]

Lolly Bleu was born in 1888, on the Gulf Coast of Texas. She grew up poor but married young in hopes of growing her worth as a married woman. Her husband, Pa, was also born in Texas and they met in the town Bleu grew up in. They began farming in Texas but heard of better land elsewhere so they eventually moved to Florida in the hope of a more profitable farm.

Later Life[edit | edit source]

At the time of her interview, she lived in Florida on the farm with her husband and 13 children. Because of the flock of farmers that came to Florida, crops were hard to sell in large quantities so Bleu’s family soon became poverty-stricken. Although most of the children tried to help on the farm, Bleu’s 8-year-old daughter was disabled, causing the family to ration their meals for her accommodations. As Bleu continued to raise her family, the economy was slowing down and America soon entered the Great Depression. During this time, mothers with disabled children were labeled as non-employable in the workforce, therefore causing a lack of income for the family. Due to the deep poverty Bleu and her family faced, they were forced to become “squatters” [1]- a term used for families that moved through abandoned houses and homeless areas to avoid paying rent. [2]

Social Context[edit | edit source]

Disabled Families During the Great Depression[edit | edit source]

Due to a lack of medical research, once polio broke out as an epidemic, it was hard to treat and contain. People would suffer paralysis as a side effect of polio and it would cause great financial burden on them or their families. President Franklin Delano Roosevelt [3]also had polio and served as a role model to the country on how to go on living with the disease. “Most people today can’t comprehend the severity of polio during this time" (Polio and Historical Inquiry, 19). Many times, polio wasn’t the only disease that paralyzed people in America. Due to the lack of medical research and resources, most of those who were disabled were born as such. This caused a burden on their families in an economical standpoint because these children weren’t allowed to attend school and their parents weren’t allowed to work.

Overgrown farm during the Great Depression.

Farmer Suffrage During the Great Depression[edit | edit source]

Farmers who had started their own businesses on bought land were forced to abandon their farms without compensation. [4] It became hard for citizens to buy produce with the money they didn’t have and no one could buy their farms from them in return. Many farmers too, became homeless and unemployed during this time. Farm life in the early 1900's was difficult due to the amount of families that found their income through farming. The profession had become extremely popular in the south because of the resources and slow industrialization of such areas. Therefore, the competition for viable farmland was high. According to the journal, Life on a Farm during the Great Depression, "Production for farmers dropped drastically, and so did prices at the end of WWI'' (Life on a Farm During the Great Depression, 16). This income decrease resulted in farm owners losing their jobs and not being able to compete with the high population of other farmers. [5]

Footnotes[edit | edit source]

  1. ↑ "Definition of SQUATTER". www.merriam-webster.com. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  2. ↑ "[Lolly Bleu--Florida Squatter]". Library of Congress, Washington, D.C. 20540 USA. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  3. ↑ Ruane, Michael E. (2022-08-01). "A century ago, polio struck a handsome young politician — and forged one of the country's greatest presidents". Washington Post. ISSN 0190-8286. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  4. ↑ "NCpedia | NCpedia". www.ncpedia.org. Retrieved 2023-10-26.
  5. ↑ Typical Chores around the Farm. University of Arkansas Press. pp. 86–92. http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt1f89tzm.11. 

References[edit | edit source]

Barrett A., Tyler A., Wright , Lee, Kimberly, James D. . 2010. “The New Homelessness Revisited.” Annual Review of Sociology  36: 501–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25735089

Burk , Ed . 2008. “Economic Depression and Lack of Education.” A History of Developmental Disabilities  1: 25. https://mn.gov/mnddc/parallels/four/4e/3.html#:~:text=One%20reason%20for%20this%20growth,and%20families%20with%20special%20needs

Musbach , Joan W. . 2001. “Life on a Farm during the Great Depression.” OAH Magazine of History  16 (1): 33–43. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163485

Rhode, Wieland, Hausman , Paul W., Johannas, Joshua . 2020. “Farm Product Prices, Redistribution, and the Early Great Depression in the US.” CEPR, November, 1. https://cepr.org/voxeu/columns/farm-product-prices-redistribution-and-early-great-depression-us#:~:text=Thus%20between%201929%20and%201930,did%20worse%20than%20nonfarm%20households

Wellener , Keren L. . 2005. “Polio and Historical Inquiry.” OAH Magazine of History  19 (5): 54–58. http://www.jstor.org/stable/25161982

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