Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section20/Pa Carnes

Overview

The farming community in the United States began moving towards using more agricultural technological innovations, although many farmers in the South were extremely wary.

Pa Carnes was a white man from Old Madison County, North Carolina. He was a farmer in North Carolina throughout the late 19th century and a mountain farmer in Tennessee in the early 20th century. Carnes was interviewed by Dean Newman of the Federal Writers' Project. Date of interview is unclear (potentially 1875).

Biography

Early Life

Pa Carnes was born on a mountain farm in Old Madison County, North Carolina; at the time of his interview, he lived in Pigeon Forge, Tennessee. His father, who fought with the Confederacy, was killed at the Battle of Gettysburg three months after Carnes was born, but a soldier “chum” of his father took care of Carnes and his family. Carnes did not receive a sufficient amount of education throughout most of his childhood, often needing to help out on the farm and work. By sixteen, however, he could read, write, and “figure” well enough to be hired at the local sawmill.

Adult Life

As an adult, he was estimating for the sawmill company and being sent on work travels. After he saved enough money, he married, bought his own farm, and had fourteen children (only ten were still living at the time of the interview). Carnes moved his family from North Carolina to Tennessee in 1897. During the year, Carnes profited from his farm, and during the winters, he’d estimate timber. As the years went on, Carnes aged and strained to work the land, which no longer had any nutrient-rich soil. Prices to maintain a farm and buy new land jumped higher every year, and many of the mountain farmers struggled with feeding their families and the surrounding community from their farms' crops. Carnes's wife, Ella, was diagnosed with breast cancer and was being treated at the time of the interview. With Ella in recovery and the kids all moved out, Carnes stated that he and his wife had simply "lived too long" and that "the country ought to take care of [them] until [they're] gone.".

Social Context

Great Depression Farming

Although farmers were luckier than many city dwellers because of their ability to produce much of their own food during the Great Depression, they were also heavily impacted by the Depression. Throughout World War I, farmers experienced high demand for all of their crops and livestock so when prices fell after the war, many went bankrupt from trying to produce more and pay off their expenses. As cities could not afford to buy crops, much of the food produced only went to waste, dropping the prices even lower. Mountain farmers, in particular, struggled to support more than themselves and their families during the Depression, both because of the lack of nutrients in their property’s soil and the absurdly low prices that crops were being sold for. The government combated this by passing the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) of 1933 which set limits on the amount of crops that farmers were allowed to produce. Farmers who agreed were reimbursed by the government, and government checks were soon "flowing into rural mailboxes" .

Southern Agriculture Post-Civil War

Southern agriculture experienced massive changes after the American Civil War. The biggest change was the decrease in cotton production in the South. The southern states “lagged behind” the rest of the United States in advanced farming techniques; while most of the country turned to “mechanization and all sorts of labor-saving devices” (such as crop dusters, tractors, cotton harvesters, etc), the South remained a labor-intensive culture. Sharecropping ultimately restored southern cotton production as it brought land and labor together into a productive unit. Even if farmers were interested in changing their agricultural methods, however, it was often too expensive and difficult for them to completely change their farming techniques. Illiteracy was another “deterrent to economic advances” as farmers couldn’t read agricultural journals or government publications on how to improve their farming and management techniques. Thus, those who could read had a much stronger advantage in the new farming world. Most southern farmers only knew the long-standing cotton harvesting techniques, and so they lacked the skill sets––such as proper management abilities––needed to raise other crops and livestock .

Rural Life

Farm women had a much greater independence when it came to controlling their daily lives, even though the life of a farm wife was very difficult at times.

Family Life

People who lived in agricultural communities often had up to fourteen children to help with all the chores and work necessary to run a successful farm.

Women often had mixed feelings about farm life, as it was extremely isolated and difficult, but it also allowed for greater independence and gender equality. Farming provided an opportunity for women to be "full partners with their husbands" and they often considered themselves "businesswomen central to the success of their farm" . Children also experienced much more independence on a farm. Although they were often needed to help with chores around the property, farm kids were far from "immediate adult supervision, protection, and surveillance" .

Education Reform & The Country Life Movement

The education system and “scholarship on rural education” in the early twentieth century was “relatively underdeveloped” . Because of issues with “education for economic development… achieving educational equity in rural America… appropriate school size” and the role of the school in community life, rural education remains inferior to the education systems in more urban areas even today. Many people who grew up in farm country attended school only when they had the time. In the early 20th century, the Country Life Movement was born out of a desire to combat this practice. Country Lifers, as advocates of the movement were nicknamed, called for the reformation of rural education as that was necessary to combat the rising food prices. Their motivation for rural education reform primarily stemmed from the hope of creating an “agricultural sector which would efficiently meet the material needs of an increasingly urban and industrial society and economy” . As urban populations grew, their education systems were modernized and updated regularly; rural communities were not afforded this luxury. Big cities, however, needed products from farms, which were struggling to keep up with the rapid industrialization and population growth of the early 20th century. The Country Lifers stressed that without proper education systems, the rural agricultural sector would continue to fall behind in inefficiency. In other words, schools were “held to be largely responsible for ineffective farming” . The Country Life Movement criticized the function of rural schools to complement the other educational institutions of society such as family teachings and community values. Rural folk viewed school as a helpful tool for farm work as opposed to an education system . Families relied on their children to help out around the farms and in the house . Although parents often recognized the fact that the inadequacy of the rural education system hindered their children from branching out from the rural culture and community, many families in rural communities were convinced that agriculture was the only viable career path. The Country Life Movement faded away when World War I started, and agriculture communities were booming.

References

Buescher, John Dr. "Families on the Farm in the 19th Century." Brewminate. May 18, 2018. https://brewminate.com/families-on-the-farm-in-the-19th-century/.

Danbom, David B. “Rural Education Reform and the Country Life Movement, 1900-1920.” Agricultural History 53, no. 2 (1979): 462–74. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3742421.

DeYoung, Alan J. “The Status of American Rural Education Research: An Integrated Review and Commentary.” Review of Educational Research 57, no. 2 (1987): 123–48. https://doi.org/10.2307/1170233.

Fite, Gilbert C. “Southern Agriculture since the Civil War: An Overview.” Agricultural History 53, no. 1 (1979): 3–21. http://www.jstor.org/stable/3742855.

Iowa PBS. "The Great Depression Hits Farms and Cities in the 1930s." 2022. https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2591/great-depression-hits-farms-and-cities-1930s.