Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section20/W. Leonidas Cockrell: "Looking Around with a Hay Farmer"

Overview

W. Leonidas Cockrell was a farm-owner from Livingston, AL during the Great Depression. He lived a quiet life with his wife, Lida.

Biography:

Life:

W. Leonidas Cockrell was a lifelong farm owner in Livingston, Alabama. He inherited farmland from his father, where he lived a quiet life with his wife, Lida. Leo and Lida enjoyed playing dominoes, sitting at home, and catching up on town gossip with passersby. Due to rheumatism in his feet, Leonidas couldn’t leave his home or tend to his farm after some time, so he rented out his land to his only surviving son, Frank. The Cockrell farm business began to fail during the Depression, which Leonidas attributed to poor crops and the federal government taking his farmers to participate in employment programs. This collapse made the couple dependent on the proposed Townsend Plan, which would offer monthly stimulus payments. However, the Plan was not executed, which was a great disappointment to them.

• 
  Alabama tenant farmer and children in 1936.

Family:

Leonidas had a lineage that was riddled with many esteemed roles including teachers, businessmen, and lawyers. Cockrell’s father was among the educated; he went to university and taught at local schools. However, after the passing of Leonidas’s grandfather, his father lived in a nursing home, and later passed away. Further, Leonidas's relatives, including Len Cockrell’s father and many uncles, fought for the “Lost Cause,” during the American Civil War.

In Leonidas’s lifetime, he lost his son, Russell, at 24, and daughter, Minnie, at around 30 years old. This left Cockrell with his son, Frank, who, at 39, had no intent to wed.

Social Context:

The New Deal and Southern Farmers:

The New Deal provided forms of economic security to millions of Americans, including farmers. However, it fell short of achieving full economic recovery, and was not equally applicable to all Americans, as seen in its effects on southern farmers.  

Amidst the Great Depression, prices for agricultural products dropped so low that many farmers went bankrupt or even lost their farms. At the time, many men chose to sign up for welfare, which was a painful experience for them. With these harsh effects, the New Deal introduced the Agricultural Adjustment Act (AAA) to mitigate the effects of the Depression on farmers. Although AAA grants aided many farmers who received them, they also slowed or completely stopped crop production, which led to lower demands and incomes for farm workers.

Government Assistance Programs:

The Townsend Plan was proposed to provide pension benefits to elders during President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s presidency. While this amassed support, it ultimately failed due to political factors including a lack of support from the president. The failure of the Townsend Plan increased demands for pension programs as such, for they pose great benefits to those who cannot work due to old age. This paved the way for the creation of the Social Security Act of 1935. Unfortunately, this program also had drawbacks in its early stages. Per this Act, many groups were excluded from receiving Social Security benefits, including some of the neediest groups at the time such as African Americans and domestic workers. Among these exclusions, farmers and agricultural workers found it difficult to make ends meet, especially when they had already faced the ramifications of the AAA.