Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section33/All of Our Folks Was Farmers

Biography

A farm in Asheville in the 1930s, similar to where the Riddles would have lived

Jim Riddle was a tenant farmer that lived in Fletcher, NC, in 1939 who rented land from a well-off family and lived with his wife, Jane, and his two sons and daughters. Their rented house was plain, with no running water or electricity, but they fared well, with a large plot of land around 120 acres where he grew various crops and sizable herds of livestock. Cattle was their main source of income due to the fall in crop prices during the Great Depression, supporting their yearly rental of their land. Mr. and Mrs. Riddle both came from farming families and had minimal education, in contrast with their children who either attended or graduated high school, with their eldest son and daughter working in factories. Jim owned land in the mountains of North Carolina, but it was too steep for farming, leading him to rent the land in Fletcher to sustain his family. Their status as tenant farmers made them especially vulnerable during the Great Depression to financial worries, but their agricultural productivity proved enough to support the Riddles.

Social Context

Agriculture

Effects of the Great Depression strongly impacted the agriculture industry during the 1930s, especially for tenant farmers that rented land and relied entirely on their agricultural production. These effects stemmed from the post-WWI era when the market became oversaturated with cash crops such as tobacco and cotton. Prior to the fall in prices, farmers adopted "more intensive monocropping farming strategies" that, combined with "logging activities that increased flooding and decreased soil fertility," severely impacted farmers' ability to grow food when the Great Depression happened. This environmental degradation happened as a cause of crop overproduction, which also decreased the value of agricultural products; for example, "cotton that had sold for more than 30 cents a pound in 1919 was selling for less than 6 cents in 1931." Farmers caused this overproduction by investing in new agricultural technologies that required loans from banks, reducing crop prices and making farmers "highly vulnerable to any additional decrease in prices, even a relatively mild one." Tenant farmers faced the worst consequences from these decreases since they depended on agricultural profits to pay rent. If they weren't able to pay landowners, they were forced to migrate to other rural areas, or more commonly, cities. Tenant farmers that couldn't pay also caused landowners to foreclose on their farms, since they relied on rent to pay their mortgages. Agriculture suffered for a variety of reasons during the Great Depression, notably from overproduction and costly investments that diminished profits and caused a cascade of consequences for all players in the agriculture industry.

Education:

The North Carolina education system developed slowly throughout the early 20th century and faced severe hardships during the Great Depression even with significant government support. School wasn't always a priority especially for rural families, where children "had to milk cows, feed farm animals, draw water, cut firewood, and complete other chores before boarding the bus or walking to school" if they even had time to attend. The inefficient learning style where "almost one-fourth" of schools "were buildings with only one room and only one teacher" in 1931 was evidence of the lack of importance of formal education in North Carolina. It wasn't "until the 1940s" that "twelve years of schooling become a requirement in North Carolina," so many rural and underfunded areas had poor education systems during the Great Depression. Although families often regarded school as unnecessary, instead focusing on farm production, the expansion of 4-H clubs across the country positively educated youth as a "vocational education as a systematic course or courses of instruction in basic agriculture." 4-H clubs taught both youth and adults proper agricultural practices and encouraged their contributions to society. The education gained through 4-H clubs supported farming families and the economy, supplementing school education with real-world skills that prepared American youth for adulthood, especially those from rural areas. Although the federal public school system had flaws during the Great Depression, the involvement of 4-H clubs educated youth and taught them skills needed in everyday life.

References

Bishop, RoAnn. “Agriculture in North Carolina during the Great Depression.” NCpedia, January 1, 2010. https://www.ncpedia.org/agriculture/great-depression.

Davis, Dr. Anita Price. “Public Schools in the Great Depression.” NCpedia, January 1, 2010. https://www.ncpedia.org/public-schools-great-depression.

Federico, Giovanni. “Not Guilty? Agriculture in the 1920s and the Great Depression: The Journal of Economic History.” Cambridge Core, November 22, 2005. https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-economic-history/article/not-guilty-agriculture-in-the-1920s-and-the-great-depression/98DCD9F1FD470C911C968D7211EA415C.

Hoover, Tracy S, and Jan F Scholl. “A Historical Review or Leadership Development in the FFA and 4-H.” Journal of Agricultural Education, 2007. https://jae-online.org/index.php/jae/article/view/2041/1886.

Veteto, James R. “The History and Survival of Traditional Heirloom Vegetable ... - Springer.” Springer.com, January 2, 2007. https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007/s10460-007-9097-6.pdf.