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West Feliciana African American Oral History Project

The Elders Speak: The West Feliciana Parish African American Oral History Project

By Teresa Parker Farris

 

Page 3

Farming

Nearly all of the interviewees worked as sharecroppers, growing cotton, corn, or sweet potatoes. The labor was grueling as days began at sun-up and did not end until the evening hours and, in addition, required significant physical exertion regardless of the weather. Many of the interviewees were forced to leave school at an early age in order to help their families work in the fields. Despite such intensive labor, the crops yielded only a meager amount of money for the families, allowing just enough income to pay rent, buy food, and purchase other necessary provisions.

 

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Louise Williams remembers picking cotton and corn for only 40 cents a day.

 

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Travis Carter explains carrying debts following insufficient harvests.

 

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Sallie Roach Smith recalls trying to pick a hundred pounds of cotton.

 

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Rosia Pate remembers her father traveling to Woodville, Mississippi to sell his cotton and settle debts with local merchants.

 

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Geraldine London explains typical day in the field and doing homework by kerosene lamplight.

 

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Elizabeth Lee recalls picking cotton during the cooler morning and evening hours.

 

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Ellen Hardy shares how her father planned their days picking cotton and potatoes.

 

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Robert Sterling explains how he worked in fields before and after school.

 

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Alice Johnson remembers picking cotton, potatoes, and beans and leaving school early to help her stepfather farm.

 

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Turlie Richardson reflects coming from the "hard time," picking strawberries to earn money for clothes.

Teresa Parker Farris is an instructor of folklife at Tulane University where she is also completing her doctoral studies in the Department of History. This essay originally appeared on the West Feliciana School Board website. In 2018, Farris revised it with permission for the Folklife in Louisiana website.