Document text
February 16, 1939
Jake Mack (white)
Valley Street
Emma, N. C.
Day laborer, sharecropper
Anne Winn Stevens, writer.
Douglas Carter, reviser.
MOUNTAIN SHARECROPPERS
Original Names
Jake Mack
"Mother Mack"
Julia Plemmons
Frank Wells
Turkey Creek
Mike Kelly
Lon Robert's
Henry Plemmon's
Captain McDonald
Thomas Edison Mack
Changed Names
Jake West
"Mother West"
Julia Simmons
John Arnold
Duck Creek
Pat Reilly
Luther Rance's
Tom Carter's
Captain Mason
Thomas West
kOUNTAIN SHARECROPPERS
From the highway that traverses the village, there
diverges at right angles a muddy, red -clay road, a
mere gash between low hills. For the sake of identifi-
cation, the bus drivers call this road Valley Street.
It is fringed by dingy, four -room shacks, some of which
are surrounded by a few acres of field, whose chief crop
seems to be corn. Here and there a bony cow is staked
out to graze, or a few chickens of no distinguishable
breed scratch in the red mire.
One of these shacks has a curiously pied appearance,
because it was originally painted a dark red, and later
whitewashed, and now the whitewash, long discolored,
has flaked off in patches. Shading the porch are two
silver poplars, which seem to have sprung up quite by
adcident. From one of these hang sprays of an unpruned
rose vine. Here and there through the muddy clay of
the yard, clumps of jonquils begin to show green in
February 16, 1939
Jake kack 4hite)
Valley Street
Emma, N, C.
Day laborer, Aare:Oropper
e Viamn S ev s writer.
.4460:44.1t
-1114104140:168-
q.,61*A4c)
4, -Set
From the highway that traverses the iwa44.164it-eisi-led
Emma.., there diverges at right angles a muddy, red -clay
road, a mere gash between low hills. For the sake of
identification, the bus drivers and t4irc ta-A armispeow call
this road Valley Street. It is fringed by dingy, four
room alt shacks, some of which are surrounded by a few
acres of field, whose chief crop seems to be corn. Here
and there/ a b
chickens of noA
One of these
AZZIgt-ted...tema
cow is staked out to graze, or a few
breed scratch in the red mire.
shacks has a curiously pied appearance,
originally painted a dark red, and
14huhtit.
Mr later white;Washedj A ow the whitewash, long discolored,
has flaked off in patches. Shading the porch are two silver
poplars, which seem to have sprung up quite by accident.
From one of these hang sprays of an unpruned rose vine.
Here and there through the muddy clay of the yard clumps
of jonquils begin to show green in mid -February. Ragged,
sodden cornstalks stand in the few acres of surrounding
ai.
field. In this unkempt setting live the
The interior of the house is as shabby as its exterior.
Discolored plastering has fallen off in spots. A double
bed fills one corner of the living room. The limp curtains
are of cerise gauze)over red and yellow window shades. Only
tone small, faded rug is on the rough....khomeel floor. At .2iskZ7,:t
my first visit a multiplicity of calendars surrounded the
mantel, and on the opposite wall hung a in la* huge/ red.
cardboard heart, the relic of some grandchild's school
work.
On a later visit, I became aware that tne calendars
and a few prints of Biblical subjects had been winnowed,
and neatly distributed with a sense of proportion on the
four walls, and the huge red heart had been pinned
inconspicuously under the edge of one of tne curtains.
Some social worker had certainly improved the appearance
of the interior.
To a newcomer, Mrs.
am always pl.eased to meet any of tne Lawd's people."
The
belong to a generation that in their
childhood could be bound out, legally. "Mother
as she
/0
was then known, was cound out t tne age of Umi. to a
as the neighbors now call her, Julia
pious greeting is, "I
well-to-do farmer,
Julia was the daughter
of a Creek farmer, who"dying,left a wife and six
children of whom Julia was the oldest. In the settlement
his property. —he owned his own farm/ —the Widow
was left penniless. Unable to support her
children, she bound them out to neighboring farmers as
soon as they were large enough to work. According to the
terms of the cont act, Julia was to be sent to school.
But although saw that his own children attended
the kmInty Xchools)af.-4A-a4mdeec., Julia was taught neither
to read/ nor to write. She became a general houseworker
puesi
in the 4e4455 family.
Jake te, to whom Julia was married at eighteen,
a similar experience. He was ,.a farmer's son from
,u,344
Creek. Ne—mea orphaned aft& bound out to a farmer
A
.1)litut he was given a little schooling, so
that he learned to read, but nut to write, he became
a farm laborer until the contract/ binding him out/ expired,
when he was
two years after his marriage to Julia.
to the now obsolete custom
of binding children out is eiliP4000
"Children was allus pervided with homes in those days,"
Julia known says earnestly. "They wasn't allowed to wander
around from place to place and go hongrye and Jake_yiginek
glancing up from under the brim of his ragged felt hat,
which he keeps on 3444.u.nommemotra indoors, nods agreement.
The reaction of the
After their marriagsoand the expiration of the contracts
ii
which bound them, the M&c drifted toA
as unskilled
laborers. Julia took in washing. She bore nine children
and raised seven of tnem. The children attended school
a few years each, except the youngest daughter, who witbK,
lives with her parents and earns two dollars a week looking
after a neighbor's children.
"She was afflicted," says Julia, "with white swelling)
and was crippled; so she was kept outer school. Her memory
is short; so she never learned how to read."
Meanwhile, Jake leek worked at various jobs, such as
helping to lay water mains and sewer tes and opening
up streets. Under the employment of Mt who had
the contract for this work, Jake dug trenches det hours
a day a)ia daily wage of ocventy five cents. Later he was
paid a day. "There was," he says, "no loitering
on the job; stood over us and watched us all the
time."
twist;44413—
In 1916, the family leftA x p.nd became share-.
croppers working on various farms
Zelm4./
"We worked onA
fax" said Jake. "Share -Croppers was allus given the
very poorest land. If tne owner furnished seed and farm
implements, he took half of what was raised. We made a
and on
bare living. The owner kept the best land fur hisself, or
rented it out fur cash."
The crops raised were diversified: corn, potatoes,
cabbages, turnips, tomatoes, mustard) and other vegetables.
"We allus planted corn on the first dark of the moon in
larch," said Julia.. "Crops planted on the bright
of the moon grows spindling. The corn shoots up tall
and goes all to leaves. The ears are stunted. Mustard
planted on the bright of the moon goes all to stems. Plant
it on the dark of the moon, and it grows low, and bushy,,
with plenty of leaves."
The share -Cropper could, if he were inclined, raise
pigs and chickens, A the same terms as the crops4).half
e-f--theee--weet---6e--4,es-Iaa41....wasaaau. "The work," said Jake,
"Was from suntup to sunidown." To aid her family Julia
Sr. 44g
took in washing, making from ..1.1L.141.-cal..i.b444.-614.1mlaala
In the flu epidemic of 1918, she made as much as
a week, "Ever body was afeard to wash clothes for them
that had flu," she explained. "When I had washed the
clothes and hung them out to dry in the mawnin', I would
work all afternoon in the field. Sometimes I ironed
until claoe o'clock at night."
A woman of powerful frame and sound health, she often
hired out by the day to do farm work, breaking off corn
a week.
tops and stripping fodder. She boasts: "I could allus do
a man's work in the field, and get a man's wages."
"Zes, she could allus keep up with us men," her husband
added proudly.
For stripping fodder and other field work,the men with
whom Julia kept up were paid ty cents a day. "The women
who lagged and couldn't keep up got cents a
clay."
The L4:finally gave up sharecropping, after having
worked as silarearoppers from 1916, as well as they can
remember, until 1929. "We couldn't make a living that way,"
said Jake, "the owners wanted to take all and leave the
'sharecroppers nothing i so I took to peddling. I got a
horse and cart and peddled vegetables in the summer, and
apples or coal in the winter. When the roads in these parts
was paved I got a truck and kep' on a- eddling."
The
eldest remainedson, and ran
two rooming house!)
the at.hea3 iiiI4imre-limiermo. He was killed some eight
years ago in a drunken quarrel with his wife, who struck
him over the head with an pipe, so that he fell down
r
a flight of stairs atA wa rooming housq. At
first his wife was exonerated, and his death charged to
an accident. Later, she confessed fully. Captain
-4
a. 1)
ofA says she confess after
having been converted by reading a copy of:
a-401,peorkelfmteriftb4rwiftipt-eatikow. Julia thinks her
confession was due to the sheriff's suspicions and
unremitting questioning. At any rate, she was sentenced
to serve
years in prison for manslaughter.
The youngest son of the Thomas Zoi-i-sett—itieek,
joined the Army when he was very young. His mother says,
"He was fogren years old, but was large for his years.
He drove a car for some/a.gtain or other down in lexico."
As a matter of government record, he spent two years
in active service, first on the lexican border, and later
UM.
for nearly a year in France as an ambulance driver along
the Hindenburg line. He was in three offensives, and
shortly before the armistice was wounded in the hip.
Honourably discharged, he returned to his parents.a4.4Ammi..
It was his bonus that enabled them to buy from a Negro
asepla the shack and the few acres of land where they now
live.
Later, he was run over at a railway crossind1,499ftw
torm+,14 being so absorbed in avoiding one train that he
did not see the other compiling from tne opposite direction.
He lost a leg thereby.
"The Goviment," says Juli,51.411k,",-giv him a new leg."
He also a small pension from the army, and'according to
his mother, "lives near the depot
4,e44-44aide4., and drives a truck."
Thomas imilikeeft-oweek was married to a woman conspicuous
for flaming red hair. She deserted him and their ciAron
month -old, red-haired daughter, Frances. The girl "was
raised" by her grandparents.4t/-Mmmet. Julia iwook says, "she
hates her red hair because it is like her mAner's. She
wisnes she could paint it olack. People tell her, because
her hair is like her mother's, she will turn out the same
way." This red hair is really the girl's one attractive
feature. Frances, nov. and married to a W.P.A.
worker, by ner grandparents with the greatest
strictness. "Until she was married," say_a_ Julia, "I never
let her go anywheres unless her grandpappy or one of her
aunts was along. She ain't never been to a moving picter,
nor to a dance. She went to church and Sunday gchool,
right faithful." The -4-year-old married daughtex)
who was present, asserted sanctimoniously, "I ain't never
been to a moving picter, eitner." The girl, Francds,lis
the mother of a blue-eyed baby whom her grandparents are
helping her "to raise." She lives in one of the drab
shacks across Valley Street. several of tne
married daugnters and grandchildren live along Valley
Street, also. They are all working on the .1).A.,i or
dependent on thefielfare department.
Julia and Jake raise corn, potatoes, tomates, mustard)
and other vegetables on tneir strip of ground. So far as
possible, they save seed from one year to the next, so they
will not be out of both seed and money when planting time
comes. They still plant "on the first dark of the moon
in ',larch," no matter how early or how late,/ that may be.
allus has the ground plowed in February, so it can be
plowed deep, and get mellow," they say. They keep a cow
and chicken)and sell their surplus milk and eggs.
"I caint bring myself to sell milk to sick people,/
says Julia. "They can come and get all they want." Neither
can she sell her vegetables. "It don't look right to cnarge
a neighbor for a mess of mustard)" she says.
In spite of their advanced years 1 —they are both in the
early seventies/ —the
never call in a doctor. Jake
immok, ruddy and white-haireclAstill carries himself erect.
Weather-beaten and wrinkled as she is, Julia still walks
with a firm step. Her scanty, gray hair is drawn back
tightly from her large face. She wears loose, ill-fitting
cotton dresses. She believes in old-fashioned remedies
made of herbs, or of household ingredients. Her remedy
for colds is "a stew made of vinegar, butter, mosses,
and pepper." But liaome@MaMis it has failed to cure her
recent bronchitis.
A staunch Baptist, Julia *Nook constantly affirms her
convictions. "I am an ole woman that has allus stood for
the right," she is fond of repeating. "I allus wanted to
be somebody," she declares. "Even when I didn't have a
dress to my back, I wanted to be somebody." Although she
can not agree with the doctrines of "the Holy Rollers over
to 44;44 Creek," she is tolerant of their "hikey-dykes."
She disapproves strongly of all alcoholic beverages. Jake
declares he has never taken a drink. When drunken neigh-
bors wander into their yard swearing Julia orders them.
off. "Nobody is goin' to be allowed to insult my Lawd n
llL
*I
my premises}" she says. She admits, "My sons drink
but I •n't sanc 0n t."
ad -R
ning to read. A .P.A.
teacher has gathered four of tle r W
Julia Jake, and
two of their middle-aged daughters7hin the 4,44"
house for
.0
lessons twice a week. Although Julia's spectacles are ill
fitted, so that her eyes smart when she uses them, she is
actually learning. "I can read," she says, "better than
I can pronounce." Her motive for this effort sees to be
twotfold: affection for tne teacher, and a desire "to
read the Word."
She and her husband get old -age compensation to the
amount of a month. They seem to regard
it as tneir due.
Julia lismok sums up t,A.eir life history piously by saying,
"We have had bad times, but we have had -ood times, too. I
guess the Lawd gives me all I need; all I want mi6nt not
be good for me."