Document text
February 16, 1939
Jake Mack (white)
Valley Street
Emma, N. C.
Day laborer, sharecropper
Ann. 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 Name'
Jake West
"Mother West"
Julia Simmons
John Arnold
Duck Creek
Pat Reilly
Luther Rance's
Tom Carter's
Captain Mason
Thomas West
MOUNTAIN 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 abadas, 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 tne porch are two
silver poplars, which seem to have sprung up quits by
adcidont. 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
sildpiebruary. Rag6ed, sodden cornstalks stand in the
few sores of surrounding field. In this unkempt *fitting
live the *eats.
Xhe interior of the house is as shabby as its
exterior. Discolored plastering has fallen off in
spots. A double bed fills ome corner of the living
room. The limp curtains are of cerise gauss, over
red and yellow window shades. Only one small, faded
rug is on the rough floor. At the time of my first
visit a multiplicity of calendars surrounded the mental,
and on the opposite wall hung a huge red -cardboard
heart, the relic of some grandchild's school work.
On a later visit, I became aware that the calendars
and a few prints of biblical subjects had been winnowed,
and neatly distributea with a sense of proportion on
the fOur walls, and the hogs red heart had been pinned
inconspicuously under the edge of one of the curtains.
some social worker had certainly inproved the swearanos
of the interior.
To a newcomer, kre. West's pious greeting is, °I
am always pleseed to meet any of the Lawd's people."
The Iests belong to a generation that in their
childhood could be bound out, legally. °Mother 4cat."
as the neighbors now call her, Julia Simmons as she
was then known, was bound out at the ago of 10 to a
well-to-do farmer. John Arnold. Julia was the daughter
of a Duck Crook farmer, who, dying, left a wife and
site children of whom Julia was the oldest. In the
settloment of his property be owned his own farn
the Widow Simmons was left penniless. Unable to
support her children, she bound then out to neigh.
boring farmers as 110021 as they were large enough to
work. According to the terms of the contract, Julia'
was to be sent to scaool. but although Arnold saw
that his own children attended the county schools,
Julia was taught neither to read nor to writs. She
became a general houseworker in the Arnold family.
Jake Waist. to whom Julia was married at oighteen,
had a similar experience. Es was a farmer's son from
Duck Creek. Orphaned, be was bound out to a farmer
at the Loons section, but he was given a little school-
ing, so that he learned to read, but not to write. Be
became a farm laborer until the contract binding him
out expired, when be was 18, two years after hia marriage
to Julia.
The reaction of the *este to the now obsolete custom
Lountain hart croppers
of bindin6 children out is interesting*
"Children was allue pervided with homes in those
days," Julia says earnestly. *They wasn't allowed to
wander around fron place to place and go hongry." Jake,
glancing up from under the bria of his rsgsd felt hat,
which he keeps on indoors, nods agreement.
After their marriage, and the expiration of the
contracts which bound them, the tests drifted to the
county seat as unskilled laborers. Julia took in
washing. She bore nine children and raised seven of,
them. The children attended school a few years each,
except the youngest daughter, who 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 worked at various Jobs, such as
helping to lay water MILIT14 and sewer pipes, and oimning
up streets. Under to employment of Pat ReilV, who
had t.e contract for this work, Jake dug trenches 10
hours a day at a daily wage of 75 cents. Later he was
paid $1 a day. *There was," he says, "no loitering on
,Iountain narecropper.
010..:)1016
the jobi lly st1ooi over us and watched us all the
time."
in 116, the family left the county *eat and
Oecawsi anarecroppers on various farms nearby.
worked on Luther Aance'm place, and on Tom -,:arter's
farm," said Jake. 'Sharecroppers waa anus given this
very poorest land, if the owner furnished seed and
farm -lests, AO took aalf of what was raised. e
mad* a Uare living. The owner kep' the best land fur
hisseif, or rented it out fur cash."
The oropo raised were diversified: corn, potatoes,
caLbueAs, turnips. tomatoes, mustard, and other vege-
tables. 4te allus planted c,3rh on tne first aark of
the moon in Waren, said Julia. "Crimps planted on the
bright of tae moon grows spildling. The corn Shoots up
ual and goes all to leaves. The ears are stunted.
kuotard planted on the brit of the moon toes all to
steLls. rlant it on the dcrk of 1-..;Ae moon, ana it grows
low, ai ous4y, with i.,leaty of I.aves."
allarecropper could, if ue were inclined, raise
pigs alio ouickena on the sae ter6,a aa tne crops. be
work," said s.ia4e, "was from sunup to sundown." To aid
her family, iuiia took in washir4,,, making from 4,6 to Od
wountain -Larecroppers
a week. In the flu epidemic of 1418, she made as much
as ..A5 a weeke"Lverbody was afeard to wash clothes for
them that had flu," he explained. hen I had washed
the clothes and hut them out to dry in the sawmill'. I
would work all afternoon in the field. ometices I
ironed until 11 o'clock at nit."
h *Ofili14 of powerful frame and aound health, she
often hired oLt by the day to do farm work, braking
off crn tops and strippin fodder. 7,;ne oasts; "I
could anus do a man's work in the fild, and tot a'
tistn's wa4;es."
"lea, siie could anus keep up with us men," her
husband added proudly.
strippin6 fodder and other field work, the man
with whom Julia kept up were ?aid 60 cents a day. "The
women who liked and couldn't keep up tot 25 cents a
day."
The ,eats finally 6ave up aharecroppin6, after having
worked as Wiarecroppers from lAS, as well as they can
re;Lember, until 1X49. be couldn't make a living5 that
way," aaid Jake, "tne owners wanted to take all and
leave te, sharecroppers notht.LA, ;i4:) I took to peddliNi.
I ,;.;ot a horse an cart and peddled veetables in the
Lountain hareeroppera
ann apples or coal in the winter. When the roads
in tieee arte was paved, I 6ot a truck and kep' on a-
peddlin4,."
Ine rest's einest on remained at tne cowty eat
and ran two rooLin6 nonsea, th in tile iiwiiiiedo section.
e was killed ooze eint years .-ao in a urunk.en quarrel
with his 1.ife, who streck him over tne nead witn an
iron pipe, o tnat /le fell newn a fli,11t of stairs at
one of his rooc,in houses. nt first his sire waa exon-
erated, and his death ciar6ed to an accident. Later.,
she confeseed fully. Captain i4iason, of a welfare
orni4.ation, says sae confessed after havin6 bean
converted by readii„L. a copy of a reliijous periodical.
Julia tw.t thinks her confeasion was dne to tate sheriff's
suapicione and unread questionin.„. it any rate, ahe
WSW sentenced to serve 20 years in rrison for manalan6httr.
The youin:est son of the .ests, Thomas, joined the
nmy *hen he was very youl,
his mutaker said, "tie was
14 years old, uut was lar for nia years. lie drove a
oar for some catJtain or otner down in imexico."
As a ILatter of -.-4;fvrriL,ent record, at-, spent two
years in active service, first on tilt e,exlcan noroor,
and later for neLrly a year in irance as an ambulance
driver alon6 tos hindenbur6 Line. :Le was in three
leountain ;)harecroppers .8.
offensives, and shortly before the Armistice was wounded
in the hip. Honourably dischar4ed, he returned to his
parents. It was his oonus that enabled them to buy from
a 44gro the shack and the few acres of leu.d where they
now live.
Later, he was run over at a railway crossing, being
so absor'cied in avoidin6 one train that he did not eee
the other coat' from the opposite direction. he lost
a leg thereby.
"The Govsz,ent," saws Julia, "61v him a new leg."
he also sets a small pension from the Army, and, according
to his mother, "lives near the depot and drives a truck."
Moms& was married to a woman conspicuous for flaming
red hair. .Aohe deserted him and their 16 -month -old, red.*
haired dau6hter, Frances. The girl "was raised" by her
grandparents. Julia says, "She hates her red hair because
it is like her motner's. She wishes shim could paint it
black. r'eople tell her, because her hair is like her
mother's, she will turn out the same way." This red
hair is rally the girl's one attractive i'ature.
frances, now 18 and married to a .P.A. worker, was
reared by her 6randparehts with the gre test strictness.
"Until she was married," says Julia, "I never let her
i.ountain -narecroppers
go anywheres unless Mr grandpappy or one of her aunts
was along.
he ain't never been to a moving picter, nor
to a dance. hs went to church and Sunday school, right
faitnful." The 4eata' 40 -year -old married daug;.ter, who
was eresent, asserted sanctimoniously, "I ain't never
been to a moving picter, eiper." The girl, Frances, is
tne motner of a blue-eyed baby wnam her grandparents are
nelpir her 'to raise.'t 4e lives in one of tne drab
hacks acrsa Valley treet. several of the 4ests'
married datigters and wreLdchildren live along Valley
'Arset, also. rho/ are all working on the o.P.A., or
ddpendent on the welfare department.
Julia and Jake raise corn, potatoes, tomatoes, mustard,
and otner vegetables on tneir strip of ground. oo far
as possible, they save seed from one year to two next, so
they till not be out of Loth seed and money wnon planting
tine comes. Tney still plant on the first dark of the
moon in .larc no ratter hot early or how late that
ay be. "e allus has tot .round plowed in February,
so it can be plowed deep, and get :Allow they aay.
They keep a cow al.0 ch c.c.a, and sell their surplus milk
and 066s.
"I caint brin. myself to sell milk to sick people,"
kountain ...)harecroppers
says Julia. Julia. "They can come and get all they want. Neither
can she sell her vebetables. "It don't lk right to
charge a neighbor for a Miliss of mustard." sae says.
In spite of their advanced years they are both in
the early seventies the miests never call in a doctor.
Jake, ruddy and whit -haired, still carries himself erect.
;14ather-beaten and wrinkled as she is, Julia still walks
with a firm step. Her scantly, gray hair is drawn Lack
tigLitly from her large face. xie wears loose, ill-fitting
cotton dresses. Z.,-ne believes in old-fashioned remedies
made of herbs, or of household ingredients. ier remedy
for colds is "a stew made of vinegar, butter.molassts,
and pepper." But it has failed to cure her recent
bronchitis.
A staunch Baptist, Julia constahtly affirms her
convictiona. "I am an ale woman that aas allus stood for
the right," she 0 fond of reptatiag. 41 talus wanted to
be aomebodi," sae declares. "Even wnen I didn't have a
dress to my back, I wanted to be soaeby." Although she
can not agree with the doctrines of "the holy hollers over
to Duck Creek," she is tolerant of their "hikey-dykes."
z'ale disapproves strongly of all alcoholic beverages. Jake
declares he has never taken a drink. 0,cilen drunken neigh-
bors wander into their iard swearing, Julia orders tamm
Lountain Alarecroppers
-11-
f. .ubudy is 4.,oinl to be allowed to insult my Lawu on
my prelLisea," sue asia. be admits, "ky sons drink likker,
but I uoult sanction it."
uf tae faLdly are learnint, to reaa.
teacaer has 6,4therwd four of t-eL, Julia, Jake, and
two of tir L31_1(..le-at,ea da- -ters, in the :teat house
for lewsons twice a week. Althoui„h Julia's si.ectacles
are ill fiutua. 40 4..uat aer ejea swart mien sae uaed
'Lassa she is actually learning. "I can read," she /wag
'oetuer Ulan I can pronouisce.' her motive for this
effort see.64 to oe twofolda affection fur the teacher,
and a kicaire "to read the .ord.
and Ler Austai4 at old-a6e compensation to the
amount of „014 a month. Trey seem to re6ard it as their
due.
Julia aums up their life niatry iously by sayiri6,
"'i.e Lave Led "L,ed ti.Les, but we have had io)od tinles, too.
buess the Lewd 6ives aiie all I needi all I want miht
not be 600a for me."