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Keeping Them Down On The Farm
Apr. 12th, 2019 09:09 amDr. Sarah Taber, an agricultural specialist, has up a fascinating Twitter thread on agricultural farm labor. It starts with this note: the first mechanical cotton harvesters were invented in the 1830s. But because slave labor was so cheap, nobody bought them.
Other highlights of the thread:
1) The Great Migration of blacks from the south started in 1916. By the 1940s, (accelerated by the labor demands of WWII) there weren't enough people in the South willing to pick cotton, at least at the rates farmers were willing to pay. Therefore, mechanical cotton pickers became a thing.
2) A key part of the KKK was an attempt to terrorize blacks to stay put and work on the cotton farm. It was economic - an attempt to ensure a cheap labor source.
3) Now, we're seeing the same economic dynamics in fruit and vegetable farming. Immigrants really don't want to pick fruit; they do so because that's the job they can get. As immigrant labor dries up, now mechanical options become viable.
4) We have this myth that outside of the South, farms were mostly family-owned. Not so - in the early 20th century, tenant farm rates were the same nationwide. As tenant farmers moved to cities, mechanization became important. The self-same mechanization and depopulation helped dry up small-town America.
Fascinating stuff.
Other highlights of the thread:
1) The Great Migration of blacks from the south started in 1916. By the 1940s, (accelerated by the labor demands of WWII) there weren't enough people in the South willing to pick cotton, at least at the rates farmers were willing to pay. Therefore, mechanical cotton pickers became a thing.
2) A key part of the KKK was an attempt to terrorize blacks to stay put and work on the cotton farm. It was economic - an attempt to ensure a cheap labor source.
3) Now, we're seeing the same economic dynamics in fruit and vegetable farming. Immigrants really don't want to pick fruit; they do so because that's the job they can get. As immigrant labor dries up, now mechanical options become viable.
4) We have this myth that outside of the South, farms were mostly family-owned. Not so - in the early 20th century, tenant farm rates were the same nationwide. As tenant farmers moved to cities, mechanization became important. The self-same mechanization and depopulation helped dry up small-town America.
Fascinating stuff.
