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Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices: Women on Texas Cotton Farms, 1900-1940 (Studies in Rural Culture)by Rebecca Sharpless
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Rural women comprised the largest part of the adult population of Texas until 1940 and in the American South until 1960. On the cotton farms of Central Texas, women's labor was essential. In addition to working untold hours in the fields, women shouldered most family responsibilities: keeping house, sewing clothing, cultivating and cooking food, and bearing and raising children. But despite their contributions to the southern agricultural economy, rural women's stories have remained largely untold. Using oral history interviews and written memoirs, Rebecca Sharpless weaves a moving account of women's lives on Texas cotton farms. She examines how women from varying ethnic backgrounds—German, Czech, African American, Mexican, and Anglo-American—coped with difficult circumstances. The food they cooked, the houses they kept, the ways in which they balanced field work with housework, all yield insights into the twentieth-century South. And though rural women's lives were filled with routines, many of which were undone almost as soon as they were done, each of their actions was laden with importance, says Sharpless, for the welfare of a woman's entire family depended heavily upon her efforts. Review:[A] book that farmwomen and scholars alike can enjoy. Journal of Southern History Review:Sharpless makes excellent use of oral histories to describe the shared poverty and hard labor of these women. Journal of American History Review:A valuable and informative resource for all scholars in women's history, rural history, and the history of Texas. American Historical Review Review:[W]e hear the women's voices. Seldom heard then or now, they offer a haunting and memorable tale. Journal of Women's History Review:Best of all, one hears the proud voices of the women themselves throughout this impressive narrative. Neil Foley, University of Texas at Austin Synopsis:A moving account of women's lives on Texas cotton farms during the first half of the 20th-century, this book reveals their substantial contributions to the southern agricultural economy and to family life. Table of ContentsContents Preface Acknowledgments Introduction: Women, Cotton, and the Crop-Lien System 1. Women, Daughters, Wives, Mothers: Gender and Family Relationships 2. Keeping Warm, Keeping Dry: Housekeeping and Clothing in the Blackland Prairie 3. Living at Home: Food Production and Preparation in the Blackland Prairie 4. Making a Hand: Women's Labor in the Fields 5. Life Beyond the Farm: Women and Their Communities 6. Staying or Going: Urbanization and the Depopulation of the Rural Blackland Prairie Notes Bibliography Index Maps Major physical features of the Blackland Prairie of Texas Counties of the Blackland Prairie of Texas Moves of the Rice family, Hunt County, Texas Illustrations Spring plowing, Williamson County Mother and children at a cotton wagon, Kaufman County Board and batten tenant farmer's house, Ellis County Landowner's daughter weighing cotton, Kaufman County African American church on the open prairie, Ellis County Tables Table 1. Number of Tenants and Landowners in Four Blacklands Counties, 1900-1940 Table 2. Average Age of Farmers' Wives at First Marriage in Four Blacklands Counties, by Ethnic Group, 1900 and 1910 Table 3. Average Number of Births and Surviving Children Born to Farmers' Wives under Age Forty-Five in Four Blacklands Counties, by Ethnic Group, 1900 and 1910 Table 4. Months of Field Work Women Performed Per Year, by Ethnic Group Table 5. Percentage of Women Performing Farming Tasks, by Ethnic Group, in Hill County, 1921 Table 6. Literacy Rates for Women under Age Forty-Five in Four Blacklands Counties, by Ethnic Group, 1900 and 1910 Table 7. Change in Numbers of Tenants and Farm Owners in Four Blacklands Counties, 1930 and 1940 Table 8. Population Growth of Towns in Four Blacklands Counties, 1900-1940 Table 9. Population Growth of Major Blacklands Cities, 1900-1940 What Our Readers Are SayingBe the first to add a comment for a chance to win!Product Details
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