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| From Hopson's |
The changes in agricultural technology that hit the South from the time of the Great Depression until the present altered more than the way the region harvested its crops. They also brought about a significant shift in labor and economics, and a correspondingly large number of social changes.
You should be prepared to discuss Pete Daniel's article on this transformation. Those of you who have signed up for discussion questions, please post them below.
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Pete Daniel covers many topics in his essay on Southern agriculture, “Not Predestination”. I think perhaps the most important and relative one is that of big government bailout to the farming industry. What did the AAA do to help the industry, and in what areas did they hurt? Places hurt or helped: tenant farmers, share croppers, African Americans, large farmers, wildlife.
ReplyDeletePeter Daniel takes a strong stance in opposition to government involvement in rural farming during the 20th century. While he highlights many different acts and government agencies he focuses on the actions of the USDA. How does he depict the USDA's feelings towards the south in the essay? And how does Daniel blame the USDA for the disappearance of southern agriculture life and it being supplanted by big agribusiness? Also, how does he make it appear that the USDA is responsible for the disparities between black and southern farmers compared to the elite farmers of the 20th century?
ReplyDeleteIn the Peter Daniel essay, Daniel refers to vast changes within southern agriculture throughout the 20th century. With the introduction of chemicals you saw farmer's trying to overcome what was put in place by nature. This changed the farmer from someone who knew the land to someone who had become a new friend of science. With this came new, and sometimes harsh farming methods. Farming became big business which stomped on the little man with the help of agencies like the USDA and the AAA. In what ways were these agencies responsible for reshaping the rural south? Did these agencies have a hand in a mass exodus of poor southern blacks and whites from the rural south?
ReplyDeleteIn Daniel's "Not Predestination", he suggests that the federal government perceives Southern farmers as backwards and uneducated. How do these perceptions parallel the changes that the USDA advocates? Even once Southern farmers modernize do they shake this stereotype and is their willingness to change driven by a desire to be perceived as civilized?
ReplyDeleteIn Daniel's article, he notes the differences between the affluent white farmer and the typical black farmer and ultimately how the number of black farmers in the South diminished significantly. What aspects of 20th century culture and society attributed to the considerable shrinkage in the total population of black farmers in the South?
ReplyDeleteDaniel cites the fact that America "is indebted to rhythms of the land," while commenting on the changes made by America to the South. How has governmental and technological intervention in agriculture changed the "rhythms" of southern land? What role did farmers play in effecting a change? What effect have these changing rhythms had upon the South as a whole? Are these rhythms forever altered, and if so, for better or for worse?
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