Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2015/Fall/Section 018/Horace and Allie Thompson

Overview

Location of Avon Park in Highlands County, Florida..

Horace and Allie Thompson raised their family in Avon Park, Florida in the 1930s and 1940s. Horace worked in the citrus industry and Allie was a midwife in the small community.

Biography

The Thompson Family

Horace Thompson (unknown-unknown) was twenty-five when he married his seventeen year old wife Allie (unknown-unknown). In an interview conducted as part of the Federal Writers' Project, Allie was unsure about where she and Horace were born. She knew that they were both born on the Florida-Georgia border near "Blonts Ferry", but she did not know the specific location. In 1936, the African American couple moved 23 miles from Hardee County to Avon Park, Florida where Horace found work in the citrus industry. They brought two daughters with them, Grace and Ellie.

Life as a Citrus Worker

During the day Horace picked oranges and at night he dusted pesticides onto the leaves. The couple moved around often because Horace had a hard time keeping a job. In the interview, Horace expressed a lot of frustration about working on citrus farms. He felt that the pay was too low and the managers had very little respect for the workers. Allie occasionally worked as a mid-wife, but the family still had very little money. They often had to borrow money from neighbors and the family was regularly evicted because they couldn’t pay their rent.

Hourly wages for Florida citrus workers, ca. 1930s. https://www.floridamemory.com/photographiccollection/photo_exhibits/citrus/citrus2.php

Picking fruit in John C. English seedling grove - Alva, Florida. https://www.floridamemory.com/items/show/31179

Family Values

The Thompsons regularly supported extended family, including Allie's sister Della and her nephew George. Even though the family experienced hard times because of Horace's unemployment, Allie saw her big family as a blessing rather than a curse. She felt that children were expensive to raise, but they were the only source of joy in her life. She did not require her daughters to work at home or outside the house because she wanted them to have a better life than she did. She also took a lot of pride in the appearances of her children. Allie was skeptical of the things her children learned at school because she had never gone to school. She also did not want her daughters to feel like they needed to work. Allie was only seventeen at the time of her marriage and she wanted her daughters to follow in her footsteps and marry young.

Social Context

The Florida Citrus Industry

Florida oranges trace their roots all the way back to the Spanish conquistadores in the early 1500s. It is believed that Juan Ponce de Leon introduced the fruit to Native Americans, and it has been a staple of the economy ever since. Florida provides an ideal environment for growing oranges because it is home to both sandy coastal soil and a warm and humid climate. Today, Florida oranges are praised for their delicious flavor as well as their health benefits as part of a balanced diet.

While citrus played an important role in the history and culture of Florida, it was not an easy industry to be a part of. Because oranges can only survive in warm climates, fluctuation in temperature was a serious threat. This meant that entire orange groves could be wiped out in a single night if temperatures dropped below freezing. Additionally, consumer supply and demand made citrus profits extremely vulnerable. If production was too high, consumers were unable to purchase all the oranges; if it was too low then the demand was not met. Unlike textiles or automobiles, citrus cannot be stockpiled for the next season. It must be sold within three weeks of harvesting. Because Florida is the top producer of citrus in the United States, the fate of the citrus industry determines in part the fate of the state’s economy. As of 2012, more than 8,000 independent growers harvested citrus on over 550,000 acres of land. The citrus industry employed 76,000 people and generated around $9 billion per year, making it one of Florida's largest industries.

Parenting Styles

During the early 20th century, the “child study movement” experienced major growth. Whereas children had previously been viewed as a source of labor, scientists and psychologists began to emphasize sensitivity to children's fears, insecurities, and anxieties. Psychologists Sigmund Freud and Diana Baumrind, two leading researchers in the field of child psychology, recognized that children’s development is greatly affected by the type of parenting they experience. Based on experimentation and observation, they developed several distinct styles of parenting, including permissive, authoritarian, and authoritative.

Authoritarian parents focus on their own demands for their children with very little discussion or negotiation between parent and child. Conversely, authoritative parents make demands of their children but are more responsive to the child's input. The permissive parenting style is defined as “allow[ing] the child to regulate his own activities as much as possible, avoid[ing] the exercise of control, and [refraining from] encourage[ing] him to obey externally defined standards.” During the 1920s and 1930s, many lower and working class parents displayed the permissive parenting style.

One of the most important findings of the child study movement was that regardless of their specific parenting style, parents play a major role in shaping children's thoughts, actions, and beliefs throughout their lives.