Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105i/Section 22/Margaret McNair O'Neal

Overview

Margaret McNair O’Neal was a white woman from Orange County, North Carolina. O'Neal was interviewed on October 4, 1938 by W.O. Forster for the Federal Writers’ Project.

Biography

Early Life

O’Neal was born in Orange County, North Carolina in approximately 1884. She was raised the youngest of nine children on a farm in Orange County, North Carolina off of U.S. 15. O’Neal dropped out of school in the ninth grade to assist her parents on the family farm. O’Neal said that she “was strong and liked to work in the field” and that she “could set out as many tobacco plants as any man.” O’Neal was advised by her mother to seek out a husband when her mother's health started declining. O’Neal listened to her mother’s advice and began going out more to meet young people. She met the widower Ed O’Neal, a father of four children, and they were soon married.

Later Life

Following their marriage, O’Neal moved to her husband’s farm and began helping the family with farm work and taking charge of the house. The O’Neal’s had five sons together: John, Bill, Sam, Charles, and Johnnie. During the Great Depression, O’Neal’s husband Ed lost their farm. O’Neal learned how to save their money in order to keep their sons fed, clothed, and in school. According to the Federal Writers’ Project, she was proud of her “record for thrift.”

Mother in the Great Depression

In 1932, the family bought a small farm of 73 acres only a mile and a half south of Chapel Hill off of U.S. 15. O’Neal used the family’s farmland in various ways including cultivating corn, raising hay, canning fruits and vegetables, and selling milk, eggs, and chickens. She never had to send any goods to town because people would drive out to the O’Neal’s land for them.

In 1936, Ed was diagnosed with diabetes and angina pectoris. He died in August of 1938 at the age of 68. Before his death, Ed encouraged his wife to inquire about his old-age pension since he felt entitled to it. O’Neal was hesitant to receive the financial help but contacted the Chapel Hill welfare office anyway. Government employees visited O’Neal and asked her about their family and how much their children were earning in order to make sure that Ed was eligible for the pension. The family ended up receiving $10 a month which O’Neal complained was a few dollars less than the old-age pensions that her neighbors were receiving.

According to the Federal Writers’ Project, O’Neal was unsure of how the family would raise their $100 annual rent without her husband’s guidance. Her health was beginning to decline, and she knew that she couldn’t rely on her sons to support her since they would soon find wives and have to support their own families. O’Neal thought of moving to town and buying a large house where she could rent out enough rooms to pay for her own rent. The date of O'Neal's death is unknown.

Social Issues

Side Jobs of Working-Class Women during the Great Depression

When the Great Depression started in 1929, American households had to become more prudent with their spending practices and operate with a heightened level of frugality. Housewives helped lead this effort by remaking old clothing and living with less heat at home. When families were forced to move into cheaper, poorer housing, women had to work harder in order to clean their homes and make them comfortable for their families.

In addition to working extra hard to keep their homes clean and their families clothed, women also devised methods of accumulating money on the side in order to supplement their families’ income during the Great Depression. One of these practices included planting gardens of fruits and vegetables to either directly feed their families or to can the food and sell it to neighbors. Working-class women living in more rural areas who had access to farmland used the land in any way they could to scrape up extra money for their families. They sold produce, livestock, hay, and whatever food or goods they could spare to make a profit.

In more urban areas, women began entering the work force and becoming extra wage earners for their families. They took on work as secretaries, telephone operators, nurses, and teachers among other jobs that weren't considered suitable for men at the time.

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Depression Era Old-Age Pensions

Old-age pensions were one of the U.S. social spending policies developed during the Great Depression to assist American citizens who required financial aid. Old-age pensions were granted to citizens age 60 and older given that they satisfied a number of other requirements. Federal legislation was used to encourage states to pass old-age pensions. In 1933, 20 states had still not passed old-age pensions including North Carolina. By the end of 1938, every state had passed pension legislation although each state differed greatly in level of benefits and eligibility restrictions.

References

• Amenta, Edwin, and Bruce G. Carruthers. "The Formative Years of U.S. Social Spending Policies: Theories of the Welfare State and the American States During the Great Depression." American Sociological Review 53, no. 5 (1988): 661-78. Accessed March 9, 2021. http://www.jstor.org/stable/2095814.
• Haeder, Simon F., and David L. Weimer. “Inching Toward Universal Coverage: State-Federal Health-Care Programs in Historical Perspective.” Journal of Policy History 27, no. 4 (2015): 746–70. doi:10.1017/S0898030615000330.
• Helmbold, Lois Rita. "Beyond the Family Economy: Black and White Working-Class Women during the Great Depression." Feminist Studies 13, no. 3 (1987): 629-55. Accessed March 8, 2021. doi:10.2307/3177885.
• Konkel, Lindsey. “Life for the Average Family During the Great Depression.” History, April 19, 2018. https://www.history.com/news/life-for-the-average-family-during-the-great-depression.
• Life History of Ed and Margaret O’Neal, October 4, 1938, folder 405, Coll. 03709, Federal Writers’ Project Papers, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.