Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2022/Fall/Section087/Fannie Wiggins

Historical Accuracy Notice
In 1939, Fannie Wiggins and her family were reported to live in in Brewers Crossroads, Northampton County, North Carolina. However, the 1940 census records do not show anyone by the last name Wiggins living in the area, enumeration district 66-1. Furthermore, none of the local “Portuguese” families on the census had a similar family structure as the Wiggins family. Perhaps the family was missed by the census. Wiggins' interviewer, Bernice K. Harris, wrote for the Federal Writers Project. It was common for these writers to change the name and location of an interviewee for privacy. These issues aside, there is a reference in the interview that places Wiggins near Brewers Crossroads. Wiggins sent her children to “Squire’s”, a school that may be a precursor to the modern “Squire’s elementary school,” located near Brewers Crossroads. Today, the school is also referred to as Gaston Elementary School, located within the Squire Academic Center. Rather than treating the interview as strictly factual, the following interview with Wiggins may be better viewed as an example of how rural North Carolinians persevered against the Great Depression.

Biography

Life History

Fannie Wiggins was a multiracial woman who was interviewed for the Federal Writers Project on March 22^nd, 1939.

Born in 1880, she had no knowledge of her family’s prior history. Early in Fannie’s life, her father and she moved to Vultare; a small town located fourteen miles west of her later residence in Brewers Crossroads. Her father was from Winton North Carolina, but it is unclear if Fannie was born there.

Sometime before 1909, Fannie Wiggins married Charles Wiggins, a man one year her senior. They sharecropped to make a living, forcing the two to move constantly. Together they had four children.

When age and rheumatism made them inefficient sharecroppers, they bought a piece of farmland in Northampton County using a government long-loan. At the time of the interview, Charles and Fannie were sixty and fifty nine years of age respectively.

Lifestyle, Finances, and Farming Practices

Fannie Wiggins conducted the 1939 interview from the porch of her overgrown cabin near Brewers Crossroads, Northampton County, North Carolina. Wiggins' home was reported to be in poor shape; however, the interior was never explored. Fannie, her husband, one son, one daughter in-law, and two grandchildren lived together in the cramped house.

The Wiggins family was strained financially. They did not fully own their farmland, as it was purchased using a government long-loan. Fannie described their farm as a “two-horse crop”, which was a southern expression for a farm ranging from roughly forty to sixty acres. Forebodingly, seven previous families defaulted while attempting to pay off the same farmland. Payments of the loan ate up much of the Wiggins’ meager profits, and their crops generated little surplus which they could sell. However, the Wiggins’ farm boasted chickens, hogs, peas, hay, and a well-loved cow. They enjoyed a healthy supply of meat, butter, and eggs. However, much of their hay was consumed by livestock, and the peas were not productive. Despite the presence of relief programs for farmers as early as 1933, Fannie had not yet received any support from the government, nor any crop control subsidies. The Wiggins Family is a prime example of the rugged self-sufficiency of rural populations, providing for themselves despite the government’s lack of support.

Multiracial Status of Fannie Wiggins

The interviewer, a young, white author named Bernice K. Harris, noted Fannie Wiggins’ blue eyes, alluded to her “tinged” skin tone, and described Wiggins and her close relatives as "Portuguese". In this context, "Portuguese" likely refers to a multiracial person who presents as white, rather than a person whose ancestors originate from Portugal. Several other Northampton Country families identified as Portuguese, However, Wiggins never personally commented on her racial identity or its effect on her life.

Social Context

Inequality and Depression-Era Agricultural Relief Programs

An example of a "Portuguese", or multiracial, family. This family was described as "Melungeon," a term similar to "Portuguese," which referred to a variety of multiracial people.

During the depression, the lack of economic engagement from farmers caused alarm in the U.S. government. In North Carolina, roughly 40 percent of citizens were farmers . To economically re-engage this demographic, the federal government created the Farm Act and its successor, the Agricultural Adjustment Act. In 1933, a special report from Columbia University stated the government would “use any or all methods of increasing farm purchasing power.” To this end, the federal government implemented crop control. For example, the government paid farmers to withhold some of their farmland from production. This decision would incentivize less over-production of food. However, the government did not equally prioritize all farmers. In 1935, Black journalist E.E. Lewis argued that the government relief programs catered to only the wealthiest farmers with the most political influence. By increasing the value of crops, he believes that the Agricultural Adjustment Administration prioritized farms over farm workers and tenant farmers. In other words, farm owners made more money for smaller harvests, meaning they needed to pay for less labor. Lewis argues that the plan would only be equitable for communities of small, family-owned farms. That way, the farm’s profits would be distributed among its laborer’s who themselves owned the farm. However, by limiting the production of other farmers, the government ensured that the resulting increase in crop value would benefit even small, family operated farms.

Multiracial Identity in Rural North Carolina

In rural North Carolina, some multiracial populations identified as “Portuguese.” For example, in the 1940 census of Gaston NC, fourteen families described themselves as “Portuguese.” Paul Heinegg, a genealogical historian of minority families, believes the lack of true Portuguese populations in North Carolina indicates these terms where being used to describe multiracial people. According to Heinegg, “the use of the term Portuguese for a mixed-race person accepted as white was used as early as October 1812.” By identifying as "Portuguese," multiracial families enjoyed the privileges of being white during the Jim Crow era.

Related Wikipedia Articles

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melungeon

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northampton_County,_North_Carolina

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act#:~:text=The%20Agricultural%20Adjustment%20Act%20(AAA,on%20part%20of%20their%20land.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Agricultural_Adjustment_Act_of_1938

Works Cited

Brunner, Edmund. Farm Act of 1933: Its Place in the Recovery Program. New York City: Bureau of Publications, Teachers College, Columbia University, 1933. https://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.tera/fmatprp0001&collection=tera&id=1&startid=&endid=29

Harris, Bernice. “The ’Portuguese,’ Fannie Wiggins.” Federal Writers Project, March 22, 1939. https://dc.lib.unc.edu/cdm/ref/collection/03709/id/449

Heinegg, Paul. Free African Americans of Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Maryland, and Delaware. Clearfield Co, 1999. https://www.freeafricanamericans.com/Virginia_NC.htm

Lewis, E. “Black Cotton Farmers and the AAA”. 1935. Retrieved October 25, 2022, from Teaching American History at https://teachingamericanhistory.org/document/black-cotton-farmers-and-the-aaa/

PBS Iowa. “The Great Depression hits farms and cities in the 1930s.” Iowa PBS. Retrieved October 10, 2022, from https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/mypath/2591/great-depression-hits-farms-and-cities-1930s

Tabler, Dave. “How can a 2-horse farm have no horses and STILL be a 2-horse farm?.” Appalachian History, 2021. https://www.appalachianhistory.net/2021/03/how-can-a-2-horse-farm-have-no-horses-and-still-be-a-2-horse-farm.html.

U.S. 1940. Census, North Carolina, Northampton County, enumeration district 66-1, Accessed from www.ancestry.com

Walbert, David. “The Depression for Farmers.” NCpedia, Anchor, 2009, https://www.ncpedia.org/printpdf/14044

Walser, Richard. “Harris, Bernice (Christiana) Kelly.” Dictionary of North Carolina Biography. 1988. https://www.ncpedia.org/biography/harris-bernice.