Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2023/Fall/Section33/Beulah Handly

Overview

Beulah Handly was a famers housewife in the 1930's in Jonesville, Virginia. She continued working on the farm that she grew up in with her brother and instant family. The farm cultivated tobacco while also raising livestock as a source of income.

Biography

Mrs. Handly

Sydney E. King, Tobacco growing at Jamestown, 1956

Beulah Handly was a white forty-one-year-old housewife who was married to Kemp Handly, a forty-two-year-old farmer. Beulah had two children named Ray, who was eighteen, and Mary Lynn, who was ten. The family live on a 160-acre farm in Jonesville, Virginia in the year 1929. Beulah Handly’s maiden name was Russell. She inherited the farm with her brother whom she shared with.

Farm Life

Beulah Handly was described as a lively talker who loved quilting and attending to her farm. During her time at the farm, Beulah would help take charge of the milk, care for the hen house, and attend to her domestic chores. She was not perceived as very rich but had a business of tobacco farming that helped pay the bills. She refurbished her own furniture and would buy items that she needed from traveling sellers. Technology was booming during this time, but it was difficult to obtain new technology for the farm due to lack of money. Although they didn’t have the technology, such as electricity or a vehicle, to advance on the farm, her son, husband, and brother would help maintain the farm throughout the season of cultivation.Due to the travel of schooling being difficult, her son stopped attending school to help out on the farm. Instead, Beulah pressured her daughter to continue with her education whenever she could.

Social Context

Roles of Gender on Farms

For centuries, women have not been seen as the farmer but rather as the farmer’s wife. Farms are usually inherited to the males in the family and if inherited by the woman, the farm tends to be titled to the husband. As many farmers rely on U.S. agricultural subsidies, women are less likely to benefit from it than men. This is because women tend to own smaller farms that don’t require more mechanization or capital. The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) created a 4-H program that created the stereotype that men did the labor work while women focused on “cultivating beauty, health, and careful consumption in rural homes” (Rosenberg2015, 17). Women were seen as the housewife who had to care for the children and domestic labor.

Technology in the 20th Century

State government Photographer, Man on tractor ploughing field, 2020

An advancement of technology for farming could be seen in the 1900’s. Not only were machineries created but we also saw a development in animal innovations, plant innovations, and land-use improvements. In the 1940, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) published the list of innovations that were most important and beneficial, to which we can find the tractor and hybrid corn. As the gasoline tractor improved from the 1900’s and 1930’s, we begin to see a decline of mules and horses. In 1915, we see the numbers of manufactured tractors were 20,000 and increased to 200,000 in 1920. Not only was mechanization a great innovation for farmers, but we see electricity as equally beneficial during this time. With the use of electricity, it allowed the farms to be more self-sufficient and alleviated labor work. With the involvement of technology, we begin to see a decrease of hours put into labor work. For example, there was an estimated average of 147 hours used to produce 100 bushels of corn. It is then seen in the 1980’s that it had reduced to three hours. Another example is that it took 284 hours of labor-work to harvest 500-pound bale in 1900. We then see it drop to 5 hours by the 1980’s. Technology allowed cultivation to become easier and more productive. Extra hands were not needed as much and this allowed farmers to become more independent.

Education for Children in 20th Century

Many children were expected to contribute to labor work in the 1900’s. Most children were working rather than attending to school. According to the Amrican Sociological Review, "The limited public education opportunities in the South were closely related to the dominance of the southern economy..." (Walters and James, 1992, 637). Many children were working due to their family being in poverty. Many children were sent by their families to earn wages, even if it put the child at risked. For those who were in factories or mines, children were exposed to toxic and combustibles gases that were dangerous. Farm children were expected to help with domestic duties and farm work. Farm children had to help maintain the livestock at farms. Education was very difficult for them to achieve due to the distance of farms being from educational facilities. Due to this, education was not imposed on children, which allowed families to have their children working.

References

Leslie, Isaac Sohn, Jaclyn Wypler, and Michael Mayerfeld Bell. “Full Article: Relational Agriculture: Gender, Sexuality, And ...” Taylor & Francis Online, May 17, 2019. https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/08941920.2019.1610626.

Gardner, Bruce L.. American Agriculture in the Twentieth Century: How it Flourished and what it Cost. United States: Harvard University Press, 2009.

“Beulah Handly” Intterviewed by Davidson, Anne, and Heaton, Anne, January 21, 1939, Folder 986, in the Federal Writers’ Project #03709, Southern Historical Collection, The Wilson Library, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

King, Sydney E. Tobacco growing at Jamestown, Va., 1600’s. Photograph. Virginia, 1956. Virginia.

“Mechanization on the Farm in the Early 20th Century.” Iowa PBS, 2003. https://www.iowapbs.org/iowapathways/artifact/1558/mechanization-farm-early-20th-century.

Martin, Greer. “Children in Progressive-Era America.” Children in Progressive-Era America | DPLA, September 2015. https://dp.la/exhibitions/children-progressive-era.

Photographer, State  Government. Man on tractor ploughing field. n.d. Photograph.

Walters, Pamela Barnhouse, and David R. James. “Schooling for Some: Child Labor and School Enrollment of Black and White Children in the Early Twentieth-Century South.” American Sociological Review 57, no. 5 (1992): 635–50. https://doi.org/10.2307/2095917.