Farming By Hand
The earliest farming implements used in Louisiana were simple tools. Before tractors and other mechanized farm equipment changed the way people picked cotton, workers spent long hours in the hot Louisiana sun, chopping with hoes and digging with shovels. For cotton farmers in northeastern Louisiana, the years between 1900 and 1941 were generally marked by hardship because of the depressed cotton economy. As local historian Georgia Payne Durham Pinkston noted in the late 1970s, "one money crop was produced [locally] and that was cotton.” Low commodity prices, periodic flooding, and labor problems had plagued the local cotton industry during the post-Civil War era, but greater challenges awaited in he early twentieth century.
With the beginning of World War I (1914), Louisiana cotton farmers temporarily lost their European markets and prices plunged to 5 cents a pound. Following America's entry into the conflict, the federal government encouraged farmers to maximize agricultural productivity for the United States' war effort. The result, following the end of hostilities in November 1918, was a huge glut in commodities. This produced a regional depression that gripped the Deep South throughout the 1920s. The local economic stagnation was compounded by the devastation wrought by the 1927 flood and the onset of the national depression in 1929. Economic hardship was generalized, and no segment of the regional population was spared.
Photo caption
A labor force carrying hoes returning home after a long day in the fields (above)
A boy transporting water in a cart to workers in the fields (left).
Topics.
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Location. 32° 49.043′ N, 91° 12.573′ W. Marker is in Lake Providence, Louisiana, in East Carroll Parish. It can be reached from U.S. 65 half a mile south of Schrock Road, on the left when traveling north. Touch for map. Marker is at or near this postal address: 7162 US-65, Lake Providence LA 71254, United States of America. Touch for directions.
Regionally, this marker is in North Louisiana. It is also in the American South, specifically in the Deep South, and in the Mississippi Delta. Globally, it is in North America, a Gulf of Mexico state, the Western Hemisphere, the Western World, and the Anglosphere. Historically, it finds itself in what was once the territory of the Mississippian Culture, the Louisiana Purchase, one of the Confederate States of America, and the Antebellum South.
Other nearby markers. At least 8 other markers are within 3 miles of this marker, measured as the crow flies: Farming With Plows (here, next to this marker); The Barn (here, next to this marker); Gin Office (about 300 feet away,
More about this marker. Located on the grounds of the Louisiana Cotton Museum.
Credits. This page was last revised on April 9, 2021. It was originally submitted on April 9, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana. This page has been viewed 325 times since then and 9 times this year. Photos: 1, 2. submitted on April 9, 2021, by Cajun Scrambler of Assumption, Louisiana.
