Click here for our
|
Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land NewSouth Books The Great Depression of the 1930s contained misery for millions of Americans. Nowhere was the despair greater than in Macon County, Alabama, where hundreds of poor families lived on and worked land that had been eroded and depleted until it no longer supported crops. Ironically, this was once some of the deepest, richest soil in America—in the fabled Black Belt of Alabama, home to huge cotton plantations and thousands of slaves. After the Civil War, however, sharecropping and tenant farming impoverished former slaves and former slave owners alike, and decades of poor farming practices ruined the land. In Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land, U.S. Forest Service historian Robert Pasquill examines how 11,000 acres in Macon County (home to famed Tuskegee Institute) were rehabilitated through the Tuskegee Land Utilization Project and the accompanying Prairie Farms Resettlement Project. These New Deal projects of the Resettlement Administration converted the land to its best use of forests and pastures and provided decent homes and jobs to families who had been trapped in poverty. This book tells the story of how the land was rehabilitated and became the Tuskegee National Forest. The second part of the story is about the four hundred black families who were relocated to the small community of Prairie Farms. For many African Americans in Macon County, the Tuskegee Land Utilization Project was not only their chance to finally get their own farm on productive land, but also a chance to find work during the worst economic conditions the country has ever faced. While most of the original families that were relocated to Prairie Farms have left the area, the community spirit and identity remain through a community center and regular school reunions.
|
