Introduction

Before the mid-20th century (1900s), most farms around the world practiced subsistence farming. This means that they were small and run by a rural family, all members of which, including children, did labor necessary to maintain a farm. The subsistence farming families produced enough crops and took care of enough animals (cows, pigs, chickens, horses, etc.) to feed themselves. Very little or nothing was produced for sale or trade. Bigger farms, where owners’ families worked but also hired additional farmworkers, were a minority of farms. Those produced enough to feed the farming families and to sell. They also often produced enough profit to introduce machines and other technology that made farming more efficient. Even more rare were large estates and plantations that produced crops or livestock for sale at the national and international markets. Those were owned by very wealthy individuals, who did not do agricultural work themselves but either hired workers for wages or owned individuals, who worked at their estates as forced labor (for example, slaves at pre-Civil War cotton or tobacco plantations in the American South). 

In this activity, you will explore ten historical photos from a big farm owned by Scott Bond in Arkansas. These photos illustrate life and labor on a big farm in the early 20th century (1900s). Bond was an African American farmer and businessman, who was born enslaved in Mississippi in 1852 and later moved to Arkansas, where he established a long thriving career. His success was notable for two reasons. First, most farms in Arkansas in the early 20th century were small subsistence farms. Few Arkansas farmers were able to accumulate a lot of land. By the time Bond died in 1933, he owned 12,000 acres of land and operated several businesses, including multiple cotton gins, a sawmill, and a store. Second, although many African Americans were highly skilled farmers and agricultural workers, most were not able to buy land. Banks refused to give loans to black farmers and business owners. Even if a black farmer had enough money to buy land, white landowners refused to sell land to African Americans. These practices forced most black farmers to rent land.