Two cultures living in the same area, segregated, but not in isolation. After slavery ended in 1865, white land owners did not have workers to work their farms. African Americans without farm land had to make sharecropper agreements with White farmers to make a living. Cotton was the major crop. The agreement was for the crops to be shared 50/50. We tilled the land, planted and cultivated the crops using mechanical implements pulled by mules. Weeds and grass were removed from around the plants by us several times during the growing season using hoes. When the crops matured, we harvested it by hand. During slack work time, on the farm, we helped other farmers harvest their crops for money.

We sharecropped with four different farmers living in houses on their land until my junior year in high school. We raised hogs and chickens. In the fall of the year, hogs were killed and the meaty parts hung in a closed building and smoked until cured to sustain us during the winter months. The hog fat was made into lord (grease) for cooking. We were allowed to hunt wild game on the land. We had a large garden, where vegetables were raised for daily meals and for canning for the winter months. We picked wild berries and plums during the summer and made jams and jellies for canning. Flour and sometimes cornmeal had to be purchased from the general store. The flour came in large sacks with beautiful colored patterns. My mother and sisters made dresses and underwear from the flour sacks.

This is how we made our living. Overcomers by Hope, the confident expectation of good.