Such soil erosion left land unsuitable to grow other crops like grains and vegetables. This meant that rain washed deep gullies across the land. Also, farmers who had tried to earn money by lumbering had stripped the forests of trees. To add to farmers’ woes, constant cultivation of cotton and tobacco had damaged soil, robbing it of nutrients needed for crops to grow well. They relied on banks and merchants for more and more credit. Less income meant farmers could not buy needed farm supplies, or even food and clothing for their families. Many farmers received less for their crops than it cost to produce them. By that same year, prices for tobacco-which had surpassed cotton as the state’s new “king” crop-had dropped to just 9 cents a pound, compared to 86 cents in 1919.
In North Carolina, cotton that had sold for more than 30 cents a pound in 1919 was selling for less than 6 cents in 1931. The introduction of new man-made materials such as rayon, women’s new “flapper” dress styles that required less fabric, and increased competition from foreign textile mills combined to topple “King Cotton” from its throne in the 1920s. As a result, tobacco and cotton prices plummeted. (Farmers grow a cash crop for sale rather than for personal food or for feeding livestock.) During the 1920s, farmers produced more than buyers needed of these crops, creating a glut on the market. The biggest problems for North Carolina farmers resulted from growing too much cotton and tobacco, the state’s two main cash crops. Throughout the next decade, both state and federal assistance would be needed to ease the plight of agriculture. “Many of our North Carolina farmers are desperately poor, live in wretched houses, and are scantily provided with even the necessities of life,” a sociologist from the University of North Carolina wrote in 1929. When the stock market crashed on “Black Tuesday”-October 29, 1929-the hopes and dreams of many farm families crashed along with it. But farmers’ income had declined steadily during the decade because of overproduction of cash crops, falling crop prices, rising farm costs, poor conservation practices, and other problems. Half of its total population lived on working farms.
In the 1920s, North Carolina was still very much a rural state. Hard times hit North Carolina’s farmers before the Great Depression of the 1930s even began. from “Song of the South,” written by Bob McDill about the Great Depression era and recorded in 1989 by the band Alabama
Tar Heel Junior Historian Association, NC Museum of Historyīut we were so poor that we couldn’t tell.īut Mr. Reprinted with permission from the Tar Heel Junior Historian. Originally published as "Difficult Days on Tar Heel Farms"
His Charlotte store is still open.īarkley's attorney said this was Barkley's first and last encounter with the criminal justice system.Agriculture in North Carolina during the Great Depression He's agreed to plead guilty to one count of transportation of stolen property and could face up to 10 years in prison. The estimated value of those goods was between $3,500,000 and $9,500,000.īarkley did not comment on the allegations. They were committing crimes to get money to support their drug addiction." "This case highlights how drugs and drug addiction impacts the community more largely," U.S. In this case, boosters allegedly stole from retail stores, including The Home Depot, Target and Lowe's.īarkley paid the boosters in cash - about half the value of those stolen products, prosecutors said.įederal prosecutors said Barkley fueled the growing drug problem, specifically opiates.
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