Hardships of Southern Sharecropping
For many people in the 1930's living conditions were not asadequate as they needed to be. The stock market had just crashedin 1928, and the US was in the midst of the Great Depression. Many people suffered from lack of money, and many others sufferedfrom lack of food. One group of people who suffered greatlyduring this time period were the southern share croppers. Factors that caused the substandard living conditions of thesouthern share croppers in the 1930's include lack of education,poor health care, and inadequate living facilities. The first factor that caused the substandard livingconditions of the southern share croppers was their lack ofeducation. There were several reasons the share croppers didn'tget the education they needed. One main reason was because manychildren didn't go to school. Harold Walker writes that Southerncotton states ranked lower in rate of attendance for each studentenrolled than any of the other states in the nation (4). Afactor that contributed to this was their excessive mobility,which inhibited many children from going to school (Corder 27). It is common knowledge that any child who constantly moves aroundwill not be able to attend school on a
In many cases the roofswere leaky (Walker 40). Another major problem many of the southern sharecroppersfaced was poor housing. Malaria, which led to several fatalities, was also a seriousproblem for the tenant farmers (Corder 98). With all of these healthhazards it was hard for the southern share croppers to stayhealthy. In many cases the houses of the southernsharecroppers were in horrid condition. Backin the 1930's the higher a teacher's salary was the higher theirquality and training was (Mckeon 98). Another reason share croppers didn't get the education theyneeded was because many southern rural schools had short terms(Gentry 21). A final reason theeducation of the southern cotton states was not as good as otherstates was because their teachers were not as good. These fewweeks that a child spent picking cotton was valuable learningtime, and missing it could put a child too far behind to catchup. Another diseasethat plagued the southern sharecroppers was typhoid fever (Gentry31). The close living conditions alsomade it easier for germs to spread, which meant that when oneperson in a family got sick the rest of the family got sick alongwith them. This wasreflected in the fact that the salaries of Southern teachers werenot as high as the salaries of other teachers (Mckeon 98). Walker writesthat in the 1930's there was an average of 210 persons perhospital bed in the south, while the national average was only120 (10). A misplaced foot or a slipperylog could easily have led to a severe injury, or maybe evendeath. The badthing about this was that the disease could be spread around thefamily, and soon around the community because there was nothingto contain it.
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