Fertile Ground, Narrow Choices - Women on Texas Cotton Farms, 1900-1940 (Paperback, New edition)

Rural women comprised the largest part of the adult population of Texas until 1940 and in the American South until 1960. On the cotton farms of Central Texas, women's labor was essential. In addition to working untold hours in the fields, women shouldered most family responsibilities: keeping house, sewing clothing, cultivating and cooking food, and bearing and raising children. But despite their contributions to the southern agricultural economy, rural women's stories have remained largely untold. Using oral history interviews and written memoirs, Rebecca Sharpless weaves a moving account of women's lives on Texas cotton farms. She examines how women from varying ethnic backgrounds--German, Czech, African American, Mexican, and Anglo-American--coped with difficult circumstances. The food they cooked, the houses they kept, the ways in which they balanced field work with housework, all yield insights into the twentieth-century South. And though rural women's lives were filled with routines, many of which were undone almost as soon as they were done, each of their actions was laden with importance, says Sharpless, for the welfare of a woman's entire family depended heavily upon her efforts. |A moving account of women's lives on Texas cotton farms during the first half of the 20th-century, this book reveals their substantial contributions to the southern agricultural economy and to family life.

General

Imprint:	The University of North Carolina Press
Country of origin:	United States
Series:	Studies in Rural Culture
Release date:	March 1999
First published:	March 1999
Authors:	Rebecca Sharpless
Dimensions:	235 x 156 x 24mm (L x W x T)
Format:	Paperback
Pages:	352
Edition:	New edition
ISBN-13:	978-0-8078-4760-2
Categories:	Books > Humanities > History > American history > General Books > Humanities > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Social groups & communities > Rural communities Books > Business & Economics > Economics > Labour economics > General Books > Humanities > History > World history > From 1900 > General Books > Social sciences > Sociology, social studies > Gender studies > Women's studies > General Books > History > American history > General Books > History > History of specific subjects > Social & cultural history Books > History > World history > From 1900 > General Promotions
LSN:	0-8078-4760-7
Barcode:	9780807847602

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