For many people in the 1930s 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 1930s 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 didntget the education they needed. One main reason was because manychildren didnt 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 regular basis, and even ifthey go to a school when they get a chance they will be so farbehind they would have a difficult time catching up. Anotherfactor that impeded on a childs attendance at school was thefact that they never went to school when there was cotton to bepicked (Walker 8). This may not seem like a large task, but sometimes it could take weeks to pick all the cotton. These fewweeks that a child spent picking cotton was valuable learningtime, and missing it could put a child too far behind to catchup.
Another reason share croppers didnt get the education theyneeded was because many southern rural schools had short terms(Gentry 21). Because of this teachers would not be able to coverall of the material that they needed to cover, or they would haveto rush through the material they did cover. A final reason theeducation of the southern cotton states was not as good as otherstates was because their teachers were not as good. This wasreflected in the fact that the salaries of Southern teachers werenot as high as the salaries of other teachers (Mckeon 98). Backin the 1930s the higher a teachers salary was the higher theirquality and training was (Mckeon 98). This meant that whenchildren did go to school they did not get adequate teaching.
Because of all of these reasons education of the Southern cottonstates was at an all time low. The children were not getting theeducation they needed, so they were forced to work thesubstandard jobs such as sharecropping. This meant that theirchildren would not get the education they needed, either. It wasa cycle that led to the lowering of the general living conditionsof southern share croppers, but lack of education was not theonly factor that lowered the living conditions of the shareAnother reason the living conditions of the southern sharecroppers were so low was because they had poor health care.
Tobegin with the tenant farmers did not eat in a healthy manner. Mckeon writes that many tenant farmers in the South said thatgarden vegetables, milk, butter, and eggs were never a part oftheir diet (116). One of the main things that they did eat wassowbelly, a fat salty pork (Walker 33). Because they ate sopoorly it was hard for them to stay healthy.
Another healthconcern of the tenant farmers was that their clothing was verycoarse and not warm enough (Gentry 38). Many of the men woredenim overalls and the women wore cheap cotton and homemadeunderwear, if any at all (Gentry 38). Wearing clothing like thiscould be very hard on a person during the winter months, andcould easily lead to diseases such as the flu or pneumonia. These diseases were hard for the poor sharecroppers to combatbecause it was hard for them to afford any medication, if therewere any medications at all to help them out. Another diseasethat plagued the southern sharecroppers was typhoid fever (Gentry31).
This disease was spread through contaminated wells and tooka heavy toll on the life and energy of a person (Gentry 31). Malaria, which led to several fatalities, was also a seriousproblem for the tenant farmers (Corder 98). It was a majorproblem for many of the unfitting men, and the men who workedlong energetic hours (Corder 98). With all of these healthhazards it was hard for the southern share croppers to stayhealthy. To make the problem even worse there were not enoughhealth care facilities to take care of the sick. Walker writesthat in the 1930s there was an average of 210 persons perhospital bed in the south, while the national average was only120 (10).
This led to many overcrowded hospitals, and many timesthe sick had to be sent home and took care of there. The badthing about this was that the disease could be spread around thefamily, and soon around the community because there was nothingto contain it. Because of this the living conditions of thesouthern sharecroppers continued to decline, and it became harderand harder for them to make a better life for themselves. Another major problem many of the southern sharecroppersfaced was poor housing.
In many cases the houses of the southernsharecroppers were in horrid condition. Walker writes that manyof the houses were huts on the verge of collapsing (17). Many ofthese huts were on the verge of collapsing into the water thatsurrounded them (Walker 4). To get to these houses surrounded bywater logs were placed in a makeshift manner, and it was verydangerous to cross (Walker 4). A misplaced foot or a slipperylog could easily have led to a severe injury, or maybe evendeath. The surrounding water could have also been an easy placefor diseases, or dangerous animals to manifest, yet creatinganother health problem for the tenant farmers.
Houses for thesouthern share croppers of this time were usually only two orthree rooms, which made it almost impossible for anyone to haveprivacy or decency (Walker 87). 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. The construction of these shacks that the tenantfarmers lived in was also very poor. In many cases the roofswere leaky (Walker 40). In other cases the houses were nevereven painted, which meant that the houses were more susceptibleAfter looking back at the way the southern sharecropperslived it is easy to see that their way of life was well belowwhat is considered decent.
These tenant farmers were plaguedwith disease, they lacked a thorough education, and they lived inwretched little shacks that were well below societys standards. It was hard for the sharecroppers to get out of this way of life,though, because they had little money, and their education wasBibliography:
