Agenda - 08-25-1997 - C2 - Laserfiche WebLink

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0 :219 Criterion A: Agricultural Trends in Orange County--Post-Bellum to Post-World War II Post-Bellum to the Late Nineteenth Century Orange County was among those areas that did not experience the physical devastation effected by the Civil War; however, the county did experience the social and economic transformation that proliferated throughout the South as a result of the abolition of slavery, lingering wartime poverty,and the depletion of capital. These circumstances slowed agricultural production and necessitated a reorganization of the ante-bellum social and economic systems(Mattson 1996, p. 35). During the ten years immediately following the Civil War in Orange County, farm value decreased by half and the average size fell from 285 acres to 198 acres (U.S. Census, 1860 and 1870). Ante-bellum Orange County maintained 6,000 slaves--one-third of the total population. Farmers contended with the adjustments necessary to deal with the labor shortage as many African American families migrated to urban areas in pursuit of job opportunities. As a result,a variety of methods were utilized to tenure the land in Orange County after the Civil War. Landowners either employed and supervised farm laborers or divided holdings into smaller plots. As major landholdings were parceled out,the overall number of farms increased and the rise in production of cash crops as a means of livelihood in a cash-poor economy resulted in the erosion of the traditional self-sufficient family farm(Mattson 1996,p.36-37). Tenant farming and share cropping became prevalent and in 1890,well over half of the county's farmers were either renters, sharecroppers,or laborers. More than a third of white farmers did not own land and over 20 percent were sharecroppers. Most Black farmers remained as field hands,a third were sharecroppers,and only a tenth became landowners. The average size of their farms was less than half that of farms operated by Whites. By the late 1800s almost 40 percent of all farmers in Orange County were sharecroppers and worked on average 20 to 60 acres of land. In the Cedar Grove Township,the typical amount of improved or tilled land per farm was 20 to 40 acres,while unimproved land or woodlands constituted anywhere from 20 to 150 acres(U.S. Census 1890-1900 as stated in Mattson 1996,p.38). With the decline of the self-sufficient farm and the growth in tenancy came the increased importance of the country crossroads store where a variety of goods could be conveniently purchased that were previously produced on the family farm. Another outgrowth of farm tenancy was new crop lien laws which benefited the owners of these general stores. Lien laws permitted merchants to accept unplanted crops as collateral in the purchase of seeds,fertilizer, and other supplies. In a post-war cash-poor economy,merchants took on a