7.2 THE
COTTON SOUTH
BEFORE AND AFTER THE CIVIL WAR
1840 - 1940
2. Black Population: 1880 and 1920
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1880: Post-Civil War black
population.
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1920: Increase in migrations to
northern cities.
3. Southern Sharecropping: 1880
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Sharecropping: Land owner
supplies sharecropper
with land, tools, mules, seed, cabin, food. Gets 1/4 to 1/2 of crop.
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Tenant farming: Land owner rents
to tenant;
gets part of crop (e.g. 1/3). Tenant owns mules and tools.
4. The Cotton Boll Weevil
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In 1870s, South recovers world
market share
of cotton lost during Civil War.
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But Boll Weevil crosses the Rio
Grande from
Mexico in 1893.
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Spreads east and north.
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By 1909, occupies cotton growing
areas of
Texas, Louisiana, southern Mississippi, southern Oklahoma and Arkansas.
5. Spread of Boll Weevil, 1892-1910
6. The Cotton Boll Weevil
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Four stages: egg, larva (grub),
pupa, adult.
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25 days to mature weevil.
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One pair in late spring produces
250,000 or
more by fall.
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Up to 50 percent survive winter.
7. Huddie Ledbetter
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Louisiana, 1885-1949.
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Mixed racial descent: Indian and
African American.
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Called Leadbelly owing to
enormous strength
in field work.
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"Ballad of the Boll Weevil."
8. Ballad of the Boll Weevil
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The Boll Weevil is a little
black bug,
Come from Mexico they say,
Come all the way to Texas
Just a-lookin' for a place to
stay.
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CHORUS: Just a-lookin' for a
home, Just a-lookin'
for a home,
Just a-lookin' for a home, Just
a-lookin'
for a home.
-
The first time I seen the boll
weevil,
He was settin' on the square;
The next time I seen the boll
weevil,
He had all his family there.
9. Cotton Boll Weevil Damage
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Mature Weevil punctures the
cotton square
(the fruit or boll) when feeding.
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The bracts (leaves) flare
(curve).
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Boll rots.
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Square falls to ground with its
weevils.
10. Cotton Boll Weevil Larval Damage
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Weevil lays eggs in cotton
square.
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Larva (grub) develops.
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Bracts (leaves) become pale,
flare, and curve.
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Cotton boll dies.
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Dead square falls off.
11. Boll Weevil as an Actor in
Southern History
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Farmers are planting acres and
acres of my
favorite food!
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I hide in workers' clothing, in
cotton bales,
in fields, under leaves, in trash, in tree bark, in woods and grass
where
they can't see me.
-
I love the hot summers when I
can produce
kids every 15 to 30 days.
-
I love the cold winters when I
don't have
to eat.
12. Ballad of the Boll Weevil
-
The farmer took the boll weevil
And buried him in hot sand;
The boll weevil say to the farmer,
I’ll stand it like a man.
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CHORUS
-
Then the farmer took the boll
weevil
And left him on the ice;
The boll weevil say to the farmer,
"This is mighty cool and nice."
13. A Louisiana Convention Declares
War on
the Boll Weevil, 1903
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"The state of Louisiana is
threatened on the
west by an insect known as the cotton-boll weevil. It has been a
mystery
to me that the great State of Texas, with its immense territory from
west
to east, would permit an insect to destroy millions of its property
without
any effort on the part of the State to check its course. How was it
that
the veterans who sacrificed their property and their lives to drive
back
the human vermin that infested their state would suffer this insect to
overwhelm them? If we consider the amount of money that is in
circulation,
we realize the immense importance of the crop." The Honorable Charles
Schuler
14. Greetings From the Cotton
Exchange, 1903
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"You are called upon to consider
ways and
means for arresting the progress of the Mexican cotton boll weevil.
More
than this, you are expected to devise means to permanently exterminate
the weevil. It is folly to say that this cannot be done. It can be
accomplished;
it must be accomplished; it will be accomplished." Abe Brittin,
President
of the New Orleans Cotton Exchange
15. "Why That Boll Weevil Done Come"
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A Freed Slave, 1945: "I knows
why that boll
weevil done come. They say he come from Mexico, but I think he always
been
here. Away back yonder a spider live in the country, 'specially in the
bottoms. He live on the cotton leaves and stalks, but he don't hurt it.
These spiders kept the insects eat up. They plow deep then, and plants
cotton in February, so it made 'fore the insects git bad."
-
"Then they gits to plowing deep,
and it am
colder ‘cause the trees all cut, and they plows up all the spiders and
the cold kill them. They plants later, and there ain't no spiders left
to eat up the boll weevil."
16. Controlling the Boll Weevil
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Plow and burn cotton stalks and
litter in
October to prevent weevil from wintering.
-
Turn cattle into cotton fields
to eat leaves,
stalks, and litter.
-
Plant early in the spring to
allow cotton
to set bolls before weevils appear.
-
Pick up cotton squares when they
fall off.
-
Plant early blooming and setting
varieties.
-
Use Paris Green (copper
acetoarsenite).
17. Ballad of the Boll Weevil
-
The farmer took the boll weevil
And fed him on Paris Green;
The boll weevil say to the farmer,
"It's the best I ever seen."
-
CHORUS
-
The boll weevil say to the farmer
"You better let me alone;
I et up all your cotton
And now I’ll start on the corn."
18. All God's Dangers
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Theodore Rosengarten. The
Life of Nate
Shaw (Ned Cobb)
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"These white folks down here
told the colored
people, if you don't pick them cotton squares off the ground and
destroy
them boll weevils, we'll quit furnishing you. Told 'em that?putting the
blame on the colored man for the boll weevil comin' in this country."
-
"But, you couldn't keep your
fields clean?boll
weevil schemin' to eat your crop faster than you workin' to get him
out."
-
"Yes, all God's dangers ain't a
white man."
19. Aid for Black Farmers
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USDA and Cooperative Extension
Service
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Education on machinery,
fertilizers, pesticides,
and farming methods.
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Seaman Knapp--Special Agent for
Promotion
of Agriculture in the South, 1902.
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Demonstration farm in Texas.
20. Booker T. Washington
-
Booker Taliferro Washington
(1856-1915). Franklin
Co. Va.
-
Autobiography, 1901.
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Tuskegee Institute.
-
Started Tuskegee Negro
Conference.
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County fairs, short courses,
literature, leaflets.
21. Aid for Black Farmers
-
Jesup agricultural wagon
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Backed by N.Y. banker Morris
Jesup.
-
Wagon toured countryside with
information
for black farmers.
-
Primarily benefited middle-class
blacks.
-
Black agricultural agents
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Thomas Campbell, Macon Co.,
Alabama.
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John B. Pierce, Norfolk Co.
Virginia.
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Eugene A. Williams, Georgia.
22. Monument to the Boll Weevil
-
Enterprise, Alabama.
-
Only memorial in the world
glorifying a pest.
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Destroyed 60 percent of the
cotton crop in
1915.
-
Forced diversified farming;
peanuts became
major crop, 1917; 1 million bu.
23. The Boll Weevil Today
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1993: Texas legislature creates
the Boll Weevil
Eradication Foundation with support from the USDA of $3.9 million.
-
500,000 acres sprayed with
malathion.
-
Boll weevils along with
beneficial insects
killed, leading to outbreak of armyworms.
-
Armyworms destroy 90 percent of
cotton crop.
Farmers go into debt.
-
Rachel Carson's Silent Spring,
1962.
24. Discussion Questions
-
How should insects such as the
boll weevil
be controlled?
-
What are the ecological
consequences of such
controls?
-
What kinds of ethical questions
arise when
humans attempt to control the spread of insects?
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