The Prairie Girls

         Callie Mae

C ourageous and confident

A dventurous and ambitious

L oveable and light-hearted

L ikeable and lively

I ndustrious and intelligent

E nthusiastic and empathetic

M ature and motivated

A ble and admirable

E nergetic and endearing

     The Exoduster

 PLEASE NOTE THIS BLOG CHANGES THE FIRST AND THIRD WEEKS OF EACH MONTH.

Prairie Girls

 

Callie Mae

 Callie Mae Sullivan is my name, and I am the daughter and granddaughter of former slaves in Mississippi. After the War Between the States, my pappy and two older brothers were sharecroppers for the former master of the plantation, Mr. Sullivan. Pappy grew cotton for the owner, and we grew a few hogs, chickens and raised a vegetable garden behind our cabin. Granny and I took care of them while the men worked in the fields.

My mam died when I was little so I don’t remember much about her. My granny raised my brothers, Tom and Will, and me. She was mighty strict with all of us. She sang songs and talked about life being an adventure. I wasn’t sure what that meant, but agreed I would like an adventure someday too. I will tell you more about my life next time.

 

 

Required Reading

I was in grade school when I first read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. My grandmother and grandfather had the very book shown above in their “library” which consisted of several bookcases filled with books. According to the inscription, the book was a gift to my grandfather from one of his aunts in 1897. My grandfather was eight years old at the time.

My grandparents did not have a television and unless it was planting season or threshing time, read a short time after the noon meal (dinner to them) and again each night before bedtime, which was at sundown. During the summers, I often spent a week with them, and it was during one of those stays Grandma suggested I read Uncle Tom’s Cabin. I still remember our discussions of both the events in the book and the book’s effect on our nation.

It has been stated upon meeting Harriet Beecher Stowe, the author of Uncle Tom’s Cabin, President Abraham Lincoln said to her, “so you are the little woman who wrote the book that started this Great War.” (1) Would America be different today if every child growing up in the 1950’s read Uncle Tom’s Cabin?

1.      David B. Sachsman; S. Kittrell Rushing; Roy Morris (2007). Memory and Myth: The Civil War in Fiction and Film from Uncle Tom's Cabin to Cold Mountain. Purdue University Press. p. 8.

 

 

Sharecropping

 

Sharecropping

Following the Civil War former plantation owners from the South were left with land, but no workers during the Reconstruction period. Following emancipation former slaves were left homeless with few opportunities for employment because they had been denied education. Plantation owners hired the Freedmen as sharecroppers. There were many variations of tenancy farming, but the most common provided homes in the former slave quarters for the sharecroppers. Each family worked a portion of the plantation sharing the expenses and part of the harvest for payment of services. In the beginning the owners provided mules and equipment and charged the Freedmen for usage. Sharecroppers were left with little return for their labor. The new system effectively tied sharecroppers to the land for life at a poverty level.

A false belief held by the Freedmen was the government would divide plantations sold for taxes in 40 acre allotments to be given to Blacks along with a mule. Unfortunately, the government never did have a plan to do this.

There are many sites available for further research. Here are a few.

www.en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharecropping

www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/reconstruction/sharecrop/index.html

www.gilderlehrman.org/reconstruction/timeline-terms/sharecroppers

www.reference.com/browse/sharecropping

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Hominy

Prairie Recipes

By Collette

A staple in Callie Mae’s diet was corn used in a variety of ways. One of the recipes Granny might have used was for hominy.

Hominy
5 quarts of corn, shelled yellow or white kernels
5 ounces lye
6 quarts of water
Place the three ingredients in a stone jar and cover for 15-20 hours or until kernels swell, split and can be removed. Near the end of the time stir and skim off the loosened hulls until all the hulls are removed. Drain the lye water from the corn and discard. Wash several times with cold water to remove the lye. Place corn (free of hulls) in large kettle with enough water to cover and bring to a boil; change the water 2 or 3 times and bring to a boil each time, and continue to boil until tender. Hominy may be prepared for meals immediately, stored in cans or dried.

Pioneers learned hominy could be prepared, dried and stored for trips west across the prairies. Dried hominy was often ground into a meal and used in the side dish, grits. The lye used in the preparation of the kernels was collected from the hardwood ashes from fireplaces or campfires. The ashes were placed in a cloth bag. Water dripped through the bag and was collected. This caustic solution was the lye. Grits could be made from the hominy, used in place of potatoes, and could be eaten every meal.

 Hominy Grits

1 cup hominy ground into meal                          ½ cup butter*
4 cups boiling water                                             1 teaspoon salt

Cook grits in boing water with salt in saucepan until thick. Remove from heat and add butter.

*Many ingredients may be added to enhance the flavor such as cream, cheeses, dried herbs, finely chopped vegetables, sugar or flavorings of your choice.

Sharecropping

Sharecropping Today

My family has sharecropped for years. The major difference today is the sharecropper provides his own equipment. There are various methods for determining how much the owner and farmer receives, but most follow a third and two-thirds division. The farmer provides equipment and labor and gets two-thirds of the crop, while the landowner receives a one-third portion of the harvest.

Seed, fertilizer and crop insurance costs may also be shared at the third and two-thirds ratio. In our instance, the production is taken to a local elevator, and the landowner is paid directly at the end of harvest by the business. We usually store our portion in our bins to fill contracts previously made or to keep until prices for the grain go higher. Terraces and other conservation practices are completed jointly when possible.

A few landlords want to farm strictly on a cash-rent basis. An amount is charged by the landowner, and that fee per acre is what he receives. During years of drought or flood, it is profitable to rent in this manner because the owner is guaranteed the rent money regardless of how well the land produces. If the growing season is good, he doesn’t make as much money as he could have by using this cautious method. It is not such a gamble when you utilize this method because you don’t have to worry about the weather.

The advantage of sharecropping today is it affords a young man or new farmer the opportunity to get started in the agri-business. With agriculture such a big enterprise, it is nearly impossible for a young person to buy a farm. Nowadays the farmer has to inherit the land or marry it because of how costly the occupation has become.

School's Out





School’s Out

As a working mother of four children, I did not look forward to the end of the school year. It didn’t matter what age the children were, the last two weeks were a marathon of events. I was never sure I would survive to the end.

“Mom, I cannot possibly pick my brother up from ball practice tomorrow. I have a test in calculus day after tomorrow. There is a picnic at the park Friday for choir members. Can you bake some peanut butter cookies for that? Please. Do you know where that picture of me with Pam and Jennie from the 8^th grade is? A bunch of kids are going to the show Saturday night. Can I go? I have twenty pages to read for history before the final on Monday and my term paper for Mrs. Spencer is due next Tuesday. It can’t be late. This is the most stressful week I will ever have in my life,” my older daughter said flinging shoes, old assignments and her flute from her closet floor. “What was it you wanted me to do now?”

So, the next afternoon I picked my older son up from ball practice in time to take him to his friend’s birthday party. Then I ran to the store and bought ingredients for cupcakes (a cake mix and canned frosting…it’s been a long time since I baked from scratch). My younger son’s class’s end-of-school trip to the park was the next day and somehow I got committed to send cupcakes. Fortunately I remembered to buy peanut butter while at the store.

“Will you take my friends and me to the mall on Saturday, Mom, please?” my second daughter begged. “I’m bored. There’s nothing to do here, ever…oh, I forgot to tell you, there’s an orchestra concert tonight. I have to be there by 6:15."

Time has blurred my memory of most of the activities. My older daughter is now married with three school age children of her own. She teaches middle school and coaches high school swimming. Even she knows she has experienced more stressful weeks than the one before her high school graduation.

While the days leading up to the school year’s end were challenging, the first day school was out for the summer was always a tough day too, especially when the children were too young to drive to summer jobs yet too old to go to daycare or a sitter. There were always many phone calls to me at work.

“Mom, can I ride my bicycle on the highway?”

“Mom, I’m hungry.”

“Mom, I gave the cat a bath. What towel can I use to dry him with when I find him?”

“Mom, Susie touched me on my arm.”

“Mom, I’m hungry.”

“Mom, can I have a drink of pop?”

“Mom, the toilet has a crack in it and it is getting the floor all wet.”

“Mom, I’m hungry, what can I eat?”

I survived. Every year, somehow, I survived. And, so did the kids…and yes, the cat survived too.

Did I mention how beautiful his fur looked after his bath? Of course, it took an hour to coax him out from under the bed, but he looked great!