Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Spring/Section33/E.J. Cain

Overview
E. J. Cain, referred to as Master Cain, was a white shrimp boat operator during the Depression trying to make an independent living for himself and his family in Bayou La Batre, Alabama. He was interviewed for the Federal Writers’ Project by Lawrence Evans on October 14, 1938.

Early Life
E. J. Cain grew up in Bayou La Batre, which is a port city on the coast of Alabama, but little is known about his upbringing. Cain’s personal story revolves around his career as a shrimp boat operator.

Shrimping Career
Master Cain was in the shrimping business since he was 18 years old and continued well into his later life. Master Cain was a devoted and independent shrimp boat operator. He had his own boat, furnished it himself to avoid being a shrimp factory worker on shares, and did not hire a crew. This was where his nickname of “Master Cain” came from; he was the master of his own crew, which just included himself.

Bayou La Batre was known for three large shrimp factories, but Master Cain still preferred to be self-sufficient. He was knowledgeable and always knew the best tactics and timings for shrimping to be most successful. Master Cain was also resilient in this business. Sometimes he would come back with 30 barrels of shrimp, but other times not even 15. Another hardship he encountered was the treacherous storms. The government also stopped the shrimpers for 4 months, and Master Cain was not one to sit back. During this period, he fished even though this was not his area of expertise.

Family Relations
Master Cain carried a heavy burden, as he had to make a living on his own that was sufficient enough to support his family of 10 people. Oftentimes they were short on their food supply. While Master Cain just sat on the shrimp boat and chewed tobacco, his wife and two daughters spent their time in the house setting the table. Considering that he chose to spend his free time idly instead of in the house with his girls, a lack of interaction was shown within the family. Oftentimes this is what the traditional gender roles in households during the twentieth century looked like.

All of Master Cain’s grown sons followed in his footsteps by participating in the shrimping business too. This suggested that they looked up to their father’s living. However, they chose to work at the large factories in Bayou La Batre instead of with their independently operating father. According to his testimony in the Federal Writing Papers, it seems that Master Cain probably chose work over his family at most times, likely due to his strong devotion to his business.

Culture of Bayou La Batre
Bayou La Batre was an old southern town that extracted a modest living from the sea. The community was satisfied with making a living from harvesting shrimp, oysters, fish, and crabs. After some time, Bayou La Batre became a prosperous blue-collar port city and was biracial with a white majority holding political and economic power.

Relation to the Depression
The depression brought significant suffering and saw the collapse of industrial development in Alabama, characterized by labor unrest during the 1930s. Birmingham was identified as a large city suffering the worst effects of the depression nationwide. There was a wave of African American immigrants who came to the coast of Alabama in the 1930s after the depression and joined the shrimpers and fishermen who defined the life of the town. Also, state officials worked to rationalize the principles of white supremacy in and through the legal system; this caused the newly arrived immigrants to struggle.

Economic Issues
Two catastrophic events that hurt fisheries worldwide were the ending of World War 1 and the stock market crash. In 1921 the men who had participated in war returned to fisheries, which made competition higher, wages lower, and labor conditions worse. In 1926 there was momentum in the movement to improve the professionalism of fisheries administration and promote development. This was thwarted by the collapse of the world economy in 1928. Prices fell so sharply that they did not even cover the price of transportation. This forced a reduction in the salaries fishermen were paid. This economic depression was a huge setback to the fishing industries in Alabama, not just to fishermen, but to shrimpers as well.

Attempt at Recovery
Roosevelt’s New Deal between 1933 and 1939 aimed to re-inflate the American economy after prices had fallen sharply by providing temporary relief to suffering Americans. However, it actually left the basic economic, social, racial, and political structure of the region largely untouched. In 1930 the south was known for being rural, poor, and a “one-crop society,” where too many people were pursuing too little available income. The south was also controlled by conservative elites that were economically dominant to everyone else, which explains why middle class workers in fisheries struggled to stay afloat. Ultimately, the New Deal was a failure for the south in the beginning of the 1930s.