Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 06/John Benton

Overview
John Benton was born in Union County, North Carolina, and lived as an express wagon helper. He was interviewed for the Federal Writers Project in 1939 when he was 61.

Biography
John Benton was born in Union County, North Carolina near Matthews, North Carolina on June 15, 1878. He was one of six children that lived with their mother and father. When Benton was sixteen, his mother died and from there on out all the children stayed home to help their father on the farm. Before they stayed home to farm, the children went to school for four months of the year because that was all that was offered. Since Benton’s family were sharecroppers they were regularly in debt despite hard work. They often had to sell their crops for absurdly low prices in order to sell them at all.

Benton later married his wife, Mary, and they moved to Charlotte, North Carolina in 1913 where he could work for actual wages as a helper on express wagons. This was considered a professional job for African Americans at the time. He started off with $35 a month which covered all of his growing family's necessary bills but did not leave much pocket change. He quickly gained promotions and began making up to $95 a month. His family celebrated by moving into a more expensive house. However, when the was ended his salary dropped down to $50 a month. His family survived just fine with these wages.

John and Mary Benton ended up with four children: two girls and two boys. His children finished eighth grade but didn’t aspire to continue their education. One of his sons died when he became sick and had complications with his asthma.

He disagreed with his children on racial issues such as integration. Benton joined a church led by a mixed preacher that welcomed whites and blacks alike. His children, his eldest daughter specifically, didn’t support the direction the church was going in as more white members joined. Benton, however, enjoyed his church and claimed that he would be a member until his death. Subjects such as integration and education were major talking points for the black community because prominent leaders disagreed on how to address and solve issues related to both.

Later on in his life, Benton suffered a stroke that forced him to stop working. He struggled to walk but slowly gained back some strength. In the last few years of his life, he depended on his children for finances. John Benton died on March 24, 1944, and was survived by his three children and wife.

Sharecropping
Sharecropping was an issue that gained traction in the Southern United States during the 1870s. It was an agreement between owners of farmland and people who desperately needed a job. The owner, or planter, would give the worker a certain amount of land for them to farm. Once the crop flourished, the worker was able to sell the product for profit but was required to give a certain amount of money or crops to the owner. In addition, the tools needed for farming were rented out by the owner, leaving the farmers in debt. T.J. Bryes wrote, “For that reason, its emergence is viewed as a victory for the former slaves, the product of the bargaining relationship between the freedmen and planters.” Many former slaves were forced to work on the land that they previously were enslaved on because they had no other form of profit available to them. Byrnes continued with, “Southern law with regard to sharecropping in short defined the relationship between cropper and planter in a way which reinforced the dominance of the latter over the former.” Sharecropping gave former slave masters a way to resume their rule over African Americans in the US while gaining a profit from it. The government condoned this system and even helped the planters establish dominance over the croppers through the form of laws that allowed planters to use force and other forms of control over the croppers. Sharecropping was a difficult situation to leave because croppers were continually in debt.

Education in the 19th and 20th centuries
Education in the late 19th and early 20th centuries had very loose legislation that allowed millions of children to become uneducated. In 1839 the Education Act was passed and the first-ever public schools in North Carolina became funded and supported by the state government. Although this was a historic act that showed the government cared about educating the young children of North Carolina, there were many things wrong with the law. No standards were put into place for the qualifications of teachers, almost anyone could teach. Nevertheless, this act was a push in the right direction and by 1861, over 4,000 common schools were put into place. The Civil War caused public school funding to become suspended but it was brought back in 1868 with the Constitution of 1868. This act affected young children greatly as they were now required to attend at least four months of school a year and gave black children access to education. In 1901, Governor Charles B. Ayock called for $100,000 for public schools each year. He also gave rural areas special loans so that they could catch up to cities in building schools. In 1913, the Compulsory Attendance Act was passed and children aged 8 to 12 were also now required to go to school at least four months. In 1919, the number of months increased to 6 months.