Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2020/Summer II/Section 07/Dora Hayes

Overview
Dora Hayes, also known as Ola Titus, was interviewed for the Federal Writers' Project by Gertha Couric in 1939. She lived in Barbour County, Alabama, with her sister Annie Fuller (also known as Annie Blair). With her sister, Hayes managed a successful farm without a man. She and her sister had also raised a little girl named Christine (also known as Mary Emma) after she was abandoned at two weeks old.

Early Life
Dora Hayes was born sometime in 1871 in Barbour County, Alabama. Hayes, along with her sister Annie Fuller, had been managing their farm since 1881. Their father had two other farms, but he had sold them, leaving Hayes and Fuller with their own 400-acre farm. Hayes and Fuller met Christine in the early 1900s when she was two weeks old. Christine's mother had died, and the women decided to take her in and raise her on their own.

Later Life
At 68 and 70 years old, Hayes and Fuller were still managing their farm. Unlike many other farmers at the time, they did not primarily grow cotton. Though this was a unique sentiment, it was shared by others at the time. There were many reasons at the time to stop growing cotton, including the idea that overproduction leads to the market being spoiled and that there was simply not enough demand to justify a high production of cotton. Hayes and Fuller instead diversified their crops, now growing not only cotton, but also corn, peanuts, beans, sugar, and potatoes. They did not sell their vegetables, rather, they ate them and saved the leftovers for the winter. They also grew fruit trees, made wine, managed livestock, and sold timber. They only spent money on flour, coffee, sugar, and sometimes kerosene. Everything else was raised on the farm. In addition, they also had game in their land, and during the season, Fuller would go out and hunt. Hayes, who did not hunt, fished. Hayes and Fuller had a number of black people working for them and were sharecroppers. They believed that some of their workers were stealing from them, and wished that there was a man present to take care of the problem. In 1925, Christine, the baby Hayes and Fuller took in at two weeks old, left for school, and in 1929, she got married and moved to Chicago. By 1939, Christine had two children (a boy and a girl).

Racism & Sharecropping
Racism was very prevalent in the United States during the late 1930s, especially in the American South. One racist practice that prevailed in the South, other than the Jim Crow laws that promoted institutionalized and systemic segregation, prejudice, and discrimination, was the practice of sharecropping. Sharecropping began after the Civil War when the Emancipation Proclamation freed many of the slaves in the South. When the government failed to provide the newly freed 40 acres and a mule (among other remedies), they were faced with the only other viable option: sharecropping. In sharecropping, the landowner provides the worker with land in exchange for work. However, the system was very rigged, as it was designed to continue to use the labor of freed blacks and keep them dependent on whites. The landowners would keep the workers in debt through binding arbitration and vagueness. In sharecropping, workers were doing the same work as they were doing as slaves, but now with little money and no way out due to their debts. In addition, derogatory names and stereotypes were widely prevalent during these times, adding to the struggles that the newly freed faced.

Sexism, Women's Roles & Rights
Sexism was another concept prevalent in the late 1930s. The time period was revolutionary for women's rights due to a number of factors. The Civil War, years prior, had shown upper-class white women life without protection from their husbands, and during the war, women had done traditional men's work, such as managing farms and businesses. However, after the war, women were expected to switch back to their traditional roles. Motherhood and homemaking were seen as the only proper roles for women. This sentiment was not shared by many women, as they soon fought for the right to vote, which they received with the 19th Amendment. Despite the steady progress and shifting of women's rights and roles, traditional roles still prevailed during these times. This was especially true in the South, where the men were expected to partake in traditionally masculine roles and activities, such as managing farms and businesses, hunting, and fishing, and the women were expected to focus on motherhood and domesticity.