Federal Writers' Project – Life Histories/2021/Spring/105/Section 56/Walter Corbett

Overview
Walter Corbett was interviewed by John H. Abner in association with the Federal Writers' Project. The interview took place on December 2, 1938.

Biography
Walter Corbett was born in Alamance County North Carolina sometime in the year 1876. As a young boy, he started growing tobacco under the employment of Charles Maynard, a large tobacco farmer in the area. This is where Corbett learned all his skills of tobacco cultivation. He learned how to grow tobacco and he learned to cure tobacco under the power of Maynard until 1896 when he turned 20 years old. In 1896, he started sharecropping on F.P. Rogers’ land (another tobacco farmer in Alamance County) and resided there for two seasons. On this property is where Corbett got married to his first wife Maggie Sellers. The two had their first child Sarah in 1897. This would be one of fifteen children that Corbett would have with three different women. After 2 seasons sharecropping on the property of Rogers he returned back to the farm of Maynard, but this time to sharecrop. Corbett worked nine seasons of Maynard's property and occasionally would work for wages when Maynard he needed a favor or a job done. In 1915, Corbett had the opportunity to buy 20 acres of land in Alamance county to start his own farm. Although he didn't have the money, he bought the 20 acre plot of land for an overpriced six hundred dollars using a mortgage note as the payment. With no house on the newly purchased property, Corbett still lived on Maynard’s land and commuted daily to cultivate his tobacco throughout the season. Corbett managed to pay off his debt in one season, and even began the construction of a house on the property in 1916. Over the next 5 years Walter continued to purchase acres of land around his property until 1922 when he bought the last of his now 85 acre plantation. Through the fluctuations in tobacco prices and deaths of his wives he stayed on this property, and he finished raising his children there as well.

Sharecropping and Growing Tobacco Near the Great Depression:
Sharecropping was economically essential for the deep South in the early 1900’s and primarily discriminated against African American farmers. African American sharecroppers especially “did not have capital so they had to obtain their farm supplies and their food for consumption on credit from local white merchants” The system of sharecropping was nearly impossible to escape due to the amount of harvest that farmers had to give to the property owner. Usually, 50% of all crops went directly to the landowner and the rest of the harvest was used to buy supplies for the next year's harvest. This left sharecroppers with little money to survive when the Great Depression hit in the early 1930’s. With the economic boom in the late 1920’s and increased prices of goods like cotton and tobacco, farmers grew more and more crops to try and make up for their little profits. Farming associations gave warning to the negative effects of this, stating that “there was a financial stringency in this country, a sort of near-panic, but near enough to embarrass thousands of southern farmers and thousands of southern businessmen” Even with these warnings, farmers lost everything due to lack of information and discrimination of the sharecropping system. Information was not equally dispersed in an area of the country riddled by racism and therefore sharecroppers especially couldn't adequately prepare for their economic hardships.

Life for Rural African Americans Under the Jim Crow Laws:
After abolishing slavery in 1865, Americans immediately responded by creating laws and segregating African Americans in all aspects of daily life. No where was this more prevalent than in rural communities and southern states that heavily relied on slavery for farm production. African Americans were separate but equal, yet "equal" was a misconception given the differences between the lives of African Americans and their Caucasian counterparts. Purchasing and owning land was near impossible and blacks got charged significantly higher than whites for the same land. After analysis of financial records, “They found that black people paid a mean price per acre of $24.13, compared with the $16.54 that mulattoes paid and the $15.28 that white people paid.” This usually meant that any available land would be purchased or sold to white farmers so that blacks couldn't prosper financially and continue to be discriminated upon. “African Americans needed white assistance to navigate a system that was intentionally studded with legal and illegal barriers to black landownership.” Also, wealthy white landowners began "large-scale tobacco company which climbed gradually to the top of the industry" and forced Black farmers to sell their tobacco at a very undervalued rate.

Also, schools and stores were completely different based off the color of your skin. White schools were provided with more funding and therefore the children had better materials and a better environment for learning. Whereas black schools were “Underfunded, housed in decrepit buildings, employing underpaid teachers and outdated materials, black schools could not provide an adequate education for most of their pupils.” The Jim Crow laws was systemic racism that intentionally discriminated and prohibited blacks from prospering society in the late 1800’s and early 1900’s.