Culture and Agriculture:The Impact of Soil Erosion-Induced

Migration on American Cultural Identity in the Twentieth Century

W. MillerCRSS 4580/6580

Fall Semester 2014

Significant Soil Erosion Events in 20th Century America

Dust Bowl: wind erosion in western Great Plains, 1930-1939

Cotton Belt: water erosion in Southeastern US, 1840-1930

In years 1920-1940, both events led to large migrations and significant cultural changes in US

The Dust Bowl: 1931-1939 Southern Great Plains

Dryland wheat (15-20” rainfall)Fine-textured aeolian silty/fine sandy soils; very flat

Prairie grasses plowed in 1920’sGood yields for 10 yearsDrought began in 1931; did not rain significantly until 1939

5 million acres, 2.5 million people affected

Drought afflicted various parts of Southwestern Great Plains for 8 years

--millions of acres lost much of topsoil--hundreds died of “dust pneumonia”--repeated crop failures; widespread hunger--coupled with Great Depression:

: farm foreclosures: families displaced from land: migration of 0.5-1 million, mostly

west to California

Increase in civil unrest:--in California, police turn away “Okies”--labor unions form; strikes /labor disputes--Federal government under New Deal

tries to create jobs, provide aid--”leftist”/progressive ideas more popular

:”big business” blamed for Depression: FDR’s New Deal popular with jobless: spirit infected books, music

The Grapes of Wrath: John Steinbeck, 1939--fictional story of family during Dust Bowl--struggle on farm, thru dust storms; finally

pack up to California--themes: social justice and struggle of

poor against bureaurocracy --great descriptive writer--Nobel Prize for Literature, 1962

"And then the dispossessed were drawn west- from Kansas, Oklahoma, Texas, New Mexico; from Nevada and Arkansas, families, tribes, dusted out, tractored out. Car-loads, caravans, homeless and hungry; twenty thousand and fifty thousand and a hundred thousand and two hundred thousand. They streamed over the mountains, hungry and restless - restless as ants, scurrying to find work to do - to lift, to push, to pull, to pick, to cut - anything, any burden to bear, for food. The kids are hungry. We got no place to live. Like ants scurrying for work, for food, and most of all for land."

John Steinbeck, The Grapes of Wrath (1939)

Woody Guthrie

--1912-1967; born on farm in Oklahoma--travelled to CA in 1930’s with Okies--concerned with social justice, equality--adapted traditional folk styles (“hillbilly”)--first real populist “protest” singer--”Dust Bowl Ballads”—hugely popular

“Dust Bowl Ballads”: Guthrie’s first record, 1940

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nRbT30mrKbw

As I was walking that ribbon of highway, I saw above me that endless skyway: I saw below me that golden valley: This land was made for you and me.

I've roamed and rambled and I followed my footsteps To the sparkling sands of her diamond deserts; And all around me a voice was sounding: This land was made for you and me.

When the sun came shining, and I was strolling, And the wheat fields waving and the dust clouds rolling, As the fog was lifting a voice was chanting: This land was made for you and me.

As I went walking I saw a sign there And on the sign it said "No Trespassing." But on the other side it didn't say nothing, That side was made for you and me.

In the shadow of the steeple I saw my people, By the relief office I seen my people; As they stood there hungry, I stood there asking Is this land made for you and me?

Nobody living can ever stop me, As I go walking that freedom highway; Nobody living can ever make me turn back This land was made for you and me.

This land is your land This land is my landFrom California to the New York island; From the red wood forest to the Gulf Stream waters This land was made for you and Me.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wxiMrvDbq3s

Guthrie and Bob Dylan--Dylan modeled himself after Guthrie (musical style, social conscience)--visited him in New York hospital in early 60’s"The songs themselves had the infinite sweep of

humanity in them ... [He] was the true voice of the American spirit.”

Bob Dylan: “Song to Woody” (1962)

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x155k7u_bob-dylan-song-to-woody-digitally-remastered_music

Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix

Monterey Pop Festival, 1967

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E4fyxECpOl0

Cotton Belt: Southeastern Piedmont, 1840-1930

Cotton grown as export crop (Europe):“plantation” system: 1800-1865

based on slavery of Africans“share-cropper” system: 1865-1930

exploited rural poor (black & white)Most of Piedmont was cultivated, with severe

erosion (20 t/a/y)

North Carolina, 1940

Providence Canyon, GA

EVENTS IN THE SOUTHERN STATES LEADING TO THE GREAT MIGRATION

• SOIL FERTILITY DECLINES:

continual since early 1900’s; declining yields of cotton, other crops

• BOLL WEEVIL INFESTION: began 1915-1920; cotton yields decline by 1/3-1/2

• GREAT DEPRESSION: 1929 till late ‘30’s: farm credit disappears, prices fall, jobs decline

• INCREASED MECHANIZATION: tractors, machinery replace hand labor for many farm tasks

• REPRESSIVE JIM CROW SEGREGATION LAWS: continual since 1880’s

RESULT: between 1920-1950 between 5-6 million African-Americans leave rural areas in the Southern States and move to northern cities (St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia, New York), reinforcing a huge shift in US demographics from farm-based to city-based population.

These people carried with them a unique musical tradition that was unknown outside of the rural South:

The BluesOrigins: African-American, late 1800’s

> gospel/spiritual, field work songs> rhythmic, structured/repetitious > rooted in rural poverty, hard times

Delta Blues: Missippi delta region, 1920’s-30’s> “juke joints” in small towns> Charley Patton (1809-1934)> Robert Johnson (1911-1936)> acoustic guitar; improvisation

Modern Blues: Chicago, Memphis, St. Louis, 1950’s on> Willie Dixon, Muddy Waters, B.B. King> based on older forms, but urban, electrified> basis for development of modern rock music beginning in

England in mid 1960’s(Eric Clapton, Mick Jagger, Jimmy Page)

Charlie Patton: Spoonful Blues (1929)Willie Dixon: Spoonful (1960)Cream (Eric Clapton): Spoonful (1967)

Howling Wolf: Smokestack Lightning (1930)Yardbirds (Jeff Beck): same (1964)

Huddie Leadbetter: Gallows Pole (1934)Led Zepplin (Jimmy Page): same (1970)