In the following excerpt from Daughters of Pungo Creek I refer to "tenant farming" a subject I don't know much about. Do any of you have any knowledge of this phenomenon that you can share with me? Any suggestions/insights would be appreciated.
Roswell spent twenty-nine days in Belhaven Hospital. The doctors tried to save his crushed leg, but it was beyond repair. When he returned home he had to be carried up the back steps.
“I’m just so grateful to have you home, son. When I think of what might have happened…but the Good Lord spared you.”
“I would have been a damn sight happier if he had spared my left leg too.”
Irene didn’t scold her son. She was too happy to have him home. She was actually relieved that the accident hadn’t taken away his vinegar. She knew he would need every bit of his pluck in the days to come. Her son had lost his leg, but not his backbone.
Roswell wasted no time on self-pity, but immediately began working on ways to save the farm. Finally he settled on a solution. He would find tenant farmers to work the land.
He drove them hard to produce. He became a familiar sight. Hopping about the farm on this crutches- pushing them to work harder, driving them on. The farm begins to prosper. Roswell was a bastard, but he was a good businessman. A year after the accident the farm was thriving.
One early spring evening, Irene and the girls were putting supper on the table when Roswell walked in the door. He was in an unusually good mood.
They ate in silence for a while then Roswell spoke. “I talked to Willie Modlin. He and his family are going to be moving into the tenant house behind the old pack shed. He’s going to be working that piece of land between the creek and Smith’s place for me. Mama, I told him we could loan him a milk cow and few chickens in exchange for his wife giving you a hand. Those daughters of yours sure ain’t much help.” He laughed again.
“Roswell, are you sure it’s a good idea to take on more tenant farmers right now? You’re spreading yourself thin, son.”
“It ain’t like I can tend the fields myself now, is it Ma?” He gestured toward his wooden leg. “These poor bastards do all the work. I just collect the money.” He laughed again. Irene hadn’t seen her son so jovial in a long time.
As soon as he finished his supper, Roswell went out on the back porch to smoke his pipe. “You girls clean up. I need to lie down for a bit.”
“Are you alright Mama?”
“Yes, Pearl. I’m just feeling a little tired this evening.”
“I wasn’t going to say this around Mama, but I think I know why our brother is so perky.”
“What are you talking about, Frankie Mae?” Pearl had noticed that Roswell’s disposition had improved but she thought it was just that the farm was going better.
“I think he’s sniffing after Willie’s daughter Madeline. That would certainly explain why he’s moving the family practically under our roof. And he didn’t give the others a cow, did he?"
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