Braswell Tenants Get-Together, 1940

By F.H. Jeter, Extension Editor, N.C. State College, as published in The Southern Planter, November 1940 issue

As each of the tenants came through the pasture gate, he was given a small strip of colored paper to put on his clothes where it could be seen easily. The colors were red, green, yellow and blue; and down in the pasture under the shade of great trees were four different sets of tables with the same four colors. The person with the red color was supposed to pass down the line by the table marked with red and get his plate filled with barbecue, slaw, corn bread, Brunswick stew, pickle and mashed Irish potatoes. The same system applied to the people with the other colors.

Since early the night before, over 1,500 pounds of fine pig meat had been simmering over hot, hardwood coals. For hours Brunswick stew had been bubbling in iron wash pots. A special pot of pigs’ feet and ears had been cooking and smelling as only a good Negro cook can make them smell. Three hundred pounds of cabbage had been cut into slaw. Corn bread from home-grown meal and loaf bread from the Rocky Mount bakery were there in abundance. Barrels of ice water were set at convenient places under the trees, and there was plenty of lemonade made in the colors that marked the different tables.

Farm Leaders Speak

There was joy on the Braswell Company Farms. Manager Tom Pearsall was having his annual August farm dinner for tenants on the plantation. Since early morning they had been coming in wagon, cart, automobile, on horseback and on foot. By one o’clock about 1,100 had assembled. The pasture had been trimmed up for the occasion, and there was a person at the gate to direct the tenants to suitable parking places. Under a group of trees, a state had been built and decorated with pines. Seats were provided for about half the crowd.

At 11 o’clock Tom called the meeting to order. In a brief welcoming address he talked sympathetic common sense to willing hearers. “Some of you,” he said, “have gone up the hill since we met in this pasture one year ago. Some of you have not done as well as you could have done. But I want all of you to have a good time today and at the same time to learn something about better farming.” He then pointed out certain marks of progress on the Braswell Farms and also directed attention to certain failures.

F.D. Wharton, Negro farm agent of Edgecombe County, was introduced as the presiding officer; and talks were made by John W. Mitchell, Negro State agent in Extension Work, H.E. Alphin, county agent of Nash County; J.C. Powell, county agent of Edgecombe County; myself as Editor at State College; and Agnes Cogging, Negro home demonstration woman from Bertie County.

When these short talks had been made, Mr. Pearsall awarded $80 in cash prizes to those tenant families who had proved to be the best farm families on the plantation during year. They were nominated by the farm managers and were scored on the basis of live-at-home farming; good crops, well cultivated; care of workstock and livestock; good gardens; poultry flocks; plenty of fuel wood and other items. Clarence Bullock won first prize of $30 for the best farm family for the year; Littleton Arrington won second place and $20; William Boney, third and $15; Julius Cone, fourth and $10; and Mag Freeman, fifth and $5. Honorable mention went to 11 other families whose efforts had not been quite good enough to compete with the first five.

Prizes then were given to Wallace Cary, Littleton Arrington, and Martha Battle for having the three best gardens on the plantation. Willie Whitaker received a special prize because his family had canned and preserved the greatest number of fruits and vegetables for winter food. His report showed 272 quart jars on his pantry shelves. There were other prizes of overall and dollar bills for families having the best hog program, taking the best care of a milk cow and the best care of mules.

While these prizes were being awarded, the home agents of Nash and Edgecombe counties were judging samples of the canned food exhibited on a long table to one side of the speakers’ stand, and each winner of first place received a case of quart jars with rubbers. Pieces of sewing also were entered, and prizes were awarded for the best piece of sewing by a Negro woman on the place and for the best child’s dress made at home.

This was, of course, the most exciting feature of the day.

Interested, too, were the tenants as they heard Mr. Pearsall explain why each award was made. The citations in themselves were excellent fundamental lessons in better farming and rural living.

At this point, however, everything was dropped. The call to dinner sounded. For the next half-hour, little was heard above the low hum of conversation; but directly, from other there under a group of trees where color “green” was eating there came the loud guffaw of happy laughter, rolling and contagious. The inner man had been satisfied, and friends from different parts of the plantation were visiting with friends.

About 150 families

The meeting was divided after dinner, with special programs for the men, the women and the children. There were contests immediately following this short afternoon meeting; and before the shadows began to creep across the adjoining cotton field, the trek back to home farms had begun.

It has been a happy day, but it had been more than that. It was a day in which better relations had been cemented between owner and tenant. Tom Pearsall is somewhat of an idealist but he also is a hard-headed business farmer. On his comparatively young shoulders has been placed the responsibility of 15,000 acres of land belonging to the M.C. Braswell estate in Nash, Edgecombe and Halifax counties. Of this total acreage, 5,600 are in cultivated land. There are 64 different farms of which 42 are operated directly by Mr. Pearsall and 22 are rented. About 150 families operate these farms; and Mr. Pearsall knows that if he succeeds in leading these families to more profitable and self-sufficient ways of farming, he will profit to that extent.

The late M.C. Braswell was one of the largest landowners in eastern North Carolina and one of the best business men. One of his fine daughters married Thomas J. Pearsall of Rocky Mount, and to these two fell the lot of handling the farms. Tom wanted to be a lawyer and is still a member of the bar in Rocky Mount, but his increasing farm duties have pulled him away from his office to another one in Battleboro, the headquarters of the Braswell Company.

Here Mr. Pearsall operates a large store containing every commodity needed on the farm. Here also is a large fire-proof bonded warehouse where the company stores some 25,000 bags of peanuts and about 2,000 bales of cotton a season. There is a grist mill, a blacksmith shop, a grain storage and a seed warehouse. Mr. Pearsall buys over 100,000 bags of peanuts and about 7,000 bales of cotton a year from neighboring farmers. Some of the men in his employ have been with the company for more than 30 years and know all the details of the gigantic business.

Aiding Mr. Pearsall in handling the farms are T.H. LeCroy, Auburn graduate who handles the seed business in addition to the farms in Edgecombe County; H.S. Harrison, who handles the farms in Nash County; and S.L. Gaynor, general outside man, cotton buyer and supervisor of farms with resident managers.

“We have about 370 acres in tobacco, about 1,100 in cotton and some 2,000 acres in corn,” Mr. Pearsall said. “At least 1,000 acres are in peanuts and there are soybeans in every acre of corn. Usually we plant about 350 acres to small grain and all of this is covered with lespedeza. In addition about 300 acres are seeded to lespedeza each year. We also are attempting to start a balanced type of farming on the estate and have a herd of about 100 beef cattle and approximately 6,000 hogs.

“This means that every farm family has at least one brood sow, and some have more than this. We require every family to have a garden, and those in a position to handle cows are either given one or allowed to have their own. A sweet potato patch also is a requirement; and here in our community house at Brattleboro, we have monthly meetings to give instruction in handling these extra items. Motion pictures and slides are used to teach the lessons of handling livestock, and we use the specialists from State College as much as possible. The county agents in the counties where our farms are located also render us valuable service.”

Mr. Pearsall is a great believer in good seed. He not only grows the varieties recommended by the Experiment Station but he also deals in certified seeds which are recleaned, sacked and stored in his ware house at the farm headquarters. This year he is growing 900 acres of certified cotton seed and quite an acreage of improved corn for seed.

“I am pleased with the way in which our tenants are cooperating with us to live at home and to do improved farming,” he said. “Our records show that there are 233 garden plots on the farms this season comprising a total of 62 acres. The tenants also grew 1,942 bushels of Irish potatoes for home use and canned nearly 7,000 quarts of fruits and vegetables, in addition to drying about 1,500 pounds more. Most of them grow and cure their own meat and the best ones have a home supply of milk, butter, eggs and poultry.”

Mr. Pearsall would not have one think that his farms make up an earthly paradise. As on all his plantations, some tenants are cooperative and others are not; but he has noticed a distinct improvement since he began his present program more than three years ago. He is taking the tenants into his confidence and he is making living conditions as comfortable as funds will permit. Those who cooperate with him stay on the place. Those who do not are given a fair trial and are dismissed after repeated failures. It is significant that few wish to leave and many have records of service lasting over a quarter of a century. Because of this security they do not hesitate to plant legumes in the fall, to seed winter grain, to store up fuel wood, to develop pastures and herds, and to keep the ditches trimmed and the encroaching woodlands cut back from the cultivated fields.

“So far, my plan is working,” Tom said. “I believe it is the only way on a farm such as we have here.”

One who visits the Braswell Farms will agree with Mr. Pearsall, I believe, and will leave with the idea that this young man has begun a movement that will affect profoundly Southern farming in future years.