Subsistence Gardens
Spring plowing circa 1900, Courtesy of The New York Public Library
How the family of Dr. Alvenia Fulton raised what they ate had been the norm throughout the rural south on profitable family farms. The access to fresh fruit and vegetables kept them working hard and saved them money on medical bills for treating sick family members. African American singer and composer Nina Simone grew up on a farm in Tyron, North Carolina. She recalled her family also had a big garden with “rows and rows of string beans, collard greens, tomatoes, corn and squash.” Civil Rights leader Ralph David Abernathy recalled his childhood as the son of an independent black farmer in Marengo County, Alabama, about ninety miles southwest of Montgomery. His family raised corn, cattle, hogs, chickens, and produce. Subsistence farming, money earned from cash crops, and frugality permitted the Abernathys to meet the needs of a family with twelve children.
