Abstract:
Supervising, tending, and harvesting the tobacco crop was a non-traditional role for African-American women in the 1960s. Mildred Keaton recounts how her mother and many black women she knew managed small tobacco farms as their husbands worked full-time jobs in Bladen and Columbus counties. Keaton and Estella Graham’s stories highlight the many roles African-American women played in tobacco farming, from planting to hauling the cured leaves to market.