Linking Women in Appalachia to Agriculture: Rural Culture Past and Present

Scope

Introduction

Subject Headings

Clippings File

Call Numbers

Frequently Mentioned Texts

Encyclopedias

Bibliographies

Abstracts and Indices

Journals

Reviews

Surveys

Chronology

Websites

Scope:

The history of Appalachia is deeply rooted in an agrarian society whose survival depended largely on subsistence farming. Women played a crucial role in the survival of rural communities through their contributions to family life although there is frequently little mentioned in the history books on Appalachia. Women’s work in rural communities consisted of hard labor through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. Women cared for their children, manufactured the family’s clothes, kept large gardens and stored food for the winter. Often they milked the cows and tended to the other livestock. Women were enterprising as they supplemented family income by selling or trading surplus from their gardens and livestock. Women sold butter, eggs, canned goods, medicinal plants and berries in their communities. Women’s contributions to farming are largely understated throughout many of the historical works on Appalachia. Carolyn E. Sachs is a current writer about agricultural issues facing women and her works are useful in studying women in rural agriculture, regionally and globally. Excellent frameworks for setting women in agriculture in history are included in the 1935 Economic And Social Problems And Conditions Of The Southern Appalachians and chronology of women’s organizations provided in The Entrepreneurial Characteristics of Farm Women. Often, the subject of Women in Agriculture in Appalachia requires finding a few sentences dedicated to women’s work, or rural family life in larger works that encompass all interdisciplinary subjects in Appalachia – though a few works specifically about Women in Agriculture (or farming) in Appalachia do appear both historically and in present times.

A good introduction to this topic can be found in:

Jones, Lu Ann. Mama Learned Us to Work : Farm Women in the New South. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2002 ASU MAIN STACKS HD6077.2.U6 J66

Common Library of Congress Subject Headings

Highly Relevant:

Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture
Farms, Small -- North Carolina -- Watauga County
Rural women -- Southern States
Women farmers -- Blue Ridge Mountains
Women farmers -- North Carolina -- Watauga County
Women in agriculture -- Southern States

Also Relevant:

Agriculture and State -- North Carolina
Agriculture and State -- North Carolina History -- 19th Century
Appalachian Region -- Rural conditions
Appalachian Region, Southern -- agriculture
Farmers' spouses -- Employment -- United States -- Case studies
Rural women -- United States
Women farmers -- United States
Women in agriculture
Women in agriculture -- Kentucky
Women in agriculture -- Tennessee
Women Farmers

More General:

Agriculture – History
Agriculture - Kentucky
Businesswomen -- United States
Family Farms
Family Farms - - Management
Sociology, Rural -- United States
United States -- Rural conditions
United States Department of Agriculture

Related:

Agricultural extension work -- Case studies
Agricultural systems -- Research -- Case studies
Farms, Small -- Case studies
Farm Produce – North Carolina -- Marketing
Rural families –South Carolina Fiction
Sustainable agriculture -- North Carolina -- Watauga County

Other Information can be found in the W.L. Eury Appalachian Clippings File:

Agriculture
Appalachia -- economic conditions
Culture-Appalachia
Livestock and care of llamas
North Carolina History
Watauga County Farmers Market
Women
Women -- Appalachia

Corresponding Library of Congress Call Numbers:

Note that APP CALL NUMBERS are varied as the interdisciplinary study of Women in Agriculture in Appalachia contains documents and works in many different areas of the library including sections on women, gender, work, labor, agriculture, Appalachian studies, rural studies, family life, farming, and history.

F 216 – F218
HD6073 – HD 6078
HN79-HN80
Z125

Some Frequently Cited Books include the following:

Highly Relevant

Blakney, Ruth Ellen. Blue Ridge Women in Agriculture: Resistance and Persistence of the Small Farmer in Northwestern North Carolina. Boone: Appalachian State University. May 2005. APP COLL HD 6077.2.U62 N8

Jones, Lu Ann. Mama Learned Us to Work : Farm Women in the New South. Chapel Hill : University of North Carolina Press, 2002, 49-80. ASU MAIN STACKS HD6077.2.U6 J66 The bibliography in this book is also extensive and useful.

Pudup, Mary Beth, et al (eds.). Appalachia in the Making: The Mountain South in the 19th Century. Chappel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 1995, 192-97. APP COLL F 217. A65 A654

Walker, Melissa. All We Knew Was to Farm : Rural Women in the Upcountry South, 1919-1941 Baltimore, Md.: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2000. ASU APP COLL HD6073.F32 U69

Relevant

Fisher, Stephen L. (ed.) Fighting Back in Appalachia: Traditions of Resistance and Change. Philadelphia: Temple University Press, 1993, 70, 123-47
APP COLL HN79.A127F54
In particular: Hamilton, Hal and Ellen Ryan. “The Community Farm Alliance in Kentucky: The Growth Mistakes, and Lessons of the Farm Movement of the 1980s.”

Fisher, Steve, and Mary Harnish. “Losing a Bit of Ourselves: The Decline of the Small Famer.” Johnson City, TN: Appalachian Studies Conference, 1980 APP COLL HD 1476.U3.F5

Guides and Encyclopedias containing relevant materials:

Abramson, Rudy, and Jean Haskell (eds.). Encyclopedia of Appalachia. Knoxville: University of Tennessee Press, 2006, “Agricultural Education” 404-5; “Dairy Farms” 414-15; “Home Demonstration” 428; “Native American Agriculture” 428-29; “Subsistence Farming” 433; “Women in Agriculture” 438-39. ASU APP COLL F106.E53

Maman, Marie, and Thelma H. Tate. Women in Agriculture: A Guide to Research. New York: Garland Publishing Inc., 1996 UNCA REFERENCE HD6073.A29 B16 This reference is available at UNCA for reference only, however, is an integral guide to learning about Women In Agriculture in general.

Bibliographies that contain relevant materials include:

________. Appalachian Bibliography:1980. Morgantown: West Virginia University Library. APP COLL Z1251.A7A6

Farr, Sidney Saylor. Appalachian Women: An Annotated Bibliography. Lexington: University Press of Kentucky, 1981 ASU APP COLL Z7964.A127 F37

Ross, Charlotte T. (ed.) Bibliography of Southern AppalachiaBoone, NC: Appalachian Consortium, 1976 ASU APP COLL OVSZ Z1251.A7 B5x

Brown, Jo. B. The Appalachian Studies Bibliography Cumulation 1994-2004. Morgantown, WV: West Virginia University Libraries. This bibliography can be viewed on-line at http://www.libraries.wvu.edu/appalachian/bibliography.htm

Indices & Abstracts:

Agricola. Online Database. ASU WEB ACCESS Offers abstracts of relevant articles on women and agriculture in Appalachia. Agricola can be found at http://agricola.nal.usda.gov/ at the National Agricultural Library website.
America: History and Life. ABC-CLIO. Online Database. ASU WEB ACCESS Offers abstracts of relevant articles on women in agriculture in Appalachia. http://serials.abc-clio.com/active/resource/page/aboutAHL.html
Biological Abstracts. Silver Platter, 1980-present. (Updated Quarterly). ASU WEB ACCESS Provides citations and abstracts from nearly 6,000 international journals on biology and the life sciences. To learn more about Biological Abstracts, see http://www.ovid.com/site/catalog/DataBase/24.pdf

Tennessee Historical Quarterly: Cumulative Index Volumes I-XXV 1942-1966 Tennessee Historical Society, Tennessee Historical Commission Nashville: Williams Printing Co., 1970. ASU APP COLL F431.T285 This index contains sections on Women and Agriculture as separate indexing categories.

Journals, Bulletins and Newsletters containing articles on Women in Agriculture in Appalachia include:

Appalachian Journal.Vol. 1, 1972- . Quarterly. Boone, NC Center for Appalachian Studies, Appalachian State University ASU APP COLL F216.2.A66

Farm and Ranch with Southern Agriculturalist. Nashville, Tenn.: Farm and Ranch Pub. Co., 1949 – Bound: v.80-81; v.83-84; v.86; v.88-92. Monthly ASU APP COLL STACK S1 .F24 –This is a magazine with some references to women on farms in articles and advertisements: attention v.80, 1950.

Journal of Appalachian Studies.Vol. 1, 1995 – . Biannual. Huntinton, West Virginia: Marshall University. ASU APP COLL F106.J74 This journal is the official journal of the Appalachian Studies Association used by academics, scholars, teachers, and activists focused on the Appalachian Region. For more information see http://www.appalachianstudies.org/jas/

Sociologia Ruralis.Electronic Resource ASU WEB ACCESS Sociologica Ruralis: The Journal of the European Society for Rural Sociology is an international forum for social scientists covering a wide range of subjects including natural resources, food systems, and farming.

Reviews:

Joyce, Lynda M., and Samuel M. Leadley “An Assessment of Research Needs of Women in the Rural United States: Literature Review and Annotated Bibliography” University Park: Agricultural Experiment Station, 1977 ASU APP COLL HD1775.P4 P43a no.127

Surveys:

Economic And Social Problems And Conditions Of The Southern Appalachians The Bureau Of Agricultural Economics, Bureau Of Home Economics, And Forest Service Washington, D.C. : U.S. Dept. of Agriculture, 1935 ASU APP COLL HC107.A13 A73

Chronology:

An excellent Chronology featuring women’s historical role in agriculture throughout the United States providing a framework for comparison to Appalachian women involved in agriculture.

Tanner, Bonnie O. The Entrepreneurial Characteristics of Farm Women. “Chronology of Women’s Clubs, Organizations, and Associations.” Appendix E. New York and London: Garland Publishing Inc., 1999 ASU MAIN STACKS HD6073.F32 U68 1999

Useful websites presenting statistics and information relevant to Women Involved in Agriculture in Appalachia include:

2002 Cencus of Agriculture State Profile. North Carolina. United States Department of Agriculture. http://www.nass.usda.gov/census/census02/profiles/nc/cp99037.pdf

Special Collections

Appalachian State University

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