Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land
The History of the Tuskegee Land Utilization Study, Macon County, Alabama, 1935-1959
Title Details
Pages: 152
Trim size: 6.000in x 9.000in
Formats
Hardcover
Pub Date: 09/01/2008
ISBN: 9-781-5883-8205-4
List Price: $24.95
Imprint
NewSouth BooksRelated Subjects
Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land
The History of the Tuskegee Land Utilization Study, Macon County, Alabama, 1935-1959
Skip to
- Description
- Reviews
The Tuskegee Land Utilization Project is an important part of Macon County’s past in the Black Belt of Alabama. African-American sharecroppers and tenant farmers were barely surviving in the poorest of conditions on land so worn out, it could no longer support subsistence farming. This book tells the story of how the land was rehabilitated and became the Tuskegee National Forest, and about the four hundred families who were relocated to the small community of Prairie Farms by the Resettlement Administration.
Pasquill bases the bulk of his work wholly on the primary sources at hand. The author has used his unique access to these records to uncover a project about which the public would otherwise have little knowledge. Pasquill is successful in his goal. This is the best scholarly treatment of the Tuskegee Land Utilization Project available. It is now the responsibility of future scholars to engage this useful case study in the discussion of federal land policy.
—The Journal of Southern History
Ultimately a story of success—both in bringing life back to the land and to providing work and the opportunity to tend to one’s own farm to same African-American families amid devastating economic conditions—Planting Hope on Worn-Out Land is a welcome contribution to both American history and agricultural history shelves.
—Micha Andrew
