University of South FloridaBiblio.com
[African-Americana - Florida Everglades - Agriculture - Environmental History] Unknown PhotographerBiblio.com
1943 Press Photo of African American Men Working a Farm in the Drained Everglades
1943réf. List3815United States: Wide World 1943. Photograph measuring 9 x 7 inches. With caption later sticker and manuscript "NEGRO WORKERS" verso. Excellent. A 1943 press photograph of a group of African American men working on a farm in Florida's Everglades. The caption reads: "Before this luxuriant crop could be grown in the Everglades of southern Florida an elaborate system of drainage and irrigation had to be built. After 30 years the project is still unfinished; about 100000 of the Everglades swamps have been reclaimed and are under cultivation. . The problem involves turning spongy peat -- called 'muck' in the Everglades -- into farm land . Reclaimed the land is so productive that it is profitable to farm even though the elaborate reclamation project makes it expensive. It's too costly for most small landowners; so a master plan of reservoirs dikes and pumping stations is being prepared for the entire area." Draining the Everglades in an attempt to turn it into profitable farmland started with the project initiated by Governor William Sherman and continued by Governor Napoleon Bonaparte Broward who promised an "Empire of the Everglades." The project was largely a disaster; hurricanes and flooding in the late 1920s shifted the focus to damming Lake Okeechobee which in turn produced lengthy drought and fires only quenched by another round of massive flooding. However it also created the richly productive Everglades Agricultural Area perhaps best known for the sugarcane-and 1930s and 40s labor abuses-of U.S. Sugar. . Wide World unknown
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