U. S Department of Agriculture Experiment Stations Bulletin 30-39

U. S Department of Agriculture Experiment Stations Bulletin 30-39 consisting of articles on many topics, including "Dietary study with reference to the food of the Negro in Alabama in 1895 & 1896" - conducted with the cooperation of the Tuskegee Normal and Industrial Institute and the Agricultural & Mechanical College of Alabama (the year before George Washington Carver came to Tuskegee) - this article gives the day to day details on a cross-section of black families in Alabama in the years 1895 and 1896. The author of the article is not without certain prejudices himself as he observes, " The negroes about Tuskegee...mostly engaged in farming. Very few as yet own any land, the larger number work small farms rented from white proprietors. As a class they are improvident, they have very little ambition, and little incentive to work because of their ignorance of any better condition of living than those immediately around them. Their wants, like their resources, are few, so that with all their poverty they appear to be a happy and contented people." This is a fascinating source, as the families are entirely made up of ex-slaves. 69 pages