Over the last couple of decades, the once ubiquitous tobacco barn has largely disappeared from the rural Wilson County landscape. I was surprised to find this one, then, completely enclosed in a grove of trees near a Springhill township cemetery, but otherwise in remarkably good condition.
After tying freshly picked tobacco leaves to wooden sticks with twine, workers hung the sticks from racks inside the barn to be dried, or “cured,” in the heat delivered via flue from an external fire box. The grueling work of barning season ended around this time of year.
I invite anyone knowledgeable to estimate the age of this barn. Thank you!
Photographs by Lisa Y. Henderson, July 2019.
Thanks for the pictures. I know that these barns are now few and far between. Driving some back roads of Georgia the other day I thought I spotted some, but not sure.
I am writing about working in a stick tobacco barn. It is hard to describe in words. Would it be okay to use your photos?
Sure. Thank you for asking. Please credit to Lisa Y. Henderson, Black Wide-Awake, http://www.afamwilsonnc.com, “Where we worked: tobacco barn”
Will do. Thank you!
HIGH , HOT, and very DANGEROUS work done by Black men when I grew up in Wilson b.1952………….with veeeeery small pay.
This high, hot, and very dangerous work was also performed by white tenant farmers in rural Wilson NC b. 1964 still with very low pay. As a young girl age 10-15 my summers were spent at my Granny’s home in Wilson NC. Every evening after she returned form her day job as a seamstress she took me to the tobacco barn. Together we would barn and bag tobacco for extra income to support the family. My memory’s of these summers living and breathing the tenant farmers life are some of the best times of my life. Those summers taught me more than my many years of college education. The value of hard work and discipline. The value of a dollar. Most of all I developed grit. The certainty that I have what it takes to make it in this world and the value of family. Oh how I long for that time with my granny. The breath taking scent of the warm tobacco leaves mixed with the pine of the wood barn and my black stained tobacco hands of summer.