COTTON IN MY SACK
By: Jeannette N. Bennett
Osceola East Elementary School
FOCUS:
Overview:
Students will become familiar with the era of sharecropping in Arkansas as shared
in the story Cotton in My Sack by Lois Lensky. Economic concepts and a history of
agriculture in Arkansas will become meaningful through listening, discussion,
writing, and completing activities.
Economic Concepts: Income, Choices, Decisions, Money, Banks, Opportunity Cost,
Saving, Spending, Human Resources, Capital Resources, Natural Resources
Background Information:
Early in the 1900s, lumber companies cleared forests in northeastern
Arkansas and opened vast areas of rich farm land. Cotton acreage in Arkansas
grew from about 1,650,000 acres in 1899 to almost 3,450,000 acres in 1929.
Almost eighty percent of the population in Arkansas was rural in 1930 and cotton
production continued to increase. Over half of the total crop acreage of the state
was in cotton in 1930, and cotton occupied seventy to eighty percent of the crop
land in the southern and eastern lowlands. The number of farms in Arkansas
increased between 1900 and 1930, and farms became smaller in size. On large
farms, tractors and machinery began to appear, but the use of mules and human
labor was still the rule.
Arkansas farmers enjoyed rising prices and better times until 1920. During
the 1920s, many independent farmers slipped into tenancy as a result of hard
times.
By 1930, sixty-three percent of Arkansas farmers had slipped into
tenancy. There were several kinds of farm tenancy. Renters paid cash or produce
for the use of the land. Share tenants provided their own labor, work mules, and
equipment and received at least half of the crop. Sharecroppers exchanged their
labor for a smaller share of the crop. In 1930, almost a third of the farmers in
Arkansas were sharecroppers. According to the 1940 census, the state had a
population of 1,949,387 and nearly eighty percent of the population lived by
agriculture. About half, from seven hundred to seven hundred and fifty thousand,
were sharecroppers. They neither owned land nor houses and managed to subsist
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on some portion of the money they obtained by cultivating and gathering the
cotton crop for the plantation owners. Most of the sharecroppers were in Eastern
Arkansas along the Mississippi River, or in the lower reaches of the Arkansas
River.
In these days, a landowner might divide up his land into 40 or 60 acre plots
for sharecropping. Each parcel of land had a house for the sharecropper families
to live in while they worked the land. The landowner furnished everything that the
sharecropper needed to make a crop including the mules, seed, and any equipment
needed. The landowner provided a “furnish” for the sharecroppers. This was
credit for living expenses throughout the year. The sharecropper and his family
worked the land and divided the products of the farm with the landowner. The
sharecropper and his family worked and lived a hard life.
The days of
sharecropping are gone, but the cultural influence remains in much of Arkansas.
Today, cotton production has changed from the days of the sharecropper.
Machinery and technology have changed the production and harvesting methods
from the labor intensive crop of early years. Cotton remains a very important crop
in our state, which is one of fourteen southern states that form a region known as
the Cotton Belt. Cotton requires a long, sunny growing period and it grows best in
rich soil with adequate water. The Delta, close to the Mississippi River, produces
most of the cotton in Arkansas because of the rich soil.
Cotton in My Sack, written by Lois Lensky, is based on actual experiences of
sharecroppers in the late 1940s. The setting of the book is in Mississippi County,
Arkansas, in the Delta. Most of the sharecroppers in the United States during
this time were white but black and Hispanic sharecroppers were scattered about
the cotton country.
In the narrative of the book, the culture of the
sharecroppers is emphasized and the reality of the cotton and agricultural
economy made evident. The children in the book were prepared to accept
whatever life might bring as a result of their endurance of hardship, sorrow, and
meanness. The book is an account of the experiences of sharecroppers, but in an
economist’s interpretation, the book exemplifies the reality of scarcity, decisionmaking, work, money, spending, saving, supply, and demand.
Grade Levels: 5-8
Number of Class Periods: one week
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Curriculum Alignment:
Voluntary National Content Standards in Economics:
Content Standard 1: Students will understand that productive resources are
limited. Therefore, people cannot have all the goods and services they want;
as a result, they must choose some things and give up others.
Grade 8 Benchmark 4: The choices people make have both present and future
consequences.
Benchmark 5: The evaluation of choices and opportunity costs is subjective;
such evaluations differ across individuals and societies.
Content Standard 10: Students will understand that institutions evolve in market
economies to help individuals and groups accomplish their goals. Banks, labor
unions, corporations, legal systems, and not-for-profit organizations are
examples of important institutions. A different kind of institution, clearly
defined and enforced property rights, is essential to a market economy.
Grade 4 Benchmark 2: Saving is the part of income not spent on taxes or
consumption.
Content Standard 13: Students will understand that income for most people is
determined by the market value of the productive resources they sell.
What workers earn depends, primarily, on the market value of what they
produce and how productive they are.
Grade 4 Benchmark 1: Labor is a human resource that is used to produce goods and
services.
Content Standard 15: Students will understand that investment in factories,
machinery, new technology, and in the health, education, and training of
people can raise future standards of living.
Grade 4 Benchmark 3: Workers can improve their productivity by using physical
capital such as tools and machinery.
Arkansas History Frameworks:
Strand 1: Interdependence
Content Standard: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how Arkansas
people, cultures and systems are connected.
Student Learning Expectation Grades 4-6:
1.1.6. Know and analyze the interdependence of the present and the past in
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the various communities and regions within Arkansas.
Strand 3: Cultural Perspectives
Content Standard: Students will demonstrate an understanding of the
commonalties and diversities among individuals, groups and institutions in
Arkansas.
Student Learning Expectation Grades 4-6:
3.1.7. Exhibit a respect for cultural perspectives of Arkansas and our nation
when interacting with individuals and groups.
Strand 4: Scarcity and Choice
Content Standard: Students will demonstrate an understanding of how Arkansas
resources necessitate decision making.
Student Learning Expectation Grades 4-6:
4.1.5. Illustrate and explain how water, soil and forest influenced the
development of Arkansas.
PREPARE:
Materials:
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Cotton in My Sack, by Lois Lensky
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Arkansas Highway Maps
Item Cards (provided in lesson, page 9)
A Sack of Choices List (provided in lesson, page 10)
Classroom supply of small, brown paper sacks
Ten index cards for each student
Cotton in My Sack Index (provided in lesson, page 11)
Cotton in My Sack Index Questions (provided in lesson, page 12)
Writing Assessment (provided in lesson)
Writing Scoring Guide (provided in lesson)
CONSTRUCT:
Secure classroom quantities of an Arkansas State Highway Map from:
Arkansas State Highway and Transportation Department
P. O. Box 2261
Little Rock, AR 72203
Make one copy of the Item Cards and cut into twenty-four separate cards.
Make one copy of A Sack of Choices List for each student.
Make one copy of Cotton in My Sack Index for each student.
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Make one copy of Cotton in My Sack Index Questions for each two students.
Make one copy of the Writing Assignment for each student.
Make one copy of the Writing Scoring Guide for each student.
Prepare a bulletin board using an Arkansas State Highway map of Arkansas.
TEACH:
Introduction:
Divide the class into learning teams of four students. Provide each team
with an Arkansas State Highway Map. Ask students to locate yellow lines on the
map that identify the seventy-five counties in the state. Direct students to refer
to the Index of Counties on the map. Identify the counties located along the
Mississippi River. Instruct student to identify the county that is along the
Mississippi River and is in the Northeast corner of the state. Inform the class
that this county is Mississippi County and is the setting for a book, Cotton in My
Sack, that was written in the late 1940s. (Provide individual students with their
own Arkansas Highway Map to take home after the discussion.)
Place the caption “Cotton in Arkansas” on the bulletin board which displays
the map of the state.
Activities:
1. Share Background Information with the class. Lead the class in a discussion
comparing the rural population today to the rural population in the early
century.
2. Read the book, Cotton in My Sack, to students.
3. After reading the story, lead the class in a discussion of the following:
a. Define income. Discuss the four basic categories of earned income: wages,
rent, interest and profit.
How did the Hutley’s earn their income? What examples of wages, rent,
interest, and profit were in the story?
b. Define opportunity cost as the highest valued alternative that must be
foregone because another option is chosen.
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What decisions did the Hutley’s make in spending their income? What were
the opportunity costs?
c. What decisions did they make in saving their income?
d. Define productive resources as natural resources, human resources, and
capital resources used in the production of goods and services. Identify
natural resources as “gifts of nature” such as soil and water. Identify
human resources, also called labor, as human effort directed towards the
production of goods and services. Identify capital resources as tools and
machinery used in the production of goods and services. Discuss examples
of each of the productive resources.
What resources were used to produce the cotton crop in Cotton in My Sack?
How would productivity and income have been effected if the Hutley’s had
been able to use more machinery and equipment?
e. Define technological change as a leading cause of long-run increase in
productivity.
Compare the amount of labor involved in the sharecropper’s day to the
modern cotton farm.
Compare the capital resources used in the sharecropper’s day to the modern
cotton farm.
Why are cotton sacks for picking cotton not found in cotton fields today?
f. Discuss banks and the service they provide to consumers. Banks play a key
role in providing currency and other forms of money to consumers, and serve
as intermediaries between savers and borrowers.
What role did the bank play in the life of a sharecropper? How was the
bank important to the landowner? How was the bank important to the
sharecropper?
4. Define money as a generally accepted medium of exchange that can be used to
buy all other goods and services. Cut apart the twenty-four item cards and
place all cards in a brown paper sack. Ask students to pretend that they are
making decisions for the Hutley family concerning spending money. Pass the
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sack around and allow each student to draw one card from the sack. Direct
students to determine the importance of buying the item on the card. Ask
students to line up according to the importance of each item. After all
students have found a place in line, ask students to discuss the rank order of
the purchases.
5. Discuss the different decisions made by the class. Was there conflict in
determining the line order? Why? Did all the class agree on the priority of
items?
6. Provide students with the opportunity to make individual decisions for the
Hutley family concerning spending money. Provide each student a copy of A
Sack of Choices, ten index cards, and a small brown paper sack. Ask students
to read the list of twenty-four items and choose the ten most important items
from the list for the Hutleys to buy. The name of each item chosen should be
written on the top of an index card. Instruct students to write an explanation
defending why this item would be a wise choice on the card and place the card
in the sack. Students should complete all ten cards in this manner.
7. Ask students to label their sack, Choices in My Sack. Allow students to draw a
card from their sack and share their explanation with the class.
8. Divide the class into pairs. Provide each pair of students with a Cotton in My
Sack Index. Inform the class that this index is representative of some of the
concepts found in the book. Allow time for students to read the index list and
give each pair the index assignment to complete together.
9. Allow time for the pairs of students to think and share their responses.
10. Provide each student with a copy of A Sack of Writing and instruct students
to read the selection form the book. Ask students to write an essay which
includes supporting information from the book, Cotton in My Sack.
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Connect:
Art: Allow students to choose one of the following to illustrate:
The Christmas Tree at the Hutley’s (described on pages 50, 51)
Geese to the Rescue (described on pages 113 - 116)
New Year’s Feast (described on page 146)
Zinnia Flower Bed (described on page 116)
Math: Discuss the 8% interest that the Hutley’s paid on money borrowed. Assign
students to create math problems based on borrowing money for one year at 8%
interest.
Nutrition: Use canned biscuits and peach pie filling to make “fried pies” as
described on page 75 of the book. Prepare enough for sampling by the class. Allow
students to share their opinions of the taste. Ask students to analyze the
nutritional value of “fried pies” for lunch.
Writing: Challenge students to write an additional chapter to the book. In this
chapter, ask students to write about a new beginning of tenant farming that
included machinery and equipment.
Reading: Obtain the booklet, “The Story of Cotton” for students to read! The
booklet tells the story of cotton in simple terms. Thirty copies of the booklet are
available free from: National Cotton Council, P. O. Box 12285, Memphis, TN 38182
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hoes to be a
tenant farmer
cultivator to be a breaking plow to
tenant farmer
be a tenant
farmer
mules to be a
tenant farmer
popcorn from the
popcorn stand in
town
blankets for the
beds
permanents for
curling hair and
making it pretty
Carnival rides
hospital bill
Carnation milk
coloring book
and crayons
new teeth for
mama
flour
Great Northern
beans
cornmeal
sunbonnet
oil stove for
heating house
gloves for
coal oil to use to library book to
picking cotton in heat the house replace borrowed
winter
one
bicycle for Steve
couch from
carpenter tools to new white shoes
Atkins’ furniture
use to make
for the baby
store
extra money
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A SACK OF CHOICES
Below are twenty-four items that the Hutley’s made decisions
about buying in Cotton in My Sack. You must help the Hutley’s make
wise-decisions concerning spending their income. Because of a limited
income, the Hutley’s cannot have all the things on the list. Choose ten
items from the list for the family.
hoes
cultivator
breaking plow
mules
popcorn from the popcorn stand in town
blankets for beds
permanent wave for curling hair
carnival rides
hospital bill
Carnation milk
coloring book and crayons
new teeth for mama
flour
Great Northern beans
cornmeal
sunbonnet
oil stove for heating house
gloves for picking cotton in winter
coal oil to use to heat the house
library book to replace borrowed one
bicycle for Steve
couch from Atkins’ furniture store
carpenter tools to use to make extra money
new white shoes for the baby
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Cotton in My Sack Index
An index is found in the back of a book. Page numbers are listed to help find
specific information. Use the following index from Cotton in My Sack to answer
the questions:
INDEX
bank account 99
Christmas dinner 52
Christmas tree 50, 51
cotton gin 11
cotton sack 136
cotton picking time 119, 31
cotton trailer 4
cotton vacation 119
cotton crop 97
cotton fields 33
cotton chopping 95, 103, 104, 106, 109, 112
cotton picking 139, 140, 141
cotton sack 136
debt 65, 66, 69, 70, 97
food 45, 46, 48, 80
furnish 56, 68, 89, 168
geese 113, 115, 116, 128
gumbo soil 89
insects 97, 98
interest 56, 168
landowner 48
landowner’s house 61, 62
lunch at school 36, 75, 84
Mississippi County history 97
Mississippi River 164, 175
money 5, 29, 30, 40, 82
mules 150, 151, 152, 167, 170
New Year’s Day 146
saving 66, 70, 99, 139, 149, 184, 188
sharecropper 46, 47
sharecropper’s house 13, 14, 100, 101, 153
spending 40, 46, 121
split summer school 31, 116
spring cotton 87, 89, 92
tenant farming 57, 71, 98, 120, 149, 154, 168, 169
tenant farmer’s house 161, 169, 182
tractors and tools 37, 60, 65, 66
yard 93, 94, 102, 116
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Cotton in My Sack Index Questions
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
6.
7.
8.
9.
10.
11.
12.
13.
14.
15.
16.
17.
18.
19.
20.
On what pages would you look for the history of Mississippi County?
How many pages in the index include a reference to cotton?
What pages would include information about a general description of
sharecroppers?
What pages would include information about tractors and machinery?
What page would you use for a description of a sharecropper’s house and
yard?
What pages would include information about a holiday in the life of a
sharecropper?
What pages would include information needed to compare the food of the
sharecropper to today’s diet?
What pages would include information needed to compare and contrast the
house of the sharecropper to the house of the tenant farmer?
What pages would you use to find information on the interest rate?
What pages would include information needed to study the geography of
Arkansas?
How many pages would include information about saving and spending?
What pages would include information about the work of the sharecropper in
the fall?
What pages would include information on the furnish for a sharecropper?
What pages would include information needed to compare the life of a
sharecropper to a tenant farmer?
What page would include information on the type of soil in the story?
What pages would include information on an alternative method to chopping
cotton by human labor?
What pages would include information on the use of mules in the life of a
sharecropper?
What pages would include information about school for the children of
sharecroppers?
What pages would include information on the effects of insects on cotton?
What pages would be used to research the standard of living for a
sharecropper?
**You have been assigned a report on the economics of sharecropping.
pages in the index would help you write your report?
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What
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A SACK OF WRITING
Read the selection below. Do you agree with Uncle Shine’s notion or Aunt
Lessie’s Pa’s advice concerning saving and spending? Write an essay explaining the
idea in which you believe and why.
Be sure to:
*State your position, whether you agree with Uncle Shine or Aunt Lessie’s Pa.
*Give examples and reasons to explain your belief.
*Provide evidence from the story Cotton in My Sack that will support your stand.
*Put your thoughts in order.
*Provide enough detail.
*Think about what you want others to know and feel after reading your
paper.
Cotton was their whole life. Cotton brought them joy and sorrow, hope and
despair. They were part of a vast economic system too complicated to be
understood, of forces too powerful to combat. But they did not know they were
a part of it. They were concerned solely with the problems that faced them
from day to day. Through the changing seasons of they year, they took each day
as it came.
“There’s only one thing to do,” said Mama, “grow your cotton and git the
most you can for it.”
Aunt Lessie laughed, “My Pa always said buy the wife and kids something
first, give them some money to spend, and have a good time on the rest.”
“Then when the money’s gone,” added Maggie Sutton, “borrow some more
and start all over again.”
“We spend all our live workin’ off our debts,” said Aunt Lessie soberly.
“And we never git ‘em paid,” added Mama.
“Ain’t it the truth!” said Maggie Sutton.
Mama looked thoughtful. “We’re tryin’ to git out o’ debt,” she said. “Uncle
Shine put a fool notion in our heads we’d oughta save first, and stop buying on
the installment plan.”
“Fine!” said Aunt Lessie. “I believe in that too, but jest try to put it in
practice.”
“Our money gives out by Christmas,” said Maggie Sutton. “Then we go
hungry for two months till ‘furnish’ begins again in March. No matter what price
we git for our cotton, I can’t seem to save a penny.”
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Scoring Guide
4
The writer states a strong position and gives well-organized
reasons with strong supporting evidence.
The writer provides enough strong evidence from Cotton in My
Sack to support the position.
The writer demonstrates accurate understanding of the passage
and examines the issue from several positions.
The essay explains the significance of the issue. The explanation
may include consequences and benefits.
The structure of the position is well organized with no digression.
3
The writer states a clear position and provides evidence to
support the position.
The writer provides basic evidence from Cotton in My Sack to
support the position.
The writer demonstrates accurate understanding of the passage
and examines the issue from at least two positions.
The essay explains the significance of the issue.
The structure of the position is organized and clear. There may
be minor digression.
2
The writer only implies a position or takes more than one position.
The writer provides generalizations to support the position.
The writer provides limited evidence from Cotton in My Sack to
support the position.
The writer demonstrates a limited understanding of the passage
and briefly examines the issue.
The essay mentions significance of the issue but does not explain it.
The essay does not follow a logical sequence. The essay has
disjointed statements.
1
The position of the writer is unclear.
Little or no supporting evidence is provided.
The essay provides no explanations or the explanations are vague.
The essay does not identify the significance.
The essay is disorganized and poorly constructed.
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