These images were created by the New Deal program, the Farm Security Administration (originally the Resettlement Administration) in order to document the hardships of farm workers during the Great Depression. The original images are stored in the Farm Security Administration Collection at the Library of Congress in Washington, DC.
Image Number: RC02700
Young woman packinghouse worker from Tennessee, trying to get the black muck, which causes an itchy rash and sores and scabs on scalp, out of her oldest child's hair. The water is from the dirty canal nearby. She has three other children. Belle Glade, Florida.
Image Number: RC18523
Children of migrant packinghouse workers, living in a "lean-to" made of pieces of rusty galvanized tin and burlap. They are left alone all day and often until three a.m. Both parents work when possible. Belle Glade, Florida.
Image Number: RC02710
Migrant laborers' camp near Canal Point, Florida. In foreground is a bean hamper which they use to sit on and they call a "muck rocker." Some of them are from Missouri and Arkansas.
Image Number: RC02683
Image Number: RC02699
Image Number: RC18526
Migrant laborer's wife and child. She is thirty-two years old has had eleven children.
Image Number: RC18528
Written on the door in the background: Bath Room.
Children of citrus workers in hallway of apartment house. Winter Haven, Florida.
Image Number: RC08994
Woman migrant packinghouse worker from Tennessee with four children and two relatives eating supper. Belle Glade, Florida.
The movement of migrant laborers was done first and foremost to provide for families.
For some families, the mother and children stayed at the shelters together while fathers worked picking crops or in canning facilities, if shifts were available.
For other families, mothers also went off to work while the children watched after themselves and depended on the makeshift communities in worker camps for assistance.
Older children also worked if necessary in order to provide enough for themselves and to aid the needs of the entire family.
