Working in the Fields: $4.40 for a Week's Work

$4.40 for a Week's Work

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Figure 123. $4.40 for a week's work

The arrow on a 1929 payroll points to the name Hun, the name by which Archie Waiters was known. The custom of giving people a name that was chosen to fit them was a tradition that had African origins.

This payroll tells Waiters’s story. He was only fifteen years old and already he was a reliable workman--already doing a man’s work, plowing from sunrise to dark—and making just $4.40 for his week’s work. (Wallace family papers, Walter Gregg Wallace, farm receipts and expenses, 1930. Arundel Room, Rogers Library, Francis Marion University.)

1929 payroll showing payment of $4.40 for a week of
work