Rice Growers: How Vico Johnson Flailed Rice

How Vico Johnson Flailed Rice

Figure 142. How Vico Johnson flailed rice

Here, Frances Johnson is showing how her father, Vico Johnson, flailed rice on a table-like structure. Mars Bluff rice growers used a variety of methods for threshing, but no one else I interviewed had ever heard of Johnson's method. Vico Johnson had lived in Mars Bluff all his life. Where did he learn this technique? (Photo 1984)

Frances Johnson demonstrating rice flailing

Photo courtesy, African Americans at Mars Bluff, South Carolina

Photo is from Amelia Wallace Vernon, African Americans at Mars Bluff, South Carolina (Baton Rouge, Louisiana State University, 1993. Reprint. Columbia: University of South Carolina, 1995), p.94.