Cordell Hull Birthplace State Historical Park hosting Hull’s Harvest Saturday to showcase the daily survival skills and agricultural practices of a 1870s tenant farming family.
Park Manager Monique Johnson said the interactive living history program focuses on how a household prepared for the winter months. Johnson said the event highlights the specific time period when the Hull family lived on the grounds as sharecroppers.
“We kind of look at Cordell, his humble beginnings, because he was born into a sharecropper tenant farm household and how did he go from that to being the Secretary of State of the United States,” Johnson said. “And so being able to look at his childhood and how he grew up gives us an understanding of his views as an adult.”
Johnson said the family maintained a kitchen garden for their own food while simultaneously managing a cash crop to pay their rent. These families also had to produce their own household necessities like soap and candles before the first frost arrived.
“They had to can their vegetables because they wouldn’t be able to grow those vegetables in the winter,” Johnson said. “So they wouldn’t have a constant source of food if they didn’t prepare food.”
Johnson said the demonstrations include spinning and weaving, which were essential for creating blankets and rugs to stay warm. Because it could take an entire year to produce a single piece of clothing, the two adults and three children in the Hull home were constantly working to prepare for the following year.
“Bill Maddox will be demonstrating blacksmithing and Bill had he’s been to different varieties of schools, like he’s been to the Folk Art School in North Carolina and so he has learned his trade by using the trade doing it hands-on,” Johnson said. “And so he makes sure that the time period that he’s doing is very accurate through historical research and just hands-on knowledge, essentially.”
Johnson said the park uses experienced historians who research the specific tools and clothing appropriate for the era. This attention to detail extends to the activities for younger visitors, who can participate in a scavenger hunt that requires them to speak with the various living historians stationed across the grounds.
“The kids will get to play with toys that the Hull kids would have gotten to play here on the farm,” Johnson said. “We’ll have some fall activities that are Victorian in that time period and so these so they’ll be things that Victorian children would have done.”
Johnson said the event also features live music from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. and food trucks including Caffeinated Grounds and Oh Boy Snack Shack.
“When you get done interacting with the interpreters and getting to be able to experience the life of the 1870s, you can sit in the trees and with a chair and blanket and get to listen to music that would have been played during that time period, so you get a complete visual and auditory experience,” Johnson said.
Visitors are encouraged to bring their own chairs and blankets to the park for the musical performances.
