Are you interested in the daily life and workings of a Maryland farm? Join us in transcribing the ledgers of Elizabeth Robinson. These 1950's ledgers span farm life in the Chesapeake Bay area.
The Robinson family acquired land and began raising tobacco near the small town of T.B. (Thomas Brooks) in Prince George's County, Maryland in 1843. By the end of the 19th century, the property consisted of over 170 acres and included a dwelling, tenant house and various outbuildings. At least two more tenant houses were constructed by Frank A. Robinson (1883-1970) in the early 20th century. The principal crop was tobacco, but other grain and hay crops were grown and animals raised. By the 1950s 1960s the Robinson family was farming over 1,000 acres in Prince George's and Charles Counties, Maryland, through a combination of lease and direct ownership.
The diaries of Elizabeth Bourne Robinson (1892-1976), 1951 1960, are particularly vivid for detail of the daily operations of farming and family life during a time of increased farm mechanization and urbanization. Using her own unique abbreviations and writing short cuts, Elizabeth details the farming operation on the Robinson farm, Ferndale Farm. The farm employed not only immediate family members but also sharecroppers, tenant farmers and hired hands. The farming operation was carried out on acreage varying from over five hundred acres to less than two hundred, a large farm for southern Maryland. Her diaries give an accurate and detailed picture of the day to day workings of the farm. She details technical aspects of farming along with its human and familial aspects. Through these diaries one gathers a sense of the place of the Robinson family in the community, their day to day concerns and inter family relationships.
