The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms by Megan Birk

Abstract

Reviewed by: The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms by Megan Birk Thomas Alter The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms. By Megan Birk. (Urbana, Chicago, and Springfield: University of Illinois Press, 2022. Pp. x, 288. Paper, $30.00, ISBN 978-0-252-08645-8; cloth, $110.00, ISBN 978-0-252-04438-0.) In The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms, Megan Birk reminds readers that “for generations,” from the end of the Civil War to the New Deal, poor farms “served . . . as the backbone of localized social welfare” (p. 2). At their height “in the early 1900s, there were at least 2,400 relief institutions operating in the United States,” and as Birk observes, most of these institutions were “farm-based” (p. 4). Despite its multigenerational existence and presence in numerous communities, the rural poorhouse has become a largely forgotten aspect of U.S. history. The Fundamental Institution provides a history of poor farms from their proliferation in the 1870s to the 1930s, when the increased federalization of social welfare brought about a sharp decline in their use. “To understand social welfare in U.S. history,” Birk argues, “it is necessary to understand poor farms” (p. 4). According to Birk, although much of the historiography of social welfare in the United States has focused on antebellum almshouses and urban poor-houses, expansive poverty relief efforts in the nation took place on farms in rural areas. The study of poor farms gives insight into how local communities viewed, managed, and dispensed social welfare over time as the populations of the farms and the character of the aid provided changed over the decades. The book is national in its scope, though it mainly looks at poor farms in the West, the Midwest, and the South. As Birk notes, “Poor farms tended to be white spaces, managed by white people for other white people” (p. 7). In the South, [End Page 375] “racism and discrimination” prevented nonwhite people from accessing poor farms (p. 4). Even so, Birk brings in their experiences when the sources permit. She has harvested extensive information from the records of poor farms throughout the country and the local and state agencies overseeing the poor farms, newspaper accounts, and the proceedings of organizations such as the National Conference of Charities and Corrections. The Fundamental Institution is very much an institutional history of poor farms with chapters devoted to local management and state inspections, conditions on the farms, and the role of superintendents. However, there is also a chapter dedicated to “the roles of women as employees and residents” (p. 13). As Birk notes, women “not only made up a critical part of the staff of institutions, but also used them for reasons related to abuse, pregnancy, and abandonment” (p. 13). Though it is primarily an institutional history, Birk’s book humanizes the narrative by examining the conditions that pushed people onto poor farms and by doling out the personal stories of residents. Birk shows how poor farms represented “one of the last vestiges of institutionalized Jeffersonian agrarianism,” linking farming, local control, and self-sufficiency (p. 10). Poor farms consolidated food, housing, and medical expenses, using the farm’s produce to help offset some of these costs. County farms initially provided relief to a population of mostly male, landless, seasonal agricultural workers who had difficulty finding regular employment due to economic depression, age, or disability. As industrial capitalism changed work, agriculture, and society as a whole, the poor farm changed with them. Poor farms took in a wide range of destitute individuals, including the elderly and the mentally ill, who could no longer be supported by family networks. As time progressed, the need for specialization became apparent, and separate institutions were established for the mentally ill. Many poor farms transitioned into nursing homes during the twentieth century. The Great Depression and the growth of federal intervention in social services sped these changes, resulting in the closure of many poor farms. Historical memory of the period between the 1870s and the 1920s has often viewed relief as coming from private charities that identified poverty with...