Sunday Favorites: From Fields to Forests

During the 1880s, the Panhandle region became a prominent lumber hub for the eastern United States. This transformation opened doors for Black laborers, offering them alternatives to farming.

Following the Civil War, many formerly enslaved individuals underwent a common transition into the sharecropping system. In this arrangement, predominantly white landowners leased fields to individuals or families who lacked land ownership. These tenants then cultivated the land in exchange for a portion of the crops they produced.

Typically, the landowner supplied essential items such as seeds, tools, and sometimes meager living accommodations. However, the costs associated with these provisions were often subtracted from the final crop share, sometimes pushing the sharecropper into poverty, subjecting them to challenging working conditions, or even leaving them in debt after the crops were harvested. Sharecropping disproportionately affected African Americans in the Southern United States, resulting in economic disparities, discrimination, and exploitation.

Despite being legally free, many sharecroppers found themselves constrained by debt. Their inability to make independent decisions greatly limited the personal freedom that the abolition of slavery was intended to provide.

However, in the Florida Panhandle, a new way of life emerged for the formerly enslaved during the 1880s. The rise of the timber trade had a transformative impact on the entire Panhandle region, turning it into a significant lumber hub for the eastern U.S., according to the article "The Apalachicola Timber Boom and the Rise of a Black Floridian Working Class,” by the Florida Memory Project.

“The Timber Boom” presented a valuable opportunity for many Black laborers to diversify their work experiences. Within the lumber camps and mills, they interacted with people from diverse backgrounds, broadening their social circle. The higher wages resulted in the emergence of a burgeoning Black working class. These developments had far-reaching implications, not only for the economic well-being of Black individuals but also for their increased participation in social and political activities, according to state archives.

So, how did it begin?  Well,  the U.S. Government had made vast expanses of Florida’s forested land available for purchase in the 1870s. Capitalists acquired these wooded areas for logging, hoping to fulfill a demand for lumber in Northern and Midwestern markets. While the forests surrounding the Great Lakes were once a major source of lumber, by the nineteenth century they were rapidly being depleted and deforested.

Florida’s northern counties were a rich source of untapped potential. In addition to lumber, the forests also produced useful products like pine sap, used to seal wooden ships, turpentine, for varnishes, and rosin, a glazing agent for musical instruments, according to the article “The History of Rosin and Stringed Instruments.”

Workers traveled to the area hoping to find steady employment and substantial wages. However, logging was a  dangerous industry. From the perilous tasks of climbing and sawing off treetops to the risks associated with log-dragging machines featuring metal cables, to environmental threats such as wild animals. Loggers certainly earned their wages through their hard and risky work.

Once the tree was felled, it had to be dragged to a nearby river where raftsmen would guide it downstream. Raftsmen faced the peril of potential injury or crushing if they slipped on the wet logs. Their destination was Aplach, a former cotton-producing town near Apalachicola, with tidal marches and calm waters, it was the perfect place for gathering logs so they could be transported to northern markets, according to state archives.  

In Apalachicola, logs were processed into usable materials like lumber, which were then shipped nationwide. Mills operated year-round, creating a specialized permanent workforce. By the 1890s, there were many second-generation sawmill workers, with over half being African American. At first, Black workers rarely held managerial or skilled positions. But this changed at the turn of the century. One-third of white mill workers were supervised by Black men even during the Jim Crow era.

By the early 1900s, Black residents had established institutional supports in Apalachicola like Black churches, and fraternal organizations such as the Colored Odd Fellows, which provided aid for injured workers or compensation to families who lost a loved one in a job-related accident. African Americans also held important governmental roles such as law enforcement officers or school board electees. Despite 41 percent of the population in Apalachicola being Black in 1890, hardships and inequality still existed like government-enacted curfews that constrained businesses or workers being paid in business-specific currency that only allowed them to purchase goods in shops owned by their employer.

The timber industry thrived in Northern Florida for many years and still exists today. The story of the Florida timber industry serves as a testament to the resilience and determination of those who labored within it, as they overcame significant obstacles to not only secure their livelihoods but also actively participate in the evolving social and political landscape.