"The Farmers Didn't Particularly Care for Us": Oral Narrative and the Grass RootsRecovery of African American Migrant Farm Labor History in Central Pennsylvania

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John Bloom

Abstract

Lack of adequate childcare is just one of many problems associated with a system of harvesting dependent upon migrant farm labor. To most consumers, migrant farm workers provide the invisible hands that produce the affordable fruits and vegetables that end up being stocked on grocery store shelves. Yet workers who move from farm to farm harvesting each year face chronic troubles finding adequate housing, safe transportation, and health care. They are perpetual "outsiders" wherever they move, and in the United States race and citizenship operate as identifiers that reinforce this outsider status. Their transience and disconnection from local support networks often leave them vulnerable to exploitative "crew leaders" and unscrupulous employers.

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