By Mariah Payne, B.A. in History, Christopher Newport University and Sheri Shuck-Hall, Ph.D., Professor of History, Christopher Newport University
River View Farm is a rare example of the thriving late 19th century Black farming and trade community, Union Ridge and Hydraulic Mills in Albemarle County, Virginia. The farm comprised of roads, fields, a barn and house, a family cemetery, and other small structures. Today the historic farm is located in the Ivy Creek Natural Area, a parkland owned jointly by the City of Charlottesville and Albemarle County that is stewarded by the Ivy Creek Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to preserving its rich history. In 2020, River View Farm was added to the National Register of Historic Places for its great historical significance in American history. This is the story of an African American family who survived slavery, purchased land, created a working farm, and forged ahead to ensure economic security for future generations.
The Difficult Road to Independence
Throughout U.S. history, owning land has been a status symbol for wealth and power, as well as independence. Landowners in early America, typically white men, benefitted not only economically, but also politically. For example, those who owned land in the South during the 18th century were the only ones who could vote or hold political office. Forcibly brought to the English colonies in North America beginning in the early 17th century, most Blacks were enslaved and forbidden to own land. Before the American Civil War, enslavers forced African Americans to work on labor camps, called plantations, barring them from reaping the rewards of their own labor. After the Emancipation Proclamation in 1862 that freed all those in bondage, African Americans hoped for land reform that would allow them finally to own land. Yet such freedom to secure land was not guaranteed. Any gains during Reconstruction quickly gave way to ineffective laws and a retreat from the idea of redistributing land in the South to help African Americans obtain an economic foothold. Left with little alternatives, the lack of federal support forced many Southern Blacks back into working the land of former enslavers through sharecropping or debt peonage. Such disadvantageous systems prohibited Black independence and economic prosperity.[1]
Hugh Carr, born to Thomas and Fannie Carr at the Woodlands Plantation under slavery around 1840, was among the newly emancipated African Americans who searched for better opportunities after the Civil War. Like so many others, he initially became a sharecropper, receiving a small share of the crops, like tobacco, corn, and wheat, in exchange for his labor. Finding it difficult to prosper, he became a farm manager for his former enslaver at the Woodlands Plantation. In 1870, Hugh Carr saved enough money and started to buy property near Ivy Creek. He acquired the land through multiple purchases and by 1890, he owned about 125 acres of land, becoming one of the largest African American landowners in Albemarle County. Hugh Carr worked extremely hard and took advantage of this rare opportunity as many other African Americans still had great difficulty obtaining land. Because he could not read or write, he signed the property deeds with an “X.” By 1880, Hugh Carr built a two-story house where he and his future wife, Texie Mae Hawkins, would live. He finally had the ability to own land and utilize it in any way that he wanted, symbolizing newfound independence.[2]
Texie Mae Hawkins (born in 1865) married Hugh Carr in 1883 and had their first child, Mary Louise Carr, in 1884 with six more following soon after. All seven of their children attended nearby schools. Hugh Carr instilled in them the importance of obtaining an education and learning how to read and write, which led many of his children to become teachers and community leaders. Only 34 years old, Texie Mae Hawkins died in 1899, forcing Mary Carr to step into her late mother’s role by taking care of her younger siblings. When she was able, however, Mary Carr began attending Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute (now Virginia State University) in Petersburg. Here, she met her future husband, Conly Greer (born in 1883).[3]
Leadership, Education, and Determination
As Hugh Carr aged and all his children moved away, Mary returned home with her husband, Conly Greer, to take care of her father in 1913 and continued to live at River View Farm after his death in 1914. That same year, she began teaching home economics, history, and government at the segregated Albemarle Training School. During this time, Mary and Conly Greer had their only child, Evangeline, born on April 25, 1916. Eventually, Mary Carr Greer became the first female principal at the school, working in the position from 1930 to 1950. Like her father, she encouraged the schoolchildren to continue with their education and see it through to the end. She also encouraged extracurricular activities, assisting students in the 4-H club and in events such as Field Day and the Father-Son Banquet. Through her leadership, Mary Carr Greer became an important pillar within the community.[4]
Conly Greer also became an influential community leader, serving as the first African American extension agent in Albemarle County. Having received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture from the Virginia Normal and Industrial Institute, Conly Greer was the perfect candidate. The segregated extension agent program taught crop diversification and the science of food preservation to Black farmers to “develop self-sufficiency and insulation from white commercial society.”[5] Traveling around Albemarle County to visit other farms, Conly Greer demonstrated how to achieve productive farming practices, identify plants and animals, preserve their farm-grown produce, and improve soil for planting. Around 1937 to 1938, Greer built a sanitation barn for milk production on River View Farm using wood from the property. Following more hygienic practices, the barn floor was made of concrete and the cows were separated from all the other animals in order to keep the milk sanitary.[6]
Hugh Carr’s ability to buy land after emancipation gave him and his family more opportunities and control over their lives in many ways. For example, a property deed dated in 1917 divided Hugh Carr’s land among his heirs after his death in 1914 and provided space for a family cemetery. Within the cemetery’s surrounding wall are the graves of Charles Whitten (a grandson of Texie Mae and Hugh Carr), Texie Mae Hawkins, Hugh Carr, Marshall Carr (the son of Texie Mae and Hugh Carr), as well as Conly Greer and Mary Carr Greer. Near the cemetery are two unmarked stones, believed to be unknown graves.[7]
It is important to understand that for enslaved people, being with one’s family was essential but especially hard because the institution of slavery led to the destruction and separation of many families. Moreover, when family members died, many of the enslaved did not have a say in where their loved ones were buried. Some enslaved people were buried without headstones and far away from the enslavers’ family burial sites. After the Civil War and through the discriminatory Jim Crow era, graves of the enslaved were hardly maintained and largely forgotten. For the newly emancipated, having a family cemetery on their own land allowed them to respectfully honor the dead. The ability to create special headstones with engravings, as Mary Carr Greer did, and to preserve it was significant, especially as it was not commonplace during slavery.[8]
Mary and Conly Greer also maintained a garden on the property, which demonstrates the significance of Black land ownership. Enslaved people were forced to work grueling hours picking cotton, tobacco, and other cash crops all for the benefit of their enslavers. For Mary Carr Greer and her father, land ownership allowed them to obtain the fruits of their own labor. African Americans who owned land could now fully rely on themselves rather than other people, deciding what they wanted to grow, how much they wanted to sell, and for what price.[9]
Conly Greer’s work as an extension agent also symbolized growing autonomy for African Americans. He not only used his barn to house livestock for his own family, but he also taught others how to farm the land they acquired. Farming was a popular profession in Albemarle County. Between 1914 and 1915, 386,491 out of the 480,000 acres that comprised Albemarle County were farms. However, African American farmland had less value compared to white farmland; white farmers’ value reached $426,455 while African American farmers reached only $25,862. Despite the disparity, Conly Greer’s teachings guided and trained local farmers, allowing them to yield more successful harvests and to better maintain their land. These improvements provided more financial independence for Black farmers as well as the opportunity to work and to stay on their own land. However, as an African American extension agent working in a segregated field, Conly Greer was heavily discriminated against as the program received fewer resources than the white equivalents. Not surprisingly, separate was not equal. After Conly Greer’s death in 1956, Mary Carr Greer continued to live at the farm, leasing the land to local farmers. Upon her death in 1973, the Ivy Creek Foundation and The Nature Conservancy worked together to preserve the land and its historic buildings.[10]
The Struggle Continues
Black farm ownership has dwindled in the past century since peaking in 1920 with nearly a million African American farmers. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, Black-owned farms increased from 13.4% in 1900 to 14.7% in 1920. As decades passed, however, the numbers decreased drastically; African Americans went from a ratio of one in seven farmers in 1920 to one in sixty-seven in 1982. Many reasons, especially practices of discrimination, have led to this reduction. For example, the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) has been exposed for its discriminatory practices. In a 1990 investigation of the USDA, Congress found that it lacked “effective procedures for ensuring civil rights enforcement,” that “contributed to a decline in farms operated by African American farmers.”[11] Specifically, the USDA denied or slowed down loans, credits, and benefits to black farmers (especially those who supported civil rights), while also filing complaints very slowly.[12]
In response to decades of abuse and inequality, a group of Black farmers fought back by filing a $3.5 billion class action lawsuit against the USDA in 1996 alleging “discriminatory actions such as denial of loans, disaster relief, etc.”[13] This prominent court case against the USDA, Pigford v. Glickman (1999), focused on the prejudicial practices of the 1980s and 1990s, though discrimination had occurred for many decades prior. The case uncovered that the USDA failed to help many Black farmers when they sought financial assistance and loans. To add further damage, in 1983 the USDA disbanded their Office of Civil Rights. With nowhere else to turn in the face of financial hardship and discrimination, many African Americans gave up their farmland for good. In 1999, the case was settled out of court with $1 billion in compensation.[14]
Unfortunately, barriers like these have led to a significant decline of the number of Black farmers and Black-owned farmland in the South. Between 1920 and 1997, Black farmers in the U.S. have declined by 98%.[15] Moreover, Black farmers accounted for only 1.4% of the 3.4 million farmers in the U.S. in a 2017 census of agriculture. During the pandemic, disparity continued. According to a USDA official, the Coronavirus Food Assistance Program in 2020 that offset farmers’ financial losses were issued “disproportionately to white producers compared with those of color.”[16] The American Rescue Plan of 2021 hoped to take steps towards correcting past abuses by providing $5 billion in aid to disadvantaged farmers, specifically people of color.[17]
African Americans were largely excluded from owning land during slavery. Even after emancipation, they faced discrimination and the lack of capital to purchase land. Hugh Carr, however, was able to buy land in 1870, giving him and his family more opportunities than ever seen before. While living at River View Farm, the family could keep or sell whatever they planted and become more financially independent. Both Mary Carr Greer and Conly Greer became influential community leaders, helping other African Americans achieve financial success through farming and education. The Carr-Greer story demonstrates the importance and positive impact of Black land ownership in the community. Today, however, there continues to be many setbacks and challenges for African American farmers. Moving forward, policy changes within the USDA and other institutions will hopefully lead to better opportunities, equality, and social progress.
As part of the Ivy Creek Foundation’s mission of “connecting people to the past and present by honoring the land, history, and community,” it is important to engage the public by talking about these issues in history and how it impacts us today.[18] The Ivy Creek Foundation hosts many virtual and in-person programs that focus on the historical aspects of the land, and actively work with Carr-Greer descendants and the local community to educate the public about a formerly enslaved family who bought this land and made it a home. For more information about Ivy Creek Natural Area and Historic River View Farm’s educational events, visit their website at Ivy Creek Foundation and view the video, River View Farm celebrates historic milestone (nbc29.com).
Acknowledgments
We would like to give a very special thanks to Sue Erhardt, the Executive Director of the Ivy Creek Foundation, for sponsoring Mariah Payne’s public history internship and providing her with this amazing opportunity to work at River View Farm and research the Foundation’s archives. We are especially grateful to Susie Farmer, Director of Education, who mentored Mariah and provided her expertise to this project. We also thank the peer-reviewers of this exhibit.
About the Author
Mariah Payne graduated with the honors magna cum laude, Omicron Delta Kappa, and Service Distinction from Christopher Newport University in December 2022. She received a B.A. in History, minoring in Museum Studies and Psychology. She enjoyed her time interning with Susie Farmer at River View Farm, and even learned more about her own family’s history. In a surprising twist, Mariah discovered that Texie Mae Hawkins (wife of Hugh Carr and mother of Mary Carr Greer) was her 3rd great aunt. Currently, Mariah lives in Charlottesville but will be moving to New York City in the fall. She hopes to continue working for non-profits, looking to pursue a career in the museum field.
Notes
[1] Donald Ratcliffe, “The Right to Vote and the Rise of Democracy, 1787—1828,” Journal of the Early Republic 33, no. 2 (2013): 220; Stephen Carpenter, “The USDA Discrimination Cases: Pigford, In Re Black Farmers, Keepseagle, Garcia, and Love,” Drake Journal of Agricultural Law 17, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 3-4; “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form (Washington, DC: U.S. Department of the Interior, National Park Service, 2020). For an excellent source on Reconstruction and the struggle for African Americans to gain independence, see: Eric Foner, A Short History of Reconstruction (New York: Harper Perennial Modern Classics, 2015).
[2] Samuel T. Bitting, Rural Land Ownership Among the Negroes of Virginia (Library of Congress, 1915), 59; “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[3] “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[4] “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[5] Bruce J. Reynolds, Black Farmers in America, 1865-2000: The Pursuit of Independent Farming and the Role of Cooperatives (USDA, 2002), 8, https://www.rd.usda.gov/files/RR194.pdf.
[6] “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[7] “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[8] Daniel P. Bigman, “Mapping Social Relationships: Geophysical Survey of a Nineteenth-Century American Slave Cemetery,” Archaeological and Anthropological Sciences 6, (2014). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12520-013-0119-6; “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[9] “River View Farm,” National Register of Historic Places Nomination Form.
[10] Stephen Carpenter, “The USDA Discrimination Cases: Pigford, In re Black Farmers, Keepseagle, Garcia, and Love,” Drake Journal of Agricultural Law 17, no. 1 (Spring 2012): 61; Waymon R. Hinson and Edward Robinson, “‘We Didn’t Get Nothing:’ The Plight of Black Farmers.” Journal of African American Studies 12, no. 3 (2008): 292; Ivy Creek Foundation | River View Farm.
[11] Bitting, Rural Land Ownership, 8.
[12] U.S. Census Bureau, “Number of Farm Operators in the United States, with Percent Distribution, By Race, 1900 to 1920,” Table 1, Farm Statistics by Race, Nativity, and Sex of Farmer. 293; Vera J Banks, Black Farmers and Their Farms (USDA, 1986), 14, 17. https://permanent.fdlp.gov/gpo36617/AGE86929124.pdf; Bitting, 8; Hinson and Robinson, 293.
[13] Hinson and Robinson, 296.
[14] Roy W. Copeland, “In the Beginning: Origins of African American Real Property Ownership in the United States.” Journal of Black Studies 44, no. 6 (2013): 656. http://www.jstor.org/stable/24572860.
[15] Nathan Rosenberg and Bryce Wilson Stucki, “How USDA distorted data to conceal decades of discrimination against Black farmers,” 26 June 2019. https://thecounter.org/usda-black-farmers-discrimination-tom-vilsack-reparations-civil-rights/
[16] Chandelis Duster and Janie Boschma, “Many Black farmers nationwide struggling to keep their farms afloat as they face disparities across the board,” 15 December 2021. Black farmers have ‘been in survival mode’ | CNN Politics
[17] Laura Reiley, “Relief bill is most significant legislation for Black farmers since Civil Rights Act, experts say,” 8 March 8. Black farmers will receive $5 billion of the stimulus package – The Washington Post; Matthew Wills, “The USDA Versus Black Farmers,” 11 March 2022. The USDA Versus Black Farmers – JSTOR Daily
[18] “About Ivy Creek Foundation,” Ivy Creek Foundation. https://ivycreekfoundation.org/about