Regional History

Wakefield in the Depression Era

Erin Eckhold

Ernest Hamlin Baker's The Activities of the Narragansett Planters was installed in the Post Office of Wakefield, Rhode Island, at the end of the depression era. The largely agricultural region of South County, including Wakefield, did not escape the devastating effects of the Great Depression, which affected the urban, industrial and rural areas of the nation. (See Labor in the 1930s) Life in Wakefield in the 1930s provided a sharp contrast to the flourishing eighteenth century agricultural production and trade depicted in Baker's mural of 1939. (See Economics of Empire) A look at the local newspaper, the Narragansett Times, makes this clear. Dairy farming continued to be important for this region, as evidenced by a running article entitled "Animal Husbandry" and the continuation of numerous advertisements for Grade A Golden Guernsey milk from companies like the Broad Rock Farm.[1]  However, dairy farmers were encountering problems. Money was in short supply for farmers by the late 1930s, as demonstrated by a 1938 ad in the paper inviting diary farmers to borrow up to $300 for feed and equipment.[2]

The Great Depression prompted the federal government to enact a number of programs at the local level. The Wakefield mural is the product of one of these programs. The mural was commissioned by the Treasury Department and placed in a federal building that was a center of local life. In December 1939, when the mural was installed in the three-year-old post office, the Narragansett Times reported on this important event, and included a statement from Baker in which he mentioned that the townspeople had "shown great interest in the progress and completion of the mural" [3]. The post office was used as a base for the federal government to become more involved in people's lives during the depression era in other ways as well. For example, in February of 1939 there was an IRS agent stationed in the post office to assist people in filing their income tax returns.[4] The federal government also made its presence known in Wakefield through the National Recovery Administration of 1934. This was a voluntary program that organized thousands of businesses under codes of fair trade in order to regulate businesses and convince consumers that it was again safe to engage in trade after the devastation following the stock market collapse in 1929. Numerous ads in the Narragansett Times employ the logo of the blue eagle and letters "NRA," indicating local participation in this federal program.[5]

The strain many local families were under in South County is further evidenced in the shift from positive editorializing in the early years of the depression to more desperate, even angry pleas for help and justice. On June 6, 1930, in two small articles in the Narragansett Times, "The Civilized Force" and "Individualism in Business" the independent merchant is lauded and it is stated, "in the pursuit of money today there is an minimum of injustice." [6] In contrast, by 1935 the tone is not so positive, as in "Right and Justice" of March 22. In this article those of "inherited wealth" are blamed for both "exploiting labor" and "breeding private fortunes" at the expense of the middle class and the poor.[7] The article ends with a challenge to the wealthy, "you of inherited wealth, read the writing on the wall."[8] By 1939 this had turned into a prophesy: it is almost as if the writer of this piece knew that soon there would be a mural on the wall exposing the history of the region.  This image could not only serve as a celebration of prosperous and semi-independent days gone by, but also as a depiction of the way in which the planters had built their fortunes, possibly reminding the viewer of the injustices perpetrated by exploiters of labor in the 1930s.

This last article reveals the tension between those who had substantial enough fortunes to weather the Depression and those who did not. Although there is no negative criticism of Baker's mural at the time it was installed, one wonders if some Wakefield residents might have questioned the wisdom of showcasing wealthy eighteenth-century planters while the Great Depression was still raging. After all, the Narragansett planters had built up substantial fortunes for their descendants at the expense of both the slaves and the common farmer, just as the modern industrialists were accused of having done at the expense of the working and middle classes. (See Labor in the 1930s) In fact, "those of inherited wealth" whom the editorialist threatened could well have been the planters' very descendants. Therefore, it seems unlikely that a middle or working class viewer in the 1930s would have identified with the figure of the prosperous and powerful planter.

On the other hand, the mural may have had something to offer these viewers who were all too aware of how susceptible South County was to the economic decline experienced by the nation as a whole. For this very reason, the dream of prosperity and exceptionality presented in the mural could have had great allure.

Notes

(back to top)

[1] Cotter, Betty J., Images of America: Wakefield (Portsmouth, NH: Arcadia Publishing Co., 1997), 69.

[2] Narragansett Times, 25 March 1938.

[3] "Mr. Baker Thanks All Who Assisted," Narragansett Times, 8 December 1939.

[4] Narragansett Times, 10 February 1939.

[5] Narragansett Times, 19 April 1935.

[6] Narragansett Times, 6 June 1930.

[7] "Right and Justice," Narragansett Times, 22 March 1935.

[8] Ibid.