Megan Birk, "The Fundamental Institution: Poverty, Social Welfare, and Agriculture in American Poor Farms" (U Illinois Press, 2022)
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The Poor Farm Experience
There are exceptions. There are counties that had a sort of fully integrated poor farm, and i think the explanation for that is that they had very few people of color to ever come to the door to need assistance. And so when you see those cottages offan itsa, it's a clear indicator that what they're doing here, in this particular property, is making sure that they have a way to segregate the space. So we've got people of color living in chicken coops in the back yard or in the basement or in the attic.
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