Otto, “Slaveholding General Farmers”
1. According to Otto, why do yeoman farmers tend to elude the archive? What sources are available for studying life in the upcountry or life among small farmers in the Old South?
2. How does Otto use folklore and oral traditions to reconstruct daily life among general farmers? What are the limits of these sources? How does he go about verifying them?
3. What methods of agriculture do general farmers in the Arkansas uplands use? How does it influence the shape of landholding in that region?
4. What does the life of Susan Banks tell us about life for women in the uplands/upcountry? How do their daily lives differ from those of plantation mistresses?