Two wartime films addressed marginal farmers who , on the surface , may not have seemed to have as much at stake in the outcome of the war : African-American farmers in the South , and Pennsylvania Dutch farmers in Lancaster County . Befitting the pattern , the principal message was that the war effort needed everyone , but also that these farmers did not need to change their traditional practices significantly in order to fulfill their citizenship responsibilities . The first six minutes of Henry Browne , Farmer ( 1942 , directed by Roger Barlow and narrated by Canada Lee ) depict an African-American farmer in Georgia who is aged 38 , has three children , cultivates 40 acres , and owns two mules . The issue of race is ignored completely , and only the males in the film have names . The women in the family are simply called “ Mother ” and “ Sister .” The wife and mother in “ Henry Browne , Farmer ” is shown as a productive farmer . She tends a Victory Garden , picks corn , chops cotton , and raises chickens . “ Young Henry ” milks the cow and works in the field . “ Sister ” tends chickens and also works in the field , chopping cotton with her mother . The mother serves a meal to her family , and “ Young Henry ,” says the narrator , “ grows like Johnson Grass .” Farmer Browne listens to the Government Man and plants 15 acres of peanuts , “ to make up for the fats and oils the Japs got .” The element that moves the film beyond the daily routines of farming is Farmer Browne ’ s elder son in the nation ’ s military forces . 6
The family loads the wagon on a Saturday for a trip to town , a typical market day for farmers , perhaps “ to sell a few eggs .” They hitch the mules , but the whole family goes along , and the narration extends the question of where 6
The film is online at http :// www . archive . org / details / HenryBro1942 , accessed 18 July 2014 . The film was produced by Republic Pictures and the USDA , and distributed by the War Activities Committee .
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