Peach picking was hard work. Today Chief Askew writes of a couple of Black peach pickers who relaxed a little too much Friday night and were caught by his “boys” after midnight.

“They were stewed up on home brew,” he wrote. “They both put up $10.00 cash bond and got out this a.m.”

Peach pickers in Georgia earned 75 cents a day, standing on ladders, battling insects in the brutal heat, and carefully picking the fuzzy fruit so it did not bruise. In today’s dollars, the 75 cents a day amounts to $14.49.

That $10 cash bond represented more than a week’s pay. I wonder if the peach farm owner loaned the money so they could get back to work today? Peach-picking season was winding down. The Aug. 8 Newnan Herald reported the last two railroad cars of the crop had left town, part of a bumper crop

See Full Page