The Daly News, Friday, March 13,1998 21 Homesteaders were
hardworking people The entire family helped in order for them to
succeed When the homestead program started on St. Croi in 1932,
it was This third column focuses on homesteaders at work and the
hard- ship they encountered. Homesteaders worked hard, with
commitment from the entire family if they were to succeed in
making a life for themselves on the land. Although agriculture
had been modernized, bomesteader relied on traditional hand
tools including cane knives, hand plows and hoes. This tradition
was passed down from slaves who worked the land more than 300
years. Everybody worked from dawn to dusk. Homesteaders worried
constant- ly about the weather, getting the cane to the market,
the price of cane and sanual paymenTs fr their land. But the
homestead program tried to improve the living conditions of
local people through the coostruc- tion of new homes. In the
1930s,. St. Croix's rural blacks and Hispanics lived in
unsanitary housing in old slave pla