| In his “Freedom’s Plow”, the African-American poet, Langston Hughes, vividly combined ideas of the citizen as producer with the unfinished quest for freedom.
Free hands, and slave hands
Indentured hands, adventurous hands
White hands and black hands
Held the plow handles
Ax handles, hammer handles
Launched the boats and whipped the horses
That fed and housed and moved America
Thus together through labor
All these hands made America.
[BA]
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Work and Workers
Filling a stave silo, ca. 1910.
Minnesota Historical Society
1930’s office, location unknown
Photo by Lee Brothers,
Minnesota Historical Society
Mississippi River Barge Terminal.
Building retaining walls,
St. Paul, August 20, 1936.
Minnesota Historical Society
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