In Harpersville, Alabama, there’s a 400-acre farm where history has been growing for over 150 years.
It belongs to the Datcher family—one of the oldest Black-owned farming families in America, and likely the last Black-owned row crop farm in Shelby County.
Their story began after the Civil War, when Albert Baker, great-grandfather of Albert “Pete” Datcher, purchased the land from Dr. W.R. Singleton. At a time when Black land ownership was rare and often dangerous, the Bakers and later the Datchers built not just a farm, but a foundation for generations.
Pete’s great-grandmother Lucy worked as a midwife from 1890 to 1915, bringing new life into the world while his grandmother Rachel earned a degree from Talladega College and taught children in a one-room schoolhouse inside Baker’s Grove Church. Education, work, and faith became as much a part of the soil as the crops themselves.
The farm thrived on more than just planting and harvest—it was a place of barter and community. People worked the fields in exchange for food, kerosene, flour, or sometimes whisky (recorded in the farm ledger under “corn”). Over the years, hundreds have sat at the family’s table, sharing meals, stories, and laughter.
Today, Pete Datcher, now in his 70s, keeps the family’s legacy alive. He sees the farm not only as land, but as proof of what’s possible when you hold on, no matter how the world tries to push you out.
In a country where so much Black-owned farmland has been lost, the Datcher farm is more than history—it’s hope.
