A Look at the American Scarecrow

Creatures made of straw, dressed as goblins or other dark spirit forces have long been part of America’s agricultural lore. They were designed to scare away intruders like crop-eating birds and animals, as well as thieves who would steal garden produce. In some cases it was believed that as advocates scarecrows encouraged abundance. Throughout history there have been crop protectors who could invite in the divine blessings of the food gods like Priapus the Greek god of farmers. In all cases, whether welcoming or frightening, scarecrows had an important job to do; they took care of the crops when the farmer was away.

Historically, the scarecrow as we know it here in America has strong bonds of kinship with other scarecrow spirits around the world. As a crop protector the scarecrow was the elaborate Slavic “spirits of the field.” The Polish starch (spirit), for example, was reputed to use riddles and difficult questions on suspected thieves, with threats of disease for the trespasser who answered incorrectly.

The Russian field spirit polevoj passed from the forest to the field at midday and punished those he found doing damage to the crops.

Centuries before scarecrows appeared in the fields, however, the task of scaring crows was handled by children. According to “Scarecrows” (Storey Books) by Felder Rushing, Captain John Smith and his crew reported settlers in Virginia noticing “small rounded huts woven of vines and bark perched atop wooden posts. They soon discovered that one of the children’s main summer and fall chores was to hide in those small basket houses until crows and deer came into the fields to eat.”

It was noted that the children would then chase away the intruders, making loud noises and beating drums to keep them away.

Taking their cue from Indians the British colonists took to hanging strips of cloth and animal skins in their fields. In the 17th century these early scarecrows, dressed in discarded clothing, began to take on a more human form.

Thomas Jefferson included mention of three of them in The Farmbook, a farm guide he published in 1826.

By the 19th century the American scarecrow began to be used for decoration as well as for practical purposes. Creative expression became more commonplace and, as modernized farming techniques such as chemicals appeared on the agricultural horizon, these harvest figures evolved to take on a more ornamental and artistic nature including appearances in film.

The most noted is in The Wizard of Oz. There the scarecrow, looking much like the cornfield scarecrows of Kansas that are perched high upon posts so they can be seen above the corn stalks, guides Dorothy who is lost to the Emerald City where she finds a way to return home. But before that classic film came The Scarecrow, a 1920 silent film featuring Buster Keaton as a scarecrow that comes to life and gets in the way of machinery which has forever changed the agricultural landscape.

Today’s scarecrow can be found in numerous Harvest Festivals and school gardens across the country. Realistically dressed in the finest of clothes with hand painted faces and wire sculpted bodies, undeniably scary with sinister red faces and black claws,  or whimsically placed on bicycles or in family settings such as picnics, they create a unique garden landscape – on the front porch as well as in the garden - that is memorable.