The farms were founded and run by missionary evangelist and author Sherwood Eddy, and Reverend Sam H. Franklin, with the goal of helping southern sharecroppers out of their economic plight (caused in part by side effects of the New Deal's Agricultural Adjustment Administration).
[1] Eddy drew considerable support from his friend, the theologian Reinhold Niebuhr, who once called the farms "the most significant experiment in social Christianity now being conducted in America.
Agricultural operations included growing cotton, dairy and beef farms, a pasteurizing plant, and a saw mill.
The cooperatives also provided a number of social and other services to members and the surrounding communities, including a cooperative store, a credit union, a medical clinic, educational programs, a library, religious services, and summer work camps for students.
Due to several factors, including the tense political climate of the 1950s and poor cotton sales at Providence, cooperative efforts were abandoned around 1956, and pieces of the land were sold off to members.