The West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail

The West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail
Author: The Center for Public History at the University of West Georgia
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2015-12-14
Genre: Photography
ISBN: 1439654204

The textile industry powered the economic development of west and northwest Georgia in the 19th and 20th centuries. Several water-powered mills emerged in the antebellum period, but the late 19th century brought more growth as new technology allowed entrepreneurs to build cotton mills in towns and cities. The industry diversified in the 1920s, when hosiery mills moved to the region, and local businessmen established the apparel industry around Bremen. At the same time, a handicraft chenille business evolved in northwest Georgia, leading to the thriving carpet industry still centered in Dalton. Although many of the mills and plants have closed, the landscape of this region displays the strong presence of the textile industry. The West Georgia Textile Heritage Trail, a heritage tourism initiative extending from Columbus to Dalton, explores the rich history of these communities and the people who lived and worked in them.

Central Georgia Textile Mills

Central Georgia Textile Mills
Author: Billie Coleman
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 128
Release: 2017
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1467124257

From Macon to Hawkinsville, the history of Georgia's once thriving textile mills is documented in this visual history. Cotton was once king throughout Georgia. Reconstruction investors and railroad tycoons saw this potential to open textile mills in the South instead of sending cotton up North. Towns across Central Georgia became a prime spot to locate textile mills because of the access to cotton from local farms, cheap labor, and nearby rivers to power the mills. Textile mills were operated in cities and towns across Central Georgia such as Macon, Columbus, Augusta, Tifton, Forsyth, Porterdale, and Hawkinsville, among others. The textile mills provided employment and sometimes a home in their villages to people across Georgia as the agrarian lifestyle gave way to industrial expansion. In these mills, photographer Lewis Hine captured iconic images of child labor. After the decline of production and closing of the mills, many have been revived into new usages that honor the legacy of the mill workers and their families who lived in the villages of the textile mills across Central Georgia.

Lost Mill Towns of North Georgia

Lost Mill Towns of North Georgia
Author: Lisa M. Russell
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2020-04-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 1439669651

The textile era was born of a perfect storm. When North Georgia's red clay failed farmers and prices fell during Reconstruction, opportunities arose. Beginning in the 1880s, textile industries moved south. Mill owners enticed an entire workforce to leave their farms and move their families into modern mill villages, encased communities with stores, theaters, baseball teams, bands and schools. To some workers, mill village life was idyllic. They had work, recreation, education, shopping and a home with the modern conveniences of running water and electricity. Most importantly, they got a paycheck. But after the New Deal, workers started to see the raw deal they were getting from mill owners and rebelled. Strikes and economic changes began to erode the era of mill villages, and by the 1960s, mill village life was all but gone. Author Lisa Russell brings these once-vibrant communities back to life.

Public History

Public History
Author: Thomas Cauvin
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 498
Release: 2016-05-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 131751243X

Public History: A Textbook of Practice is a guide to the many challenges historians face while teaching, learning, and practicing public history. Historians can play a dynamic and essential role in contributing to public understanding of the past, and those who work in historic preservation, in museums and archives, in government agencies, as consultants, as oral historians, or who manage crowdsourcing projects need very specific skills. This book links theory and practice and provides students and practitioners with the tools to do public history in a wide range of settings. The text engages throughout with key issues such as public participation, digital tools and media, and the internationalization of public history. Part One focuses on public history sources, and offers an overview of the creation, collection, management, and preservation of public history materials (archives, material culture, oral materials, or digital sources). Chapters cover sites and institutions such as archival repositories and museums, historic buildings and structures, and different practices such as collection management, preservation (archives, objects, sounds, moving images, buildings, sites, and landscape), oral history, and genealogy. Part Two deals with the different ways in which public historians can produce historical narratives through different media (including exhibitions, film, writing, and digital tools). The last part explores the challenges and ethical issues that public historians will encounter when working with different communities and institutions. Either in public history methods courses or as a resource for practicing public historians, this book lays the groundwork for making meaningful connections between historical sources and popular audiences.

Lost Mill Towns of North Georgia

Lost Mill Towns of North Georgia
Author: Lisa M. Russell
Publisher: Arcadia Publishing
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2020
Genre: History
ISBN: 1467143510

The textile era was born of a perfect storm. When North Georgia's red clay failed farmers and prices fell during Reconstruction, opportunities arose. Beginning in the 1880s, textile industries moved south. Mill owners enticed an entire workforce to leave their farms and move their families into modern mill villages, encased communities with stores, theaters, baseball teams, bands and schools. To some workers, mill village life was idyllic. They had work, recreation, education, shopping and a home with the modern conveniences of running water and electricity. Most importantly, they got a paycheck. But after the New Deal, workers started to see the raw deal they were getting from mill owners and rebelled. Strikes and economic changes began to erode the era of mill villages, and by the 1960s, mill village life was all but gone. Author Lisa Russell brings these once-vibrant communities back to life.

Where Are the Workers?

Where Are the Workers?
Author: Robert Forrant
Publisher: University of Illinois Press
Total Pages: 208
Release: 2022-06-28
Genre: History
ISBN: 0252053389

The labor movement in the United States is a bulwark of democracy and a driving force for social and economic equality. Yet its stories remain largely unknown to Americans. Robert Forrant and Mary Anne Trasciatti edit a collection of essays focused on nationwide efforts to propel the history of labor and working people into mainstream narratives of US history. In Part One, the contributors concentrate on ways to collect and interpret worker-oriented history for public consumption. Part Two moves from National Park sites to murals to examine the writing and visual representation of labor history. Together, the essayists explore how place-based labor history initiatives promote understanding of past struggles, create awareness of present challenges, and support efforts to build power, expand democracy, and achieve justice for working people. A wide-ranging blueprint for change, Where Are the Workers? shows how working-class perspectives can expand our historical memory and inform and inspire contemporary activism. Contributors: Jim Beauchesne, Rebekah Bryer, Rebecca Bush, Conor Casey, Rachel Donaldson, Kathleen Flynn, Elijah Gaddis, Susan Grabski, Amanda Kay Gustin, Karen Lane, Rob Linné, Erik Loomis, Tom MacMillan, Lou Martin, Scott McLaughlin, Kristin O’Brassill-Kulfan, Karen Sieber, and Katrina Windon

The Half Has Never Been Told

The Half Has Never Been Told
Author: Edward E Baptist
Publisher: Basic Books
Total Pages: 558
Release: 2016-10-25
Genre: History
ISBN: 0465097685

A groundbreaking history demonstrating that America's economic supremacy was built on the backs of enslaved people Winner of the 2015 Avery O. Craven Prize from the Organization of American Historians Winner of the 2015 Sidney Hillman Prize Americans tend to cast slavery as a pre-modern institution -- the nation's original sin, perhaps, but isolated in time and divorced from America's later success. But to do so robs the millions who suffered in bondage of their full legacy. As historian Edward E. Baptist reveals in The Half Has Never Been Told, the expansion of slavery in the first eight decades after American independence drove the evolution and modernization of the United States. In the span of a single lifetime, the South grew from a narrow coastal strip of worn-out tobacco plantations to a continental cotton empire, and the United States grew into a modern, industrial, and capitalist economy. Told through the intimate testimonies of survivors of slavery, plantation records, newspapers, as well as the words of politicians and entrepreneurs, The Half Has Never Been Told offers a radical new interpretation of American history.

Southern Quilts

Southern Quilts
Author: Mary W. Kerr
Publisher: Schiffer Publishing
Total Pages: 144
Release: 2018
Genre: Crafts & Hobbies
ISBN: 9780764355028

In more than 270 color images, hundreds of quilts, juxtaposed for the first time, celebrate and explore the South's rich quilting history. Quilt expert Mary W. Kerr joins 13 other textile historians to show why Southern quilts have a distinctiveness setting them apart, including factors like their patterns, use of tiny pieces, and specific color choices. Learn how the South's quilting traditions developed among all socioeconomic levels, and in communities such as African American, Scots Irish, and German. The use of cotton, the prominence of making-do aesthetics, and other characteristics are discussed, with in-depth looks at topics like feed sack use and tri-color quilts. Explore the classic patterns of Crown of Thorns, Whigs' Defeat, and Double Wedding Ring. Enjoy regional treasures like Texas Rattlesnake, the Shenandoah Valley Farmers Fancy, and many more. This compilation includes quilts from every Deep South state, offering commentary, examples, and insights.

Florida Civil War Heritage Trail

Florida Civil War Heritage Trail
Author:
Publisher: Department of State Division of Historical Resources
Total Pages: 80
Release: 2011
Genre: Battlefields
ISBN: 9781889030227

"Includes a background essay on the history of the Civil War in Florida, a timeline of events, 31 sidebars on important Florida topics, issues and individuals of the period, and a selected bibliography. It also includes information on over 200 battlefields, fortifications, buildings, cemeteries, museum exhibits, monuments, historical markers, and other sites in Florida with direct links to the Civil War"--[p. 2] of cover.

A Voyage Long and Strange

A Voyage Long and Strange
Author: Tony Horwitz
Publisher: Henry Holt and Company
Total Pages: 468
Release: 2008-04-29
Genre: History
ISBN: 1429937734

The bestselling author of Blue Latitudes takes us on a thrilling and eye-opening voyage to pre-Mayflower America On a chance visit to Plymouth Rock, Tony Horwitz realizes he's mislaid more than a century of American history, from Columbus's sail in 1492 to Jamestown's founding in 16-oh-something. Did nothing happen in between? Determined to find out, he embarks on a journey of rediscovery, following in the footsteps of the many Europeans who preceded the Pilgrims to America. An irresistible blend of history, myth, and misadventure, A Voyage Long and Strange captures the wonder and drama of first contact. Vikings, conquistadors, French voyageurs—these and many others roamed an unknown continent in quest of grapes, gold, converts, even a cure for syphilis. Though most failed, their remarkable exploits left an enduring mark on the land and people encountered by late-arriving English settlers. Tracing this legacy with his own epic trek—from Florida's Fountain of Youth to Plymouth's sacred Rock, from desert pueblos to subarctic sweat lodges—Tony Horwitz explores the revealing gap between what we enshrine and what we forget. Displaying his trademark talent for humor, narrative, and historical insight, A Voyage Long and Strange allows us to rediscover the New World for ourselves.