Georgia Stories Video

Oscar Elsas established Atlanta’s Fulton Bag and Cotton Mill. The textile mill’s employees included farm families seeking a better life. Despite relatively high salaries and company housing, the 60 – 70 hour workweeks and repetitive labor disillusioned many employees. As former farmers, they were accustomed to more independence. They suffered from conditions that made it hard to breathe. In 1914 500 of the 1300 workers went out on strike. Management hired replacement workers and spies to infiltrate the union. The company had the law on its side (striking was illegal), and blackballed most of the strikers. Historians comment on this incident

After the Civil War, poverty and chaos typified many Georgian’s existences. Some people tried to make money collecting body parts from battlefields to sell to survivors; others gathered and sold lead bullets. Kennesaw Mountain, near Marietta, saw some of the war’s heaviest fighting. In this grim setting, James Remley Brumby began manufacturing rocking chairs. These rocking chairs may be the oldest continuously manufactured Georgia product. Brumby employees and historians comment

While on tour in the United States, British actress Fanny Kemble met and married Pierce Butler, the absentee owner of a rice and cotton plantation on Georgia’s Sea Islands. Kemble’s Residence on a Georgia Plantation is a record of her months living on her husband’s plantation and her sympathies for the slaves who worked on it. Before 1863, England willingly traded with the Confederacy. After Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation and the appearance of Kemble’s Residence on a Georgia Plantation, Britain (slave-free since 1833) withdrew most of their support for the Confederacy. An actress portraying Kemble reads passages from the journal aloud, and historians comment

The steam-driven railroad reached Georgia in 1835. Train travel was not always comfortable – heat, smoke, and the threat of fire from embers were always present. Nonetheless, trains soon crisscrossed the state. Towns were built on the lines (before the railroads, the only sizable Georgia cities were on navigable rivers). Some towns, like Camak and Thomson, were named after railroad builders. The most prosperous of these railroad towns was Atlanta, nee “Terminus” because of its location at the end of the Western and Atlantic rail line. By 1860 it had become the railroad center of the South. Historians comment on the growth of the railroads

In the 1830’s, a time when women were largely discouraged from receiving an education, Methodists funded, built, and got the Georgia Legislature to charter the Georgia Female College in Macon. Later known as Wesleyan College, it was the first all female college anywhere in the United States. Gena Franklin, Vice-President of Wesleyan, describes the history of the school. The segment shows Wesleyan today. Wesleyan students and historians comment

Hernando de Soto found no gold in his 16th century trek through Georgia, but three hundred years later gold was discovered in the North Georgia mountains, between the Chestatee and Etowah Rivers in what is now Lumpkin County. The discoverer, Benjamin Parks, literally stumbled over a rock containing gold. The first mining town was Auraria; later the center of mining shifted to Dahlonega. Although prospectors came to make their fortunes, the principal moneymakers were the shopkeepers who “mined the miners.” In 1832 the Native Americans in the area were expelled. Descendents of prospectors, modern day prospectors, and historians comment

Forty-three Spanish Jews came to Georgia in 1733 to escape persecution. One of them – Mordecai Shefthall – became a hero of the Revolution. Shefthall was captured in the Battle of Musgrove Creek because he refused to abandon his son. Despite imprisonment and torture, he did not reveal the whereabouts of Patriot supplies. After his escape, he became the highest-ranking Jewish officer in the colonial army. Two of his descendants, Marion Levy Mendel and John Shefthall, discuss their ancestor’s role in the Revolution

Just as the American Revolution was a rebellion of the young colonies against the mother country, it was also a conflict that divided the generations. The older generation had prospered under British mercantilism, but the benefits of mercantilism were not readily evident to the younger generation. The Habersham family illustrated the divide. James Habersham, councilor to Governor James Wright, had become a rich man in the colony. He sided with the crown and was known as a “Tory.” Joseph Habersham, James’s son, joined the “Liberty Boys” to protest taxation. Historians discuss the pros and cons of British rule

In a novel approach to getting a glimpse into the lives of Georgia’s first settlers, a fictional 18th-century television program, “Colonial Evening News,” looks in on Savannah one year after the landing of the ship Anne on February 12, 1733. The program also reviews the motives for the founding of the colony and describes the hardships that the colonist faced

Before the 1760’s, most Georgia settlers lived along the coast, primarily in Savannah, Darien, and Ebenezer. Some began to move inland, northwest to Georgia’s back country, but the influx of settlement away from the coast did not begin until 1761, with the purchase of Indian lands by Governor James Wright. Re-enactors discuss the history and traditions of these settlers, and demonstrate cooking, hunting, and candle making

Every year, 1,700 ships from 100 countries dock in Savannah to load and unload about 4.5 million tons of cargo. Today, trains and trucks move the goods overland to and from the port; in the 18th century, the Savannah River provided the primary access. Furs, skins, lumber, indigo, and rice were exported, while manufactured goods such as clothing, furniture, firearms, and munitions were imported. Two hundred and fifty years ago, trade was limited by an economic system known as “mercantilism,” which dictated that colonies could trade only with the mother country (England, in Georgia’s case) or amongst other colonies. Kirk Johnston, a re-enactor at Charles Towne Landing State Park in South Carolina, identifies some of the pros and cons of this system. A modern merchant, Ulises Carrillo, a port manager in Savannah for the Del Monte Company, talks about how truly international the port city is today. Historians and others comment

Much of Georgia’s Chinese-American population had its origins in 1873 when laborers came to Augusta to dig a canal. They may have joined in American commerce, but they never abandoned their traditions. The New Year in Chinese tradition begins with the first new moon of the calendar year – in late January or early February. According to Chinese tradition, whatever happens on this day sets the tone for the rest of the year, therefore this day holds special significance to Chinese-Americans

In many cities, violence was an unfortunate part of the Civil Rights movement. Atlanta’s 1960’s fight against segregation was characterized by relatively peaceful sit-ins and boycotts organized by students from the six colleges in the Atlanta University complex. Additionally, practical white leadership by such figures as Mayor William B. Hartsfield, Coca-Cola Chairman Robert Woodruff, Atlanta Constitution Editor Ralph McGill, and Chamber of Commerce President (and later Mayor) Ivan Allen, Jr., may have helped prevent violence. They chose to work with civil rights leaders such as Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Reporters and participants in the movement comment

Even before the Atlanta Braves, Atlanta was a baseball town. For 60 years, the Atlanta Crackers played at Ponce de Leon Stadium, about 3 miles northeast of the center of the city. The Crackers were one of the best minor league teams. Ponce de Leon Stadium made up in character (two magnolias and kudzu in the outfield) what it may have lacked in contemporary refinements. Fans, players, and others who participated in the baseball life comment.

While men were away at war, women filled the workplace. In this episode, three Georgia women recount work experiences. Pat Barrett describes work as a real-life “Rosie the Riveter” (as female assembly line workers were known). Barrett helped build B-29’s for Bell Aircraft. At a time when most African-American women were domestic workers, Creola Barnes Belton, of St. Simon’s, become an army nurse. Riverdale’s Helen Kogel Denton, a WAC, recounts her experiences in London during the German bombing raids. As a secretary for General Dwight Eisenhower, she helped type the secret plans for the Allied invasion of Normandy in 1944