Georgia Stories Video show

Georgia Stories Video

Summary: Georgia Stories is a multimedia site all about the history of Georgia. The series includes over a hundred videos detailing important events, people, and places from Georgia's rich past. Explore the early stages of Georgia's formation as a colony, learn about Georgia's role in the founding of the United States, discover new aspects of Georgia life during the Civil War, learn about the Great Depression in Georgia, and learn about how some of the most important leaders in Civil Rights started their lives in Georgia.

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Podcasts:

 Georgia Stories 43: The Great Depression | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:27

Residents of Wilkes County recount stories of life in Georgia during the Great Depression. For many rural Southerners, the depression began a decade earlier than for the rest of the nation. The devastating effect of the boll weevil on cotton, compounded by already-low cotton prices, brought hard times to Georgia. Soon after the 1929 stock market crash, one out of every four Americans was unemployed. Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal alleviated some of the effects of the Depression, but it was the demands of World War II that boosted the economy. Historians and people who were alive during the Depression comment

 Georgia Stories 42: The Birth of the Girl Scouts | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:40

On March 12, 1912, Savannah resident Juliette Gordon Low started the Girl Guides with 18 participants. It blossomed into the Girl Scouts of America. This program is framed by a look at a modern Girl Scout troop in Augusta, illustrating the contemporary form of Low’s dream. Fran Powell Herron, Director of the Girl Scout National Center, also comments

 Georgia Stories 39: Cops and Robbers | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 8:20

Television news scenes of high-speed chases down major freeways, investigations of murders and armed robberies, SWAT teams closing in on a drug bust – these are all images that come to mind when we think of the roles played by law enforcement officers. But such images seem foreign to citizens in most of Georgia, who live in small towns and large farming areas. In this episode, we accompany Taylor County’s Sheriff Nick Giles on several routine calls regarding a bad loan, an abandoned car, and a complaint of speeding drivers and witness Giles’ personal approach to doing his job, in which talking and trying to come to amicable solutions take precedence over the use of firearms

 Georgia Stories 38: The $10 Billion Question | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 3:25

In 1995, the Georgia General Assembly authorized the expenditure of nearly $10 billion to pay for the operation of state government during the next fiscal year. Most of the money to pay for this comes from a variety of taxes paid by Georgia citizens and businesses -- primarily the sales and income taxes. These state taxes are in addition to federal and local taxes that people already pay. The money raised through taxes funds a myriad of city and state projects; this episode reveals what Georgia gets from these taxes.

 Georgia Stories 35: Fire Fighting, Star Wars Style | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:40

Community fire protection is a local government function that citizens support through taxes. It is a service so basic that citizens often overlook it until it is needed, and then it can be a matter of life or death. This Georgia Story follows men in one of the busiest fire stations in Atlanta. Capt. Billy Shoemaker explains why he became a fireman. As a child he admired a family friend and dreamed of riding in a fire truck, climbing ladders, and helping people in need. Captain Shoemaker describes some of the challenges and dangers of the job. Firefighter Steven Woodworth demonstrates a helmet mounted with an infrared camera that helps firemen see through smoke. The $23,000 price tag means there is not one on every truck. When the alarm sounds, Atlanta firemen have four minutes to dress and get to the scene. Veteran fireman Roderick Smith and a young student race to see if they can put on turnout gear–steel-plated boots, a jacket, gloves, and a helmet–in one minute. As local government public safety providers, firemen do more than fight fires. They rescue drowning victims, respond to car wrecks, and handle train derailments and gas leaks. They are trained professionals who depend on one another to get the job done right. As the work winds down at the scene of a fire, a fireman sums it up: “nobody hurt, house still standing, job well done.

 Georgia Stories 33: African-American Inventors | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:12

Georgia inventor and engineer Malcolm Johnson works at Kimberly Clark in Roswell and holds nine patents for inventions. Johnson knew from the third grade he wanted to be an inventor, i.e., come up with an idea for something new and make it. He was curious about the way things worked and liked to experiment. Chris Mitchell teaches Georgia students about African American inventors using original patents, documents, and photographs. Among African American inventors she recognizes are Grant Morgan from Cleveland, Ohio who designed the traffic signal we see every day. Important to World War I soldiers was the development of the gas mask to protect them from poison gasses used by the enemy. Lewis Latimer proposed the use of the carbon filament for light bulbs that allowed them to burn longer. He was hired by and was the only African American in Thomas Edison’s laboratory. Frederick McKinley Jones holds 60 patents. He designed the technology that adapted silent movie projectors and allowed them to show talking movies. His invention of the refrigerated truck allows fruits and vegetables to remain fresh when they are shipped across the country. His company, Thermo King, is still in business today. Malcolm Johnson knows inventors have a lot of confidence and curiosity. Wanting to know what, where, and why things happen keeps them focused and committed as they create new things. Does that sound like you

 Georgia Stories 31: The Alonzon Herndon Family | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:53

Who wants to be a millionaire? Even today the word “millionaire” is associated with wealth, so imagine what people thought about millionaires in the early 1900s. Alonzo Herndon, a former slave born in 1858 in Social Circle, was ambitious. He sought to better himself and ultimately became a millionaire in Atlanta. After emancipation, he tried sharecropping but realized his path to success meant learning a trade. He learned barbering and eventually opened his own shop in Atlanta called the Crystal Palace. Historian Marcellus Barksdale describes the shop as fitting its name because it was decorated with crystal chandeliers, large mirrors, and Atlanta’s first plate glass windows. The barbershop served Atlanta’s white elite. Through constant hard work and investments in Atlanta property, Herndon became the richest black man in America. In 1905, he founded the Atlanta Life Insurance Company, one of the largest black-owned financial institutions in the United States. Carole Merritt, director of Herndon Home, takes students on a tour of the house where Alonzo Herndon lived with his wife Adrienne and their son Norris. Mrs. Herndon was the head of the Drama Department at Atlanta University and an actress. Their home, located near the university, is operated as a museum today. Merritt points out how the house reflects Herndon’s ancestry through a series of painted panels depicting his past. According to Dr. Barksdale, Herndon was the embodiment of the American dream and evidence that the virtues of hard work and self help reward those who embrace them

 Georgia Stories 30: Singing the Blues | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:56

Today we can listen to music just about anywhere and from a wide variety of formats. That was not the case before the turn of the 20th century. If you wanted to hear music, you made it yourself or with your family. Norman and Nancy Blake and James Bryan play American string music and talk about it as the main form of entertainment in the home. Charles Wolfe, a music historian, describes how songs were a way of telling stories and spreading the news. Fiddlin’ John Carson from Georgia became a sensation because he could play and sing simultaneously. His wins at the Georgia Old-Time Fiddlers contest led to a recording contract. He is considered to be the first person to make a country music record when he recorded “Little Ol’ Log Cabin in the Lane.” Other record companies did not know what to call this form of music, but they rushed to Georgia to record it. African Americans also played string music but began interjecting a new form called the blues. The blues probably originated in West Africa and was heard in America when slaves sang work songs. By the 1920s it was the hottest form of music in the country and the basis for rock and roll music in later decades. Some people believe every form of American pop music including rap, the blues, rock and roll, gospel, and country can be traced to Southern music

 Georgia Stories 29: The Saga of Reconstruction | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 5:01

It may be difficult to imagine the total devastation of the South after the Civil War. Cities were destroyed, houses and slave quarters were burned, farmland was ruined, and one out of every five men who went to war never returned. Historians Cliff Kuhn, Marcellus Barksdale, and Gene Hatfield describe the chaos and uncertainty of the period. It was especially difficult for former slaves who were left homeless with nowhere to go. Frederick Douglass, the former slave who was a noted writer and speaker, wrote about the need for land. He said that the federal government believed it had done enough by freeing the slaves and now it was up to them to make their own way. Douglass called on the government to give former slaves the land that had been abandoned as federal troops advanced. Marcellus Barksdale comments about land affording the owner a feeling of control over his or her life. In January 1865, General Sherman offered black leaders abandoned land in the Sea Islands along the Georgia coast. It never happened. Gene Hatfield reports that many African Americans believed there was a promise of 40 acres and a mule for freed slaves. While a few former slaves were given land grants, they were revoked when the original white owners were pardoned by Pres. Andrew Johnson. Many former slaves became sharecroppers, some on the very plantations they had worked as slaves. Sharecroppers had nothing: no mule, land, house, plow, fertilizer, or seed. Everything was provided by the landowner in return for half of the crop produced. Under this economic system, former slaves soon were indebted and found themselves under a different type of bondage.

 Georgia Stories 27: Andersonville Prison | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:42

It would be bad enough to face the enemy on a battlefield, but being a prisoner of war (POW) could be far worse. During the Civil War, both sides had terrible prison camps, but one particular Georgia camp has become synonymous with inhumane treatment. Fort Sumter outside the town of Andersonville housed 30,000 prisoners in a facility designed for 10,000. Overcrowding and filthy conditions resulted in death by starvation, disease, exposure, or at the hands of other prisoners for nearly half of the POWs at Andersonville. Union reenactor Mark Stivitz describes conditions found by occupation forces and shows replicas of makeshift shelters built by prisoners. Bob Windham, a former POW in World War II and volunteer at Andersonville National Historic Site, has the highest regard for POWs. He wonders how people, who were fellow Americans, could possibly treat one another like that. Windham points to the many POW graves and reminds viewers that every person who was killed had a family waiting for his return.

 Georgia Stories 26: The Civil War and the Black Soldier | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:20

Black Americans had a point to prove, and during the Civil War they did. First they fought for the right to fight when many whites did not want them to take up arms, and then they fought and died for a cause bigger than themselves. Within the Union ranks were 200,000 black soldiers–nearly 10 percent of the Union’s 2 million troops. One of the most famous companies of black soldiers was the 54th Massachusetts Colored Infantry. Scenes from the movie Glory show the company’s assault on Fort Wagner, South Carolina and the heroic action of Sgt. William Carney. Carney took the flag from the stricken color bearer, planted it on the fort, and retrieved it when his company retreated. K Company, 54th Massachusetts Infantry reenactors Ray Wozniack, James Hayes, and Bob English describe the difficulties faced by black soldiers and their white officers and discuss Sergeant Carney as a true American hero. Carney was awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. The segment concludes with footage of the memorial to the men of the 54th, erected more than 100 years ago in Boston. The inscription makes it clear that black soldiers did indeed prove their point. It reads: “Together they gave proof that Americans of African descent possess the pride, courage, and devotion of the Patriot soldier.

 Georgia Stories 24: The Trail of Tears | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 6:03

Even after the treaty ending Cherokee presence in Georgia was signed, many Indians waited, hoping that it would not happen. However, their removal did happen. Cherokee Indians were rounded up by U.S. soldiers under the command of Gen. Winfred Scott and herded into stockades until all were assembled. Mavis Doering recounts the words she heard from her grandmother who was on the Trail of Tears. Her grandmother said they were forced to leave without any personal belongings, and when they were some distance from their homes, they looked back from a hillside and saw their animals still grazing in the fields. With much emotion, Ramona Bear Taylor recalls similar stories from her ancestors. Beginning in October, it took four months to walk to Oklahoma. The cold, exposure to the elements, hunger, and disease suffered along the way claimed 4,000 Cherokee. A common sound at night was the noise of digging into the dirt to bury those who died that day. Creek Indian Jay McGirt states that one function of the medicine men was to keep peoples’ spirits up; there was little else they could do. These victims are remembered as their names are used by their descendants

 Georgia Stories 23: A Visit to New Echota | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 5:39

The Cherokees living in northwest Georgia observed what happened to the Creeks and learned something. They thought if they accepted the white culture and adopted white lifestyles, they could live together in peace with white Georgians. Today, New Echota Historic Site in Gordon County preserves what is left of the Cherokee capital. Ranger Frankie Mewborn guides students on a tour of the site and points out the aspects of Cherokee culture that paralleled that of whites. It was at New Echota that Sequoyah developed the Cherokee alphabet giving Cherokees a written language. There was a newspaper, a constitution that created a government patterned after that of the United States, and a supreme court. However, with the discovery of gold in north Georgia and the desire for land, it was not enough. In 1835, the Treaty of New Echota requiring the Cherokees to leave the southeast was signed by some Cherokee leaders. Chief John Ross spoke against it. While the Cherokee learned many things from the Creeks, they now learned their fate would be the same; the next step was their forced removal to Oklahoma.

 Georgia Stories 20: The Growth of Slavery | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 7:40

The dream of freedom for slaves meant the freedom to be their own masters responsible for themselves and no more whips and chains. Some slaves made that dream a reality when they got on board the Underground Railroad. Savannah tour guide Ogbanna explains the Underground Railroad to students as he asks them to think differently when they hear the words train, tracks, and station. For escaping slaves, train could mean their own two feet, tracks could be a swamp, and a station could be the First African Baptist Church in Savannah. Established in 1773, the church is considered the oldest black church in America. Proving its status as an Underground Railroad station, its basement floorboards show patterns of holes drilled in them. These were ventilation holes for runaways hiding underneath. Ogbanna tells how slaves got on board the railroad by slipping into the woods bordering the fields where they worked. Murry Dorty of the Coastal Heritage Society explains how songs had hidden meanings to help and inspire runaways. Secret codes, passwords, and the use of signal lights all helped escaping slaves elude their captors. While most slaves traveled north to Canada, author Michael Thurmond describes how some fled south using the Okefenokee Swamp as a hiding place. These slaves intermarried with the Seminole Indians and some became tribal chiefs. No matter how or where they escaped it took great courage, but with freedom as the reward for success, it was worth all the risks.

 Georgia Stories 17: The Siege of Savannah | File Type: audio/mpeg | Duration: 8:09

When recounting well-known battles of the American Revolution names like Lexington, Saratoga, and Bunker Hill invariably appear. Savannah, site of some of the bloodiest fighting as well as battlefield intrigue, is not often mentioned. From September to October in 1779, Georgia Patriots aided by the French tried to retake Savannah from the British. As explained by Dr. Preston Russell, a medical doctor and historian who paints miniatures of soldiers to create museum dioramas, the French first bombarded the city with cannonball fire in preparation of an attack. In early October, the American and French forces planned a surprise attack but were foiled when a deserter revealed their plans to the British, and they failed to attack before daybreak. Killed in the ensuing battle were the Polish Count Casimir Pulaski and the French Count Charles Henri d’Estaing, noblemen helping in the fight for liberty. Colonial reenactor J. Edward Jackson describes the actions of William Jasper also killed in the battle. All three men are remembered today as heroes of the American Revolution. As the Patriots were being routed by the British, another group stepped in and saved the day from becoming a massacre. Murry Dorty of the Coastal Heritage Society describes how black Haitian troops known as chasseurs stood their ground firing as the American troops retreated. In the end, a battle was lost, but the war was ultimately won

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