Name: Period:

Unit 8: the New South and Industrialization of North CarolinaDirections: Compare the maps below and answer the following questions.

1. Describe the growth of railroads from 1860 to 1896.

2. What 2 regions of the state had the biggest railroad growth?

3. How was the chain gang system used during and after Reconstruction?

4. How did that lead to the mass incarceration of African Americans?

5. Which region are most of the textile and tobacco mills located in?

6. Name three cities where a large number of mills are located.

7. How do railroad lines correlate (connect) with where the mills are located?

8. Before the Civil War, how many towns and cities had a population of more than 2,500 people?

9. Where were those cities located?

10. After the Civil War, how many towns and cities had a population of more than 2,500 people?

11. Where were most large cities and towns located?

New machine shop in Plymouth, N.C.

I take this method of informing the public that I have erected in Plymouth, N. C., a Machine and Blacksmith shop, where, aided by steam power and suitable machinery, I am prepared to do

ALL KINDS OF MACHINE WORK,

Such as repairing Steam Engines, Cotton Gins, &c. Also forgings of all kinds. Work done promptly and on terms to suit.

I also keep on hand all kinds of Mill and Steamboat supplies, such as belting, pipe, valves, iron and steel, &c., which I will sell at bottom figures.

MACHINERY OF ALL KINDS.

Steam engines and boilers, saw and grist mills, cotton gins, shafting, pulleys and hangers, gearwheels, etc., furnished on application, at Manufacturers prices and on reasonable terms.

I keep nothing but first-class goods and sell none but the best machinery, and trust by strict attention to business, offering none but the best goods and doing all work in a thorough and workmanlike manner, together with reasonable prices, to merit a good share of public patronage. Orders by mail will receive prompt attention.

T. A. PERRY, Agent.N. B.—Write for catalogues and prices of the celebrated “ECLIPSE” Engines, Boilers and Saw

Mills.

12. What type of technology or equipment did this person own? Why might this attract people to his shop?

13. What can this man repair? What does this tell you about what people in Plymouth did for a living in the 1880s?

Labor Unions by Brent D. Glass and Wiley J. Williams, 2006

The American Federation of Labor (AFL) began organizing efforts in North Carolina in 1898, specifically targeting the growing textile industry. North Carolina possessed many resources, both natural and economic, that made the state an ideal environment for a booming textile industry. These resources included a mild climate, plenty of accessible waterpower, a wealth of raw materials in the form of cotton and lumber, and an abundance of cheap labor. During the first century of textile manufacturing, from the 1820s to the 1920s, North Carolina's textile mills produced a lower-grade yarn and cloth consumed by a local market. Before the Civil War, mills sold their yarns to nearby farm families who operated carding machines, spinning wheels, and hand looms to make their own clothes.

14. When and why was North Carolina a good place for the textile industry?

A superintendent of the Rocky Mount Mills recalled that in the 1850s he sold most of the coarse yarn produced at the mill "in five pound bundles for the country trade-this was woven by country women on hand looms." He sold surplus yarn for "coarse filling for the Philadelphia market."Women and children as well as men worked in textile mills, often under dangerous and unhealthy conditions. The AFL's goals were compulsory education for children, child labor laws, use of the strike as a bargaining weapon, a national eight-hour workday, and a protective tariff. The AFL made little progress organizing workers due to opposition by manufacturers and negative attitudes among laborers.

15. Until Reconstruction, to whom did most bundles of cotton get sold to? What about large bundles?

In 1887 a state Bureau of Labor Statistics, precursor of the Department of Labor, was created to compile statistics, issue reports, and make recommendations on labor issues...From 1905 to World War I, there were no major unionizing activities in the state. The war spurred efforts to organize southern industrial laborers in the tobacco, furniture, and textile industries. In 1919 the United Textile Workers Union (UTW), an affiliate of the AFL, organized thousands of workers in a series of strikes, the largest of which took place at the Highland Park plant in Charlotte. After

three months, Governor Thomas W. Bickett intervened to pressure both management and the union to negotiate a settlement that restored wages, reduced hours, and secured a promise that the mill owners would not "discriminate against any person on account of organization affiliation." For the next two years, management and striking workers engaged in a tense confrontation, with mill owners determined not to recognize collective bargaining and workers desperately trying to sustain economic gains made during the war years. The economic woes of 1921 quickly ended the strikes and lockouts. The mills restored wage levels, and workers dropped their demands for bargaining rights.

16. What were the labor unions trying to win for their workers?

17. The bolded clause means mills and factories had to hire:

Significant labor activity returned to North Carolina in 1929, when many textile workers in the Gastonia-Marion area, discontented with lagging wages and unsatisfactory working conditions, responded to the organizing efforts of Fred E. Beal of the radical National Textile Workers Union (NTWU). Several NTWU unions were formed and organized the notorious Gastonia strike at Loray Mill. Gastonia Strike, the most notorious textile labor struggle in North Carolina history, occurred in Gastonia in the spring, summer, and early fall of 1929. As in other mill communities of the textile manufacturing region, conditions for confrontation had been ripe in Gastonia throughout the 1920s. The Loray Mill was particularly vulnerable for two reasons: first, with more than 2,000 workers, it was by far the largest single mill in the state; and second, it was owned by a prominent northern company, Manville-Jencks of Providence, R.I.

In 1927 the company had hired an engineering firm to study ways to reduce labor costs and maintain production levels. The report by the Barnes Textile Service led to a reduction of the workforce at the Loray Mill from 3,500 to 2,200 by the end of 1928. Another factor contributing to the ultimate showdown was the decision of the communist-led National Textile Workers Union to target the mill for a southern organizing drive in the spring of 1929.

18. Why was the mill in Gastonia vulnerable to union organization?

On 1 April, within a few weeks of the arrival of union organizers, Loray workers walked off the job. At first the strike enjoyed nearly total participation, but by the end of April many laborers had drifted back to work or the mill had hired replacements. The goals of the strike-a minimum weekly wage of $20, equal pay for women and children, elimination of the stretch-out system (assigning more tasks to fewer workers), and union recognition-were compelling. However, the union persisted in disseminating ideological dogma that alienated and confused some employees. Emphasis on biracial strike committees (despite the small number of black workers at the mill) in the face of strong cultural barriers to racial integration in the state also weakened support for the union.

19. How did racism amongst workers make unionization more difficult?

The union's effort to maintain a headquarters and a tent colony for striking workers who had been removed from their homes by the company became a source of friction with local authorities and a symbol of resistance even after the strike ended. On 7 June violence erupted when Gastonia police confronted guards at the tent colony. The ensuing struggle led to gunfire from both sides, leaving one worker and four police officers wounded. One officer, police chief O. F. Aderholt, died of his injuries the next day.

The children of Ella Mae Wiggins, a union supporter killed during the 1929 Gastonia strike, stand beside their mother's grave on the day of her funeral. North Carolina Collection, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill Library.

20. Why did unions create tent colonies?

That summer the community turned its attention to the trial of Aderholt's alleged killers-Fred Beal, a union organizer, and 14 strike leaders. Because of the emotion generated by the case, the presiding judge moved the trial to Charlotte. Nevertheless, Gastonians were riveted on the courtroom proceedings; many hoped for a guilty verdict, which would expel the communists and restore stability to their community. But on 9 Sept. 1929, after the mental breakdown of one of the jurors, the judge declared a mistrial. The community reacted bitterly. Caravans of vigilantes (a citizen trying to take the law in his/her hands) roamed through the mill district of Gastonia harassing former strikers and union supporters. Attempting to regain the initiative for their union campaign, communist leaders called for a mass rally of all textile workers on 14 September. Gastonia police, managers and "loyal employees" from local mills, and deputized citizens tried to stop the rally. They intercepted carloads of workers and sent them away. While pursuing one truck containing strike leaders, they opened fire when the riders attempted to escape. One worker, Ella May Wiggins, was shot and killed.

Wiggins, the mother of five children, had been a composer of ballads and a major inspiration during the organizing drive of 1929. Her death caused another wave of violence in Gastonia, and for several days union supporters were beaten and union property was dynamited. By the end of September the communist-led union had abandoned its organizing drive, dismantled its headquarters in Gastonia, and relocated its membership. Five men accused of murdering Wiggins stood trial but were not convicted. The second trial in the Aderholt murder case did produce a conviction of Fred Beal and seven codefendants.

21. How did vigilante activity lead to violence?

The defeat of the textile unions in Gastonia and other southern towns reaffirmed the authority of the mill owners. To accomplish this victory, the manufacturers needed and received considerable assistance from state and local law enforcement agencies, along with the persuasive and moral power of the local press and religious leadership. For the mill workers, the clash with management was an exhilarating but, in the end, bitter experience. The revolt of these laborers had failed to win concessions from the new order imposed by the industry's high-speed machinery and scientific management. The dramatic struggle between labor and management in Gastonia ended quickly, but not before the sprawling community had become a national and international symbol for the ailing textile industry in the South.

Decline, mergers (combining large corporations) and takeovers marked the N.C. textile industry beginning in the 1980s. Often, the changes proved painful for employees, who lost jobs and sometimes benefits such as company pensions, and for communities built around textile operations. Between 1975 and 1985, more than 800 mills closed nationwide, and employment in North Carolina's textile mills fell from an all-time high of 293,600 in 1973 to 211,300 in 1986. Many former textile mills have been transformed into housing or retail shops or have met the wrecking ball. The effects of numerous free trade agreements, notably NAFTA in 1994 and treaties with African and Caribbean nations in 2000, led to a vast increase in textile and apparel imports and, consequently, numerous plant closings in North Carolina. Approximately 100,000 jobs were lost in textiles in the state from 1997 to 2002, with an additional 70,000 lost in the apparel industry during that same period.

22. How did globalization and trade deals like NAFTA close factories and mills across the U.S.?