The Rise of the Textile Mill Communities

The Rise of the Textile Mill Communities. . In the decades following the Civil War, the textile industry thrust the South into a period of rapid industrialization. In North Carolina, construction of railroads began through Piedmont “backcountry,” and cities sprung up in their paths. Piedmont farmers, who had always relied on family and neighbors to survive, now had greater access to the outside world. Agriculture itself was changing. The abolition of slavery transformed the plantation system, and freed people struggled to make a living in the New South. , Many merchants profited from the changing times and began to invest in industry. Charlotte engineer D.A. Tompkins and others believed the key to the South’s future was textile manufacturing, and they championed the “Cotton Mill Campaign” to boost economic development. Industrialists soon constructed textile mills along North Carolina’s railroads and rivers. To attract employees, they built centrally located villages, schools, and churches. All investors needed were workers, and they found willing takers among the region’s struggling farmers. , We sold our cotton for five and a half cents. We didn’t make enough to pay the fertilizer bill and eat. I went under and failed to make enough to pay my bills. I figured it like this: wherever I would go, whatever I did, I couldn’t make it any worse than this. , Claude Thomas, a Union County farmer who moved to Highland Park Mill in Charlotte, 1914. , Increasingly, small farm families felt economic strain. With higher taxes, farmers needed to grow crops they could sell for cash, like cotton and tobacco. The rise in cash crop cultivation caused prices to fall, and families had to borrow money to survive. The stability of working in the textile mills provided an appealing alternative to many farmers. For large families, moving to the mills often made more sense than struggling to live off the land. , Traditionally, cooperation and hard work among family and neighbors allowed small farms to function. When families decided to move to the mills, they brought their farm values with them. The result was a unique combination of rural and urban – densely populated mill towns inhabited by transplanted farmers. The communities forged in these villages were both old and new. Community and family remained strong. Together, the mill villagers approached a new and different life – a life that revolved around production, set to the rhythm of the factory. In these close-knit communities, generations of North Carolinians made the journey from the Old South to the New. ,