Poor But Proud: Alabama's Poor Whites'Poor but proud' is an apt description of many white Alabamians through history. During the antebellum years, poor whites developed a distinctive culture on the periphery of the cotton belt. As herdsmen, subsistence farmers, mill workers, and miners they flourished in a society more renowned for its two-class division of planters and slaves. After the Civil War, poor whites were fully integrated into a market economy as tenant farmers, miners, textile operatives, sawmill and timber workers, and iron and steel workers, all earning a subsistence wage or less. Their status improved with the New Deal era and the advent of World War II, which broke a downward cycle and afforded new opportunities for poor whites. The author addresses the life experiences of poor whites not only through their occupations, but also by examining their family structure, folk culture, and attempts to resolve their own problems through labor unions and political movements. -- from book jacket. |
Contents
Unknown and Forgotten Ancestors | 3 |
A Poor Mans Fight | 36 |
Chapter 4 | 92 |
Copyright | |
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acres agents agricultural Alabamians antebellum Appalachian Aubrey Williams Auburn University average B. B. Comer Baptist became began Birmingham Calhoun County Cherokee child labor church coal miners convicts corn cotton mill Covington Covington County crop croppers culture Democratic dollars earned economic farm federal Flynt Geneva County Georgia hill counties hookworm House of Happiness Huntsville ibid income indigent industry Jackson County John Knights of Labor L. A. House land landowners legislature Lillie Mae Beason Lipscomb lived livestock M.A. thesis mines Mobile Montgomery mountain mule Negro north Alabama Oral history organized owners percent planters political poor whites Population Populist poverty racial railroad reform relief Report rural Samford University sawmill sharecroppers social South Southern state's strike tenant farmers textile workers town Tuscaloosa union University of Alabama W. W. Jewell wages Walker County Winston Winston County Wiregrass women yeomen