clair055

Lanett and Opelika in Alabama….Amity in Arkansas…..Hogansville, Canton, and Douglasville in Georgia….Concord and Carrboro in North Carolina and Cherokee Falls, Piedmont and Whitmire in South Carolina…..All of these places including many other cities and towns across the South were all major mill towns birthed during the New South era. The New South Era has as many definitions as other historical periods such as the Gilded Age or the Progressive Era, but for my purposes here I’m going with Edward L. Ayers.    In his book The Promise of the New South:   Life after Reconstruction he states the New South era began in the 1880s after the biracial and reformist experiment of Reconstruction had ended and the conservative white Democrats had taken power throughout the southern states. A fellow Georgian, Henry W. Grady, is credited with the term “New South” which represents an ideology that emphasized a new reliance upon railroads and industrialization to modernize the South. ...

Over the Fourth of July holiday I was fortunate enough to make a stop at Andrew Jackson’s home, Hermitage, in Nashville, Tennessee. Unfortunately, President Jackson was out, but he had left behind all sorts of interesting things for me to look at. I thought I’d post them for a quick little game.   Don’t worry though…the answers are right here. Go on and take a look and then at the bottom of the post you will find my link to more pictures from Jackson’s lovely home. Okay…what’s this? It looks like carved ivory, doesn’t it?    It carried something both men and women used during Jackson’s time.      Yes, this little crab-shaped item has a little box in it that carried snuff.    You could slip it in your pocket.    I can just imagine the conversations it would start when Jackson brought it out during a meeting. Okay….what about this????      Forgive my fat fingers and the not-too-focused image.  ...

One of the important lessons I teach each year is the Declaration of Independence.   Over the years I’d bring up our nation’s important documents in adult conversations when people would ask what grade I taught.   Sometimes it was very obvious from what was said that the adults I was conversing with didn’t have a clue regarding the difference between documents like the Declaration of Independence and the Constitution.   It’s was also very obvious those same adults had never actually read either document. It’s very simple.   The Declaration declares our independence from Great Britain while the U.S. Constitution serves as our plan of government – the rules regarding how our Federal government works. It’s simple, right? Try explaining it to nine and ten year olds when some of them still believe Pocahontas had little animal friends who talked and she frolicked in the forest breaking out into song when the notion hit her as Disney portrays. Finally, I hit on an analogy s...