What better way to celebrate Southern writing and Halloween, then
reading a ghost story.  From a culture rich in gothic tales and
storytellers.

Last night I went on a ghost walk in downtown Savannah.  Our
guide shared the city's folklore of ghosts and haunts.  He also
sang ballads recited poetry  based on the tales.

At the Flannery O'Connor home, a program of Southern gothic
readings were presented.

On the Internet, The Moonlit Road offers a collection of Southern
gothic tales.
http://www.themoonlitroad.com/

Happy Halloween!

Joyce Dixon, Southern Writers co-moderator
JoyceGA@...

I have journals for almost every purpose known to man or woman.

One of my favorite journal writing exercises, is to take a
photograph and write it's story.  In many ways it is an exercise
in freewriting, but is always a unique way to discover untapped
expressions.

Some sites I use for Southern photographs:

Gallery of the South
http://www.galleryofthesouth.com

Savannah - Through the Lens
http://www.savannahmorningnews.com/features/slideshows/

New Orleans - Southern Lights
http://www.southernlights.com/frontpage.html

Southern Lighthouses
http://www.asouthernlighthouse.com

Savannah - Nuovo Contemporary Art
http://nuovo.com/photography.html


If you know of other sites, please post them.

What journal writing exercises do you suggest?

Joyce Dixon, Southern Writers, co-moderator
JoyceGA@...

Authors Guild is developing a web site from which authors can
sale out-of-print books.

To sign up, go to:  http://www.backinprint.com/

----------------

I am planning to contact regional magazines and regional
publishers for current guidelines.  If you know of current
marketing news, please post.

Joyce Dixon, Southern_Writers co-moderator
JoyceGA@...

...well, the list is now just over a month old and there are 40 subscribers...

Please feel free to start some conversational threads...when I started this
list I had in mind a rather broad idea of "history" in mind, so as far as I'm
concerned culture, folklore and even to a certain extent [gulp] current events
are fair game here...

In that spirit, has anyone seen any episodes of the series _Any Day Now_? I
think it's running on the Lifetime cable network and stars Annie Potts...from a
little blurb I read recently it's set in Birmingham ....

By the way, I heard that UAB's WBHM-FM will have history faculty Sam Webb as
one of its commentators for local election coverage tonight...

Moderator over and out....

AJ Wright
Dept of Anesthesiology Library
School of Medicine
University of Alabama at Birmingham

Hello fellow Alabama Historians,

I am currently working on a master's thesis exploring the interactions of
black home demonstration agents and the women they worked with, in Alabama
from 1928-1936.  In reading the annual reports of the Home Demonstration
agents I have come across a term that I cannot identify.

So, I ask you:  What is a mizpah (possibly mizpeh).

Any pearls of wisdom would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

Kyes Stevens


Kyes Stevens
Women's History/Poetry
Sarah Lawrence College

Hi,
	 In response to our listowner's suggestion, I'll raise a
question.  Has anyone out there read Rick Bragg's recent
book about growing up poor in rural Alabama in the 60's?
It's called "All Over But the Shoutin'.  It's a heartwarming
reflection on his life's journey and his mother.  It made me
laugh and cry more than once.  I highly recommend it.

    	 Larry Nelson
		 Pacific Lutheran University

Hello,

Our moderator has suggested that we introduce ourselves.  After reading
all the credentials some of you have listed, I'm a little hesitant to
talk about myself.  I am a homemaker who was fortunate enough to grow up
in a family that considered history important and interesting.  None of
us majored in history, but all of us have kept our interest in the
subject.  Actually, I ended up with a double major--English and Religion
and Philosophy.  I have had several church related jobs and have taught
English in public schools.

In answer to the question about Mizpah, it was the benediction use by
many secular, as well as religious groups, for many years.  In fact, I
know some groups who still use it.  It comes from Genesis 31:49:
"May the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent from one
another," is the King James translation.

Jacob had decided the unpleasantness between Laban and himself had gone
too far. He packed his wives, children, flocks, and all other worldly
possessions and left in secret.  When Laban realized what Jacob had
done, he followed and tried to compell him to return.  Jacob refused.
They finally made a sort of peace.  As was the custom, they built a pile
of rocks to commemorate the occasion.  This was called a Watchtower or
Mizpah, named partially because of Laban's statement.

The area around this place came to be called Mizpah which was also
sometimes called Mizpeh.

The sentiment is not nearly so sweet in modern translations of the
Bible.  The Living Bible says, "May the Lord see to it that we keep this
bargain when we are out of each other's sight.

I have been away from home and am just catching up on my mail.  I hope
this helps.

Edith B. Shores
3743 5th Avenue
Tuscaloosa, AL

Edith Shores wrote:
>
> From: "Edith Shores" <eshores@...>
>
> Hello,
>
> Our moderator has suggested that we introduce ourselves.  After reading
> all the credentials some of you have listed, I'm a little hesitant to
> talk about myself.  I am a homemaker who was fortunate enough to grow up
> in a family that considered history important and interesting.  None of
> us majored in history, but all of us have kept our interest in the
> subject.  Actually, I ended up with a double major--English and Religion
> and Philosophy.  I have had several church related jobs and have taught
> English in public schools.
>
> In answer to the question about Mizpah, it was the benediction use by
> many secular, as well as religious groups, for many years.  In fact, I
> know some groups who still use it.  It comes from Genesis 31:49:
> "May the Lord watch between me and thee when we are absent from one
> another," is the King James translation.
>
> Jacob had decided the unpleasantness between Laban and himself had gone
> too far. He packed his wives, children, flocks, and all other worldly
> possessions and left in secret.  When Laban realized what Jacob had
> done, he followed and tried to compell him to return.  Jacob refused.
> They finally made a sort of peace.  As was the custom, they built a pile
> of rocks to commemorate the occasion.  This was called a Watchtower or
> Mizpah, named partially because of Laban's statement.
>
> The area around this place came to be called Mizpah which was also
> sometimes called Mizpeh.
>
> The sentiment is not nearly so sweet in modern translations of the
> Bible.  The Living Bible says, "May the Lord see to it that we keep this
> bargain when we are out of each other's sight.
>
> I have been away from home and am just catching up on my mail.  I hope
> this helps.
>
> Edith B. Shores
> 3743 5th Avenue
> Tuscaloosa, AL
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
Hi Edith-
Yours was the first e-mail that I received from this list.
My name is Kathy Byrd and visited Alabama a few times and then got
really interested in it because it does ahve so much history. I wanted
to find out as much as I could about it and then I found out about this
list and I thought well this is a perfect way to find out more about
Alabama.
I am a paralegal and have been one for about 12 or 13 years.
Kathy Byrd
Williamsburg, Ky 40769

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Call for papers:  The South in the Age of Washington, Oct. 28-30, 1999

We seek proposals from young scholars (graduate students, independent
scholars, and postdoctoral scholars who have received their Ph.D.s within
the past 3 years) for papers to be delivered at "The South in the Age of
Washington" conference.   This event will be held at the University of
Southern Mississippi from Thursday, October 28 through Saturday, October 30,
1999, and is cosponsored by the Mount Vernon Ladies' Association.  As part
of the nation-wide commemoration of George Washington on the bicentennial
anniversary of his death, we will be using his life as a reference point for
examining larger issues in the late eighteenth- and early nineteenth-century
South.  Themes the conference plans to address include the southern
frontier, religion, material culture, slavery and African American life,
Indian cultures and history, gender, political conflicts, and the emerging
variety of southern identities and cultural practices.  We seek to expand
the geographic and cultural definition of "the South" as broadly as
possible.  Papers from a variety of disciplines are sought.
         Invited presenters already on the program include Daniel Usner (Cornell
U.), Warren Hoftsra (Shenandoah U.), Wendell Garrett (Sotheby's), Theda
Perdue (U. of North Carolina), Kimberly Hanger (U. of Tulsa), Sylvia Frey
(Tulane), Peter Wood (Duke), Carla Mulford (Penn State), Don Higginbotham
(U. of North Carolina) and David Shields (the Citadel).  We are asking for
papers of about 30-35 minutes in length, and since this will be a public
symposium, we also request that papers be of scholarly interest but
accessible to a lay audience.  We will pay all travel expenses for
presenters added to this program.
         Send 1-2 pp. proposal and c.v. by March 1, 1999 to:

Dr. Tamara Harvey                  or   Dr. Greg O'Brien
English Department                      History Department
Box 5037                                Box 5047
University of Southern Mississippi      University of Southern Mississippi
Hattiesburg, MS  39406-5037             Hattiesburg, MS  39406-5047
Tamara.Harvey@...

Dear Friends,

I came across a reference that I couldn't quite place.  A former slave
from Mobile claimed after the war that he had spent three years
working in the Salt Works on Jackson Creek for his master.  Anybody
know offhand where that would be?  Near the city or in the interior?

Thanks,

Mike Fitzgerald
fitz@...

>I came across a reference that I couldn't quite place.  A former slave
>from Mobile claimed after the war that he had spent three years
>working in the Salt Works on Jackson Creek for his master.  Anybody
>know offhand where that would be?  Near the city or in the interior?

Mike,

The USGS Geographic Names Database lists

ALABAMA
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Barbour : 314513N 0852947W : Clayton South
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Calhoun : 333647N 0854348W : Hollis Crossroads
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Calhoun : 333748N 0854305W : Choccolocco
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Clarke : 313300N 0880025W : Saint Stephens
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Colbert : 343839N 0875616W : Barton
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Houston : 311123N 0850726W : Gordon
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Mobile : 302904N 0882605W : Big Point (MS)
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Pike : 315553N 0855743W : Needmore
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Pike : 315748N 0860636W : Ansley
JACKSON MILL CREEK : stream : Colbert : 343707N 0875044W : Frankfort
MOUTH OF JACKSON CREEK LANDING (HISTORICAL) : locale : Clarke : 313300N
0880028W : Saint Stephens

MISSISSIPPI
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Copiah : 315228N 0903723W : Smyrna
JACKSON CREEK : stream : DeSoto : 345248N 0901022W : Lake Cormorant
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Hinds : 321654N 0903543W : Edwards
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Jackson : 302904N 0882605W : Kreole
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Lincoln : 313536N 0903423W : Zetus
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Montgomery : 333839N 0894304W : Duck Hill
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Tallahatchie : 335216N 0900502W : Cascilla
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Wilkinson : 310639N 0910953W : Newtonia
JACKSON CREEK : stream : Yalobusha : 340504N 0895437W : Oakland

Note the entry for Jackson Creek, Mobile County (in the Alabama search) and
Jackson Creek, Kreole (in the Mississippi search)  The stream originates
near Big Point, MS. in Jackson County in the area of Kreole. On your map
you'll find Big Point almost on the state line southwest of Mobile on MS
Highway 613 (look north of Pascagoula and you'll see it). I don't see
Kreole but I'm using an atlas rather than a state highway map for MS, so
Kreole is too small to show up. It's in that same spot according to
Long/Lat. reference points.

My maps shows an unnamed stream running vertically right to the west of Big
Point (in Mississippi) but it has a branch that flows in from Alabama that
is named Big Creek and appears to connect on the north to Big Creek Lake.
These creeks may or may not flow into the Escatawpa above Pascagoula, MS.
I'm not that familiar with MS and I can't tell by my map because I-10 runs
right over the area on my map where they appear to meet.

Your Jackson Creek is going to be somewhere in that area, either in Alabama
or Mississippi.

BTW, the GNIS is online at http://www.peabody.yale.edu/other/gnis/ You can
search the whole country, by state, or by county. I've found it very
helpful when trying to answer questions like this. It gives me a reference
point for starting my search.

Carmel
carmel@...

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
FIFTH SOUTHERN CONFERENCE ON WOMEN'S HISTORY

June 15-17, 2000

Richmond, Virginia

CALL FOR PAPERS


      The Southern Association for Women Historians invites
proposals for the Fifth Southern Conference on Women's
History to be held June 15-17, 2000, at the University of
Richmond and the Library of Virginia in Richmond, Virginia.
  The conference provides a stimulating and congenial forum
for the discussion of all aspects of women's history.  Its
program seeks to reflect the diversity of women's experiences
in the United States and elsewhere and to feature the history
of women from a wide range of racial, class, and ethnic
backgrounds.

      Additional information about the Fifth Southern
Conference on Women's History will appear in the coming
months on H-SAWH, the official Web site for the Southern
Association of Women Historians.  Please consult this site at
www.h-net.msu.edu/~sawh/ for announcements and conference
updates.

      The Program Committee solicits proposals for complete
panels and individual papers, as well as media presentations
and roundtables.  Proposals from junior scholars and graduate
students are especially welcome.  Although the conference is
regionally based, we also welcome proposals from scholars
outside the South.

      Proposals for panels or individual papers should consist
of two copies each of a one-to-two-page panel or paper
proposal and a brief curriculum vita for each participant.
  Those interested in chairing a session or commenting on one
are also invited to send a vita to the Program Committee.

      Prospective participants should send all materials to
Professor Cynthia A. Kierner, SAWH Program Committee Chair,
Department of History, University of North Carolina at
Charlotte, 9201 University City Boulevard, Charlotte, NC
  28223.  The deadline for submission of proposals in 30 June
1999.



************************************
Sandra Gioia Treadway
Conference Coordinator

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
Date:         Mon, 23 Nov 1998 04:57:06 -0600
Subject:      CFP: Southern Labor Studies Conference

CALL FOR PAPERS
SOUTHERN LABOR STUDIES BIANNUAL MEETING
GEORGIA STATE UNIVERSITY, ATLANTA, GA
SEPTEMBER 30-OCTOBER 2, 1999
"THE POLITICS OF LABOR"

         The Southern Labor Studies Conference program committee invites
proposals for papers and presentations for the 1999 biannual meeting to
be held September 30 to October 2 at Georgia State University in Atlanta.
The theme of the meeting is "The Politics of Labor: Labor, Culture,
Society, and the State."  The committee invites both proposals on
traditional electoral politics and proposals which define politics
broadly to include such topics as political culture, political economy,
organizaing, public policy, labor's relationship to the state and
society, internal union politics, the politics of gender, racial
politics, and other labor topics with political themes.  Although
conference presentations focus on the history of the southern United
States, the committee also welcomes papers on other topics such as
international and comparative labor studies or proposals for
presentations on labor education and pedagogy.

         The Southern Labor Studies Conference has traditionally combined the
efforts of scholars, archivists, activists, and community members
interested in labor studies.  The committee welcomes proposals from
scholars and activists from all disciplines and settings, including
colleges and universities, museums, historical socieities, archives,
libraries, and the labor movement.  We encourage graduate studentsl,
independent researchers, and activist and community members to submit
proposals, and welcome both traditional academic panels and papers, as
well as proposals for roundtables, audio and visual presentations, and
other informal sessions.

Applicants must submit three (3) copies of the following: for full
session proposals, a one-page cover sheet, including the title of the
panel, the names of panel participants, suggested commentator(s), and a
brief description of the issues and questions the session will address;
a one-page abstract of each presentation; and a short c.v. for each
participant.  Individual proposals should include a title, one-page
abstract of the presentation, and a short c.v.  PROPOSALS MUST BE
SUBMITTED BY MARCH 15, 1999!!!

For further information or to subbmit proposals, contact:
Michelle Brattain and Cliff Kuhn    Leslie S. Hough, Executive Director
Department of History               W.J. Usery Center for the Workplace

P.O. Box 4117                      120 Courtland St., Suite 400
Georgia State University            Atlanta, GA 30303-3083
Atlanta, GA 30302-4117              (404) 651-1272
(404) 651-2250                      FAX: (404)651-0841
FAX: (404)651-1745                  lhough@... (queries only)
mbrattain@... (queries only)

This call and further information about the conference will be available
at http://gsaix2.cc.GaSoU.edu:80/facstaff/ghickey

Dear Mike and others:
     The Jackson Creek salt works were probably in Clarke County.  See
http://www.asc.edu/archives/teacher/civilwar/civ1.html for more
information about the  salt works.  We have a fair amount of information
about the different salt works that operated in Alabama.  Jackie Matte,
the teacher that worked on the web teaching unit has been doing some
more  research into this topic.  I'll e-mail Mike her address.
--
Sincerely,
Debbie Pendleton
Assistant Director for Public Services
Alabama Department of Archives and History
PO Box 300100
Montgomery, AL 36130-0100
dpendlet@...
http://www.asc.edu/archives/agis.html
(334)242-4363x275
fax (334)240-3433

Hi
Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
Kathy

>>>Kathie Byrd wrote:  Are all the people on this list from Alabama?


I'm from Alabama by way of Kentucky, Virginia, and Tennessee.  I've
lived in Alabama longer than I did the other three states.  I've lived
mainly in northwest and central Alabama.

Edith

>Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
>I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
>Kathy

Hey Kathy,

I live in Virginia, right outside of DC.  I went to grad. school at UAB
(two years) in Birmingham, and I found that I had picked up an interest in
the state.  I got lucky in that I became friends with someone who also was
interested in state history, and we ended up exploring the state from
Muscle Shoals to the forts of Dauphin Island.  Whenever I get back (about
once a year or so) I try to make a trip to Cahawba/Cahaba to see how the
restoration is going, and random side trips to places like Horseshoe Bend.

To try and keep my chops in shape, at the moment I am mowing through
"Alabama--The History of a Deep South State".

--
Te occidere possunt sed te edere non pussunt netas est
	 [Roughly, "They can kill you, but the legalities of
                    eating you are quite a bit dicier."]

Dean Costello
costello@...

Hi Kathy,

No I am one who is not from Alabama ... I am an Australian and haver
visited the USA .... I work as an archaeologist but have studied history
and am interested in learning about different areas, the people and
their cultures.
Take care,
Jill

>From bounce-alabamahistory--53-jacknjill5 Mon Nov 30 06:52:08 1998
>Received: from [209.207.164.201] by hotmail.com (1.0) with SMTP id
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1998
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-0000
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bluegrass.tcnet.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id GAA21053 for
<alabamahistory@onelist.com>; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 06:06:07 -0500 (EST)
>Message-ID: <3662820B.5D27@...>
>Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 06:31:23 -0500
>From: kbyrd@...
>X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
>To: alabamahistory@onelist.com
>Mailing-List: list alabamahistory@onelist.com; contact
alabamahistory-owner@onelist.com
>Delivered-To: mailing list alabamahistory@onelist.com
>Precedence: bulk
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>Subject: [alabamahistory] Natives
>
>From: kbyrd@...
>
>Hi
>Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
>I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
>Kathy
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
>service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
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Hello there,

I am not from Alabama but from the UK. I have however made
many visits to Mobile for my research and to visit my
relatives and to eat delicious Gulf Coast food.

Nahfiza Ahmed
Dept. of History
University of Southampton
Highfield
Southampton SO17 1BJ
Tel: +44 1703 592239

Hi Kathy:

No, I'm not from Alabama, but from Gaithersburg, MD, a far-northern suburb
of Washington DC. Have been through Alabama several times as a child (many
years ago) on my way to my grandparent's place in Texas.  Turns out my
great-grandfather,  Newton Mitchel, served as a private in the 41st Alabama,
and a number of my ancestors made their way to Texas after living in Alabama
for several years.  Hence my interest in Alabama history.

Jill (Mitchell) Myers
jmmyers@...

-----Original Message-----
From: kbyrd@... <kbyrd@...>
To: alabamahistory@onelist.com <alabamahistory@onelist.com>
Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 9:52 AM
Subject: [alabamahistory] Natives


>From: kbyrd@...
>
>Hi
>Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
>I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
>Kathy
>
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
>service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
>http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
>------------------------------------------------------------------------
>Archives for the list can be viewed at
>http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory

The Alabama Department of Archives and History Reference Room will be
closed January 4-8, 1999 to allow staff to inventory the collections.
We
apologize for any inconvenience.  The museum and other offices will
remain open during this time.

Special Holiday and inventory hours are as follows:
Archives closed for state holidays:
Thursday, Friday and Saturday, December 24 - 26, 1998

Reference room OPEN: Monday - Wednesday,  December 28 - 30, 1998

Archives closed for state holidays:
Thursday, December 31, 1998 and Friday, January 1, 1999

Archives open: Saturday, January 2, 1999

Reference room closed for book inventory:
Monday - Friday, January 4 - 8, 1999

Regular hours resume Saturday, January 9, 1999
--

--
Sincerely,
Debbie Pendleton
Assistant Director for Public Services
Alabama Department of Archives and History
PO Box 300100
Montgomery, AL 36130-0100
dpendlet@...
http://www.asc.edu/archives/agis.html
(334)242-4363x275
fax (334)240-3433

jacknjill xcni wrote:
>
> From: "jacknjill xcni" <jacknjill5@...>
>
> Hi Kathy,
>
> No I am one who is not from Alabama ... I am an Australian and haver
> visited the USA .... I work as an archaeologist but have studied history
> and am interested in learning about different areas, the people and
> their cultures.
> Take care,
> Jill
>
> >From bounce-alabamahistory--53-jacknjill5 Mon Nov 30 06:52:08 1998
> >Received: from [209.207.164.201] by hotmail.com (1.0) with SMTP id
> MHotMail308989032750935065325023520046281124310; Mon Nov 30 06:52:08
> 1998
> >Received: (qmail 18217 invoked by uid 99); 30 Nov 1998 14:56:57 -0000
> >Received: (qmail 15572 invoked from network); 30 Nov 1998 11:20:23
> -0000
> >Received: from unknown (HELO bluegrass.tcnet.net) (206.155.95.8) by
> pop.onelist.com with SMTP; 30 Nov 1998 11:20:23 -0000
> >Received: from default (xypcorbin13.tcnet.net [206.155.95.23]) by
> bluegrass.tcnet.net (8.8.5/8.8.5) with SMTP id GAA21053 for
> <alabamahistory@onelist.com>; Mon, 30 Nov 1998 06:06:07 -0500 (EST)
> >Message-ID: <3662820B.5D27@...>
> >Date: Mon, 30 Nov 1998 06:31:23 -0500
> >From: kbyrd@...
> >X-Mailer: Mozilla 3.0 (Win95; I)
> >To: alabamahistory@onelist.com
> >Mailing-List: list alabamahistory@onelist.com; contact
> alabamahistory-owner@onelist.com
> >Delivered-To: mailing list alabamahistory@onelist.com
> >Precedence: bulk
> >List-Unsubscribe: <mailto:alabamahistory-unsubscribe@ONElist.com>
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> >Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit
> >Subject: [alabamahistory] Natives
> >
> >From: kbyrd@...
> >
> >Hi
> >Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
> >I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
> >Kathy
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
> >service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
> >http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Archives for the list can be viewed at
> >http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
> service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
> http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
Jill -
This is a great! I don't think that any of us are from Alabama.
But I think that you are probably the farthest away.
How about it guys. Are any of you all out of the country. (Besides any
of you all living in Ohio) (Just Kidding)
I love learning about other peoples  culture too.
I think that Alabama must be the core of culture. There's so much there.
I have loved just reading about it and learning about it. THat's why I
joined this list too.
Kathy

Nahfiza Ahmed wrote:
>
> From: Nahfiza Ahmed <N.Ahmed@...>
>
> Hello there,
>
> I am not from Alabama but from the UK. I have however made
> many visits to Mobile for my research and to visit my
> relatives and to eat delicious Gulf Coast food.
>
> Nahfiza Ahmed
> Dept. of History
> University of Southampton
> Highfield
> Southampton SO17 1BJ
> Tel: +44 1703 592239
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
> service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
> http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
Well I am just checking my mail and looks like Jill isn't the only one
from out of the county. Nahfiza is too. I can't believe this. This is
really neat. What kind of research do you do Nahfiza? I have been to
Mobile I think that it is beautiful. I love the food.  too.
Kathy

Dean Costello wrote:
>
> From: Dean Costello <costello@...>
>
> >Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
> >I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
> >Kathy
>
> Hey Kathy,
>
> I live in Virginia, right outside of DC.  I went to grad. school at UAB
> (two years) in Birmingham, and I found that I had picked up an interest in
> the state.  I got lucky in that I became friends with someone who also was
> interested in state history, and we ended up exploring the state from
> Muscle Shoals to the forts of Dauphin Island.  Whenever I get back (about
> once a year or so) I try to make a trip to Cahawba/Cahaba to see how the
> restoration is going, and random side trips to places like Horseshoe Bend.
>
> To try and keep my chops in shape, at the moment I am mowing through
> "Alabama--The History of a Deep South State".
>
> --
> Te occidere possunt sed te edere non pussunt netas est
>         [Roughly, "They can kill you, but the legalities of
>                    eating you are quite a bit dicier."]
>
> Dean Costello
> costello@...
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
OK Dean from the looks of this list. I think that we're the only ones in
the United States. I always thought that I was just weird that I was
studying states on my own and now I find all you cool peopel on here and
I don't feel so weird anymore. So what interesting facts has everybody
found out about Alabama.
I have been making a scrapbook about it. I think that you must have been
interested in the physical side. I have been studying the people.
Different authors and different ways of cooking. I like reading
different books about it and how these people grew up and what
influenced them.
Kathy

JILL (MITCHELL) MYERS wrote:
>
> From: "JILL (MITCHELL) MYERS" <jmmyers@...>
>
> Hi Kathy:
>
> No, I'm not from Alabama, but from Gaithersburg, MD, a far-northern suburb
> of Washington DC. Have been through Alabama several times as a child (many
> years ago) on my way to my grandparent's place in Texas.  Turns out my
> great-grandfather,  Newton Mitchel, served as a private in the 41st Alabama,
> and a number of my ancestors made their way to Texas after living in Alabama
> for several years.  Hence my interest in Alabama history.
>
> Jill (Mitchell) Myers
> jmmyers@...
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: kbyrd@... <kbyrd@...>
> To: alabamahistory@onelist.com <alabamahistory@onelist.com>
> Date: Monday, November 30, 1998 9:52 AM
> Subject: [alabamahistory] Natives
>
> >From: kbyrd@...
> >
> >Hi
> >Are all the people on this list from Alabama or living in Alabama?
> >I live in KY. I have only visited Alabama.
> >Kathy
> >
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your product or
> >service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages. Visit
> >http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
> >------------------------------------------------------------------------
> >Archives for the list can be viewed at
> >http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
>
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> To unsubscribe from this mailing list, or to change your subscription
> to digest, go to the ONElist web site, at http://www.onelist.com and
> select the User Center link from the menu bar on the left.
> ------------------------------------------------------------------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
Hi Jill,
Have you got to go to the Van Gough exhibit yet.
There's a friend at work that went. He said he stood in line 3 hours to
get tickets.
Kathy

List members,


The life and times of 19th century Alabama industrialist Daniel Pratt who
arrived in Alabama from New Hampshire in 1833 will be examined and
celebrated in Prattville, Alabama, on February 19-20, 1999.

Topics of the lecture symposium on the 19th include Daniel Pratt as
religious man (Wayne Flynt), as industrial visionary (Marty Olliff), as
slave owner (Vergie Johnson), and as politcian (Curt Evans).  The focus on
the 20th will be Pratt as patron of the arts: Donald Keyes and Laquita
Thompson on Pratt's relations with artist George Cooke, and William Banks
on Pratt's influence on Georgia architecture.

There will be a tour of the Pratt cemetery and a gala dinner based on
contemporary menus.  Additionally, an exhibit of George Cooke's paintings
and reception will be held at the Alabama State Council on the Arts in
Montgomery.

Registration fee for the two day conference is $25, and tickets to the
historic dinner will also be $25.

For further information, contact Pratt Celebration at 334-365-9981 or P.O.
Box 680896, Prattville, AL 36068-0896.

Co-sponsors include the Alabama Humanities Foundation, Auburn University
Center for Arts and Humanities and the Blount Foundation.



Allen Cronenberg

On Wed, 02 Dec 1998 20:51:13 -0500 kbyrd@... wrote:

> From: kbyrd@...> Date: Wed, 02 Dec 1998 20:51:13
-0500
> Subject: [alabamahistory] Re: Natives
> To: alabamahistory@onelist.com
>
> From: kbyrd@...
>
> Nahfiza Ahmed wrote:
> >
> > From: Nahfiza Ahmed <N.Ahmed@...>
> >
> > Hello there,
> >
> > I am not from Alabama but from the UK. I have however
made
> > many visits to Mobile for my research and to visit my
> > relatives and to eat delicious Gulf Coast food.
> >
> > Nahfiza Ahmed
> > Dept. of History
> > University of Southampton
> > Highfield
> > Southampton SO17 1BJ
> > Tel: +44 1703 592239
> >
> >
------------------------------------------------------------
------------
> > Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your
product or
> > service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages.
Visit
> > http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
> >
------------------------------------------------------------
------------
> > Archives for the list can be viewed at
> > http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory
> Well I am just checking my mail and looks like Jill isn't
the only one
> from out of the county. Nahfiza is too. I can't believe
this. This is
> really neat. What kind of research do you do Nahfiza? I
have been to
> Mobile I think that it is beautiful. I love the food.
too.
> Kathy
>
>
------------------------------------------------------------
------------
> Help support ONElist, while generating interest in your
product or
> service. ONElist has a variety of advertising packages.
Visit
> http://www.onelist.com/advert.html for more information.
>
------------------------------------------------------------
------------
> Archives for the list can be viewed at
> http://www.onelist.com/archives.cgi/alabamahistory


Dear Kathy,

I am researching the civil rights movement in Mobile from
1925 to 1985 and am very close to finishing up my PhD thesis
on this topic. I hope to teach in Alabama one day but in the
mean time must put up with our wet, cold weather here in the
UK!

Nahfiza (Ms, sometimes difficult to tell from my name)

fyi--aj wright [alabamahistory moderator]

----------------------------Original message----------------------------
H-NET BOOK REVIEW
Published by H-SHGAPE@... (December, 1998)

Daniel Letwin.  _The Challenge of Interracial Unionism:  Alabama
Coal Miners, 1878-1921_.  Chapel Hill:  University of North Carolina
Press, 1998.  xii + 289 pp.  Tables, notes, bibliography, and index.
$49.95 (cloth), ISBN 0-8078-2377-5; $19.95 (paper), ISBN
0-8078-4678-3.

Reviewed for H-SHGAPE by Richard Greenwald
<greenwra@...>, State University of New York, College at
Morrisville

           Race and Class in the Alabama Coal Fields

Daniel Letwin's new book, _The Challenge of Interracial Unionism_,
joins a growing list of recent works which address in new and
sophisticated ways the issues of race and class consciousness in
American labor history.[1] Letwin tackles a venerable subject in
American labor history:  mining.  The debates surrounding race and
the United Mine Workers were stimulated by Herbert Gutman's noted
1968 essay.  Gutman argued that the United Mine Workers Union was a
beacon of hope in the rough sea of racism that was America in the
Gilded Age.  The union developed an interracial philosophy that
privileged class consciousness over race consciousness.  The core of
his argument concerned the career of one black UMW official, Richard
Davis.[2]

Twenty years after Gutman's essay first appeared, and three years
after his death, Herbert Hill wrote a scathing rejoinder.  Claiming
that Gutman had romanticized the UMW, Hill argued that it was
fundamentally racist, accepting black members but doing little for
them.[3]

Letwin's book is a full and careful study of this significant and
contested subject.  Rather than simply re-evaluating the source
which both Gutman and Hill relied upon, Letwin examined the lives,
communities, and culture of black and white miners in the Southern
fields.  As a result, Letwin rejects the views of both Gutman and
Hill, and instead offers a third way to view the complex
relationship between race and class in Gilded Age and Progressive
Era America.

The central question for Letwin is "what was the degree of
cooperation and mutual respect between black and white miners" (p.
3)?  He sees three interrelated themes in the experiences of Alabama
miners:  an awareness that racial division worked against miners of
both races in dealing with mine operators;  black and white miners
shared a common work culture and class identity; and lastly, the
unions and community organizations held onto certain key aspects of
white supremacy as a means to inoculate themselves against the
attacks of white supremists.

The book can be neatly divided into three parts\eras, each with its
own unique focus:  Gilded Age, Progressive Era, and World War I.
Politics played an important part for miners in the Gilded Age. Here
we are treated to a discussion of the history of greenbackism,
populism, the Knights of Labor, and the National Labor Union in the
coal camps of Alabama.  In this section of the book, Letwin connects
politics and work culture much like Leon Fink did in his work on the
Knights.  All of these political\labor groups shared one key factor:
they "kept alive an ethos of labor mutuality that tested the dual
traditions of employer paternalism and white supremacy" (p. 67).
Like many other unions, the Knights died because it failed to stay
connected to the needs of rank-and-file workers.  It became too much
of a political party and functioned less and less as a union.

With the hardening of the Jim Crow system of segregation after 1900,
politics would provide less and less of a solution. Prudently, the
newly-formed UMW focused almost entirely on work-related solutions.
In an effort to hold together their fragile union, mine union
officials resisted efforts to use race against them by denying that
they sought social equality for blacks.  Letwin argues that the UMW
used white supremacy as a way to deflect criticism of the unions
interracialism.  Thus, both Hill and Gutman were correct:  the union
was both racist and supported interracialism.  The UMW-led strikes
in 1903 and again in 1908 demonstrate two things.  One was the
strength of the operators to break the union. Even more significant,
miners held onto their interracial strategies even at the expense of
losing the strike.  Miners were somehow different.  Unlike other
white workers, white miners did not abandon their black brothers for
higher wages.  Miners did not accept a two-tier, racially divided
work force.

World War I brought yet another change.  Two significant groups
outside of the workplace entered into the miners' world:
middle-class black "up-lifters" and the federal government.  On the
role of government intervention, Letwin's work reinforces the work
of Joseph McCartin, focusing on how government intervention both
limited and empowered workers during the war.  On the role of the
black middle-class, Letwin might have over reached.  He presents a
static, unified black middle class which followed the teaching of
Booker T. Washington and therefore opposed unions and supported the
paternalism of the companies.  Recent work on the role of black
middle-class reformers in the Progressive Era tells a much more
complicated story.  It is possible that all of Birmingham's black
middle class spoke with one unified voice, but it is unlikely.[4]

The core argument is simply that interracialism survived.  It
certainly did not triumph, but neither did it fully die.  And that
is remarkable, considering the array of powerful forces against it
in the era of Jim Crow.  Miners' interracialism was "uneven" (p.
94).  Its unevenness, a subject that Letwin exhausts with a mountain
of evidence, lays to rest the Gutman-Hill debate.  The UMW held
neither the racial high or low ground, but positioned itself between
the two polls, never reaching either extreme.  Letwin develops the
fitting metaphor of "an ongoing project" (p.  130) to understand the
"collaboration between the races" (p. 134).  The miners'
interracialism was always in the state of becoming.

But considering the forces against interracialism, one must ask how
it survived as long as it did.  The answer, according to Letwin, is
that a "common class experience among black and white miners
provided the impetus to interracialism" (p. 192).  Letwin argues
that workers could share a similar class experience while at the
same time holding divergent racial outlooks.

Each section of this book presents remarkable detail.  In this
regard, Letwin has certainly followed Gutmans style in telling
little stories, the small details that make social history come
alive.  The result is a well-told, complex history that deserves a
wide reading.

Notes

[1].  The list is quite large and growing.  See Roger Horowitz,
_"Negro and White, Unite and Fight":  A Social History of Industrial
Unionism in Meatpacking, 1930-1990_ (Urbana:  University of Illinois
Press, 1997); and Judith Stein, _Running Steel, Running American:
Race, Economic Policy, and the Decline of Liberalism_ (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1998).

[2].  Herbert G. Gutman, "The Negro and the United Mine Workers of
America, the Career and Letters of Richard L. Davis and Something of
Their Meaning:  1890-1900," in _The Negro and the American Labor
Movement_, edited by Julius Jacobson (New York:  Anchor Books,
1968), 49-127.

[3].  Herbert Hill, "Myth-Making as Labor History:  Herbert Gutman
and the United Mine Workers of America," _Politics, Culture and
Society_ 2:2 (Winter 1988), 132-200.

[4].  On labor and World War I see Joseph McCartin, _Labor's Great
War:  The Struggle for Industrial Democracy and the Origins of
Modern American Labor Relations, 1912-1921_ (Chapel Hill: University
of north Carolina Press, 1997).  On the role of black middle-class
professionals during the late-nineteenth and early twentieth
centuries, see the work of Stephanie J. Shaw, _What a Woman Ought to
Be and to Do:  Black Professional Women Workers During the Jim Crow
Era_ (Chicago:  University of Chicago, 1996)  and Elizabeth
Lasch-Quinn, Black Neighbors:  Race and the Limits of Reform in the
American Settlement House Movement, 1890-1945_ (Chapel Hill:
University of North Carolina Press, 1993).

         Copyright (c) 1998 by H-Net, all rights reserved.  This work
         may be copied for non-profit educational use if proper
         credit is given to the author and the list.  For other
         permission, please contact H-Net@....

>From: kbyrd@...
>
>> I live in Virginia, right outside of DC.  I went to grad. school at UAB
>> (two years) in Birmingham, and I found that I had picked up an interest in
>> the state.  I got lucky in that I became friends with someone who also was
>> interested in state history, and we ended up exploring the state from
>> Muscle Shoals to the forts of Dauphin Island.  Whenever I get back (about
>> once a year or so) I try to make a trip to Cahawba/Cahaba to see how the
>> restoration is going, and random side trips to places like Horseshoe Bend.
>>
>> To try and keep my chops in shape, at the moment I am mowing through
>> "Alabama--The History of a Deep South State".
>
>OK Dean from the looks of this list. I think that we're the only ones in
>the United States. I always thought that I was just weird that I was
>studying states on my own and now I find all you cool peopel on here and
>I don't feel so weird anymore. So what interesting facts has everybody
>found out about Alabama.

...That many people had a hissy-fit when "Alabama--History of a Deep South
State" came out since it had more references to Werner von Braun than Bear
Bryant?  Again with the football...

Actually, I remember when I first traveled to Birmingham when I started
grad. school, I was constantly surprised that Birmingham was a real city,
and not just a collection of shotgun shacks with Bubbas out on the porch
wearing overalls with no shoes, drinking from a jug of hootch.  Nice city.

Which reminds me <Question for the group>:  If George Wallace hadn't blocked
Interstate highway funding in and around Birmingham, do you think that
Birmingham could have challenged Atlanta for supremacy in the Southeast?
-
Dean C.