Like a Family: The Making of a Southern Cotton Mill World

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Photo, Doffers at the Bibb Mill No. 1, Lewis Hine, 1909, Like a Family.
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The companion to a book of the same name, this website offers selected oral history resources that examine lives in southern textile mill towns from the 1880s to the 1930s. The site is divided into three sections. "Life on the Land" discusses agricultural roots of the rural south, changes in farm labor after the Civil War, and economic factors that caused the transition to mill work in the late 19th century. "Mill Village and Factory" describes work in the mills and life in the company mill towns. "Work and Protest" discusses labor protests of the 1920s, formation of unions, and the textile strike of 1934.

The site contains 15 photographs and nearly 70 audio clips drawn from oral history interviews with descendants of millhands and others involved in the history of the Southern textile industry. There are valuable links to Southern history, oral history, and textile mill history websites. This site is ideal for studying rural southern life and labor history from Reconstruction through the 1930s.

Flint Sit-Down Strike

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Photo, Genora Johnson with a very..., c. 1936-1937, Flint Sit-Down Strike
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This rich, multimedia resource provides an introduction to "the greatest strike in American history." The six-week occupation of the General Motors plant at Flint, Michigan, in 1936–37, was led by the recently-formed United Auto Workers. Using the new tactic of remaining in the plant rather than picketing outside, the strikers stopped production and won many demands.

The site begins with a short introductory essay and a small bibliography and webography. The three main sections—organization, strike, and aftermath—provide nearly 100 audio interviews recorded between 1978 and 1984 with former strikers recalling work conditions prior to the strike, experiences during the sit-in, the hostile reaction of Flint residents, the role of the Women's Auxiliary, and conditions following the strike. Each section includes a narrative essay. In addition the site presents slideshows, an audio timeline, and a Flash-generated strike map with textual and audio links.

Child Labor in America, 1908-1912: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine

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Image for Child Labor in America, 1908-1912: Photographs of Lewis W. Hine
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Furnishes 64 photographs taken by Lewis W. Hine (1874–1940) between 1908 and 1912. Images document American children working in mills, mines, streets, and factories, and as "newsies," seafood workers, fruit pickers, and salesmen. The website also includes photographs of immigrant families and children's "pastimes and vices."

Original captions by Hine—one of the most influential photographers in American history—call attention to exploitative and unhealthy conditions for laboring children. A background essay introduces Hine and the history of child labor in the United States. This is a valuable collection for studying documentary photography, urban history, labor history, and the social history of the Progressive era.

Scholars in Action: Analyzing Blues Songs

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Scholars in Action presents case studies that demonstrate how scholars interpret different kinds of historical evidence. "Two White Horses Standin' in Line" (sung by Smith Cason) and "Worry Blues" (sung by Jesse Lockett), both recorded in 1939 by folklorist Alan Lomax, are known as "blues" songs.

The blues emerged as a musical form among African Americans in the late 19th and early 20th centuries and gained the attention of folklorists and record companies. Historians have studied blues and other African American musical forms to gain insight into the experiences and perspectives of poor and working-class African Americans who left few written records about their lives.

Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor [OH]

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The Youngstown Historical Center of Industry and Labor provides a dramatic overview of the impact of the iron and steel industry on Youngstown and other Mahoning Valley communities. The building, designed by renowned architect Michael Graves in 1986, houses the museum's permanent exhibit, "By the Sweat of Their Brow: Forging the Steel Valley," which explores labor, immigration, and urban history, using videos, artifacts, photographs, and reconstructed scenes. Objects on display range from workers' tools and clothing to "last heats," the last batches of steel produced at each of the mills before they closed. Hundreds of photographs, some more than 30 feet long, are used throughout the museum. Videos examine topics such as housing, recreation, and urban history. Life-size scenes—including a mill's locker room, part of a company-built house, and a blooming mill, where steel ingots were shaped for further processing—help visitors understand steelmaking and the lives of steelworkers.

The center offers exhibits, tours, research library access, and educational programs.

Historic Government Publications from World War II: A Digital Library

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Image, A Pocket Guide to Hawaii, R. Bach, 1945, Historic Government Publications
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More than 300 U.S. government publications from World War II have been digitized for this site, an ongoing project that plans to add another 200 documents.

Materials include pamphlets and books emphasizing home front issues, such as air raids, preservation, child labor, and victory farms. All materials are searchable by title, author, subject, and keyword. Browsing is also available.

A companion collection of photographs, the "Melvin C. Shaffer Collection," depicts the home front situation in Germany, North Africa, Italy, and Southern France from 1943 to 1945. Shaffer was a U.S. Army medical photographer assigned to document the medical history of the war through major campaigns. Shafer took the photographs on this site—totaling approximately 340—unofficially with the goal of recording the war's impact on civilians.

Diversity, Urbanization, and The Constitution, Part One: The Great Migration, Urbanization, and the Constitution

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Eric Arnesen, Professor of History and African American Studies at the University of Chicago addresses the interplay between the African-American experience between Reconstruction and the Great Migration, the U.S. Constitution, and shifting democratic ideals.

Audio and video options are available.

Freedmen's Bureau Online

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Logo, Freedmen's Bureau Online
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The Bureau of Refugees, Freedmen, and Abandoned Lands, also known as the Freedmen's Bureau, was established by the War Department in 1865 to supervise all relief and education activities for refugees and freedmen after the Civil War. The Bureau was responsible for issuing rations, clothing, and medicine, and had custody of confiscated lands in the former Confederate states and other designated territories. This website contains an extensive collection of Freedmen's Bureau records and reports.

Included are more than 100 transcriptions of reports on murders, riots, and "outrages" (any criminal offense) that occurred in the former Confederate states from 1865 to 1868. There are also 30 links to records and indexes of labor contracts between freedmen and planters between 1865 and 1872; seven links to related sites; six links to marriage records of freedmen, 1861–1872; and more than 100 miscellaneous state record items concerning freedmen.