The fall line marks the prehistoric ocean’s shoreline land north of it is higher in elevation than the land to the south. As a result, the mills were often located along fast moving rivers or the along the fall line, a land area several miles wide that runs along the border between the hilly Piedmont region and the Upper Coastal Plain, from Columbus to Augusta. The locations of these factories were confined to areas in which swiftly moving waterways could be harnessed to power the mill machinery. Simultaneously, more land was becoming available for cotton cultivation in central and west Georgia after the forcible and violent removal of the Creek Indians.Įarly textile manufacturing establishments consisted of small mills, limited in size and scope, that produced coarse fabrics for grain sacks. The idea of textile mills as a means of commerce resurfaced when an economic depression in 1837 required alternate sources of revenue for southern businessmen. Both factories, built around 1810, had failed by the early 1820s, largely due to the regions’ rural economy, sparse population, and and underdeveloped transportation network. The earliest of these mills in Georgia were the Antioch Factory in Morgan County and the Bolton Factory in Wilkes County. ![]() Image from National Museum of American History, Smithsonian InstitutionĪfter the War of 1812 (1812-15) some southern leaders, in an attempt to duplicate the prosperity of cotton mills in New England, built textile factories in the South. Industrial-scale cotton production in the state gradually emerged in later decades. White planters, in turn, used enslaved Black workers to plant and harvest acre upon acre of cotton. This labor saving tool gradually transformed cotton into a profitable crop, and cotton cultivation increased rapidly across the state during the nineteenth century. The cotton gin was invented in the 1790s by Eli Whitney at Catharine Greene ’s Mulberry Grove plantation in Chatham County. Named for the silk city of the same name in China, Canton was ultimately unsuccessful at establishing a silk center. ![]() ![]() As late as the 1830s, some communities, including the town of Canton in Cherokee County, were still attempting to manufacture it. By the 1780s the hardier and more lucrative cotton crop was being cultivated as a replacement for silk, yet silk production did not die completely in Georgia. Seasonal temperature variables, however, were detrimental to the sensitive silkworms and hindered silk production. The colonists attained success within the year records show that Queen Caroline of England wore a gown made of Georgia silk in 1735.Ībout twenty-five miles northwest of Savannah, the German-speaking Salzburgers of Ebenezer were also attempting to produce silk, and by the late 1730s they had silk operations in place. Silk production proved difficult for the untrained Georgia colonists, however, so skilled Italian silk makers were brought in to teach them the process. ![]() Among the plants cultivated in the garden were mulberry trees, the leaves of which were used to feed silkworms. The colonial trustees developed a plan for textile production in the Georgia colony, and in 1734 General James Edward Oglethorpe established the Trustee Garden in Savannah for agricultural experimentation.
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