transportation and emerging urban life

Today the students were challenged to make connections  between the ways in which waterways and railroads played a role in an urbanizing America. We began with a discussion of David Cecelski's study of African American maritime workers in antebellum North Carolina. These men played a role in Wilmington's growth on the heels of navigational improvements along Cape Fear.

Our discussion went beyond Wilmington and included other waterway narratives. For example, the students learned that former South Carolina Congressman Robert Smalls was among the enslaved maritime workers who aided the South during the Civil War. A boat pilot, Smalls escaped on a steamer in 1862 with his family and other enslaved people and eventually served in the Union Army.

Altogether, there were several opportunities for the students to see the ways that railroads and water vessels were useful on many fronts including this momentous war. For sure, the Weldon Railroad, running north from Wilmington to Richmond and Petersburg, was a critical transportation artery in sustaining Robert E. Lee's army of northern Virginia during the latter stages of the U.S. Civil War.

The students were given homework assignments that require them to analyze three pages of a diary kept by Nathaniel C. Kenyon, a man who served in the 11th Illinois Infantry. A copy of this diary is in UA's Hoole Library. In it, Kenyon wrote detailed descriptions of the southern cities through which he traveled, among them Tuscaloosa. 

In light of today's reading on how enslaved men evidenced power in the maritime industry, I look forward to sharing excerpts from the students' work in an upcoming blog entry. I hope they are able to intuit the ways in which Kenyon also evidenced power although he was a prisoner of war. In what ways does his life compare to the men in Cecelski's study? What new things does he teach us about urban life in nineteenth century America?

Beeler points out the path of the L & N.

Afterwards, we walked down to the nearby Black Warrior River to hear a short lecture by Dr. John Beeler of UA's History Department on the development of railroads in Tuscaloosa. Hear an excerpt from his talk on this blog post.

Meanwhile, here's a brief chronology that allows us to see Tuscaloosa becoming part of an urbanizing Alabama:

1871: The Alabama and Chattanooga Railroad (renamed the Alabama Great Southern Railroad in 1878) is completed, creating a diagonal link across Alabama that includes Tuscaloosa.

1898: The trestle that runs by Tuscaloosa's Amphitheatre (2710 Jack Warner Parkway NW, Tuscaloosa, AL) is constructed across the Black Warrior River for the Mobile & Ohio Railroad. The M & O ran between Columbus, MS, and Montgomery.

1890s:  A system of locks built on the Black Warrior River permits a cheap way to move goods to Mobile, a Gulf port city, stimulating industry in Tuscaloosa.

1912: Chartered in 1850 in by the state of Kentucky, the Louisville & Nashville Railroad, formerly the Birmingham and Tuscaloosa Railroad,  arrives in Tuscaloosa, passing near campus. Its 20-mile Tuscaloosa Mineral branch line reaches Brookwood coal mines. L & N’s station (301 Greensboro Ave, Tuscaloosa, Alabama) is now used for weddings and other social events.

If there are any errors in this timeline, they are mine alone. I'm still learning this history. I welcome feedback.

Dr. John Beeler's map of Tuscaloosa railroads.