'My World Is Gone'

Memories of Life in a Southern Cotton Mill Town

By: George G. Suggs Jr.

Narrated by: Steve Ember

Length: 6 hrs and 32 mins

Publisher's summary

Baseball, religion, work, death, and the company store - these figured eminently in the lives of Southern cotton mill workers and their families during the early decades of the 20th century. In this firsthand account of his native Bladenboro, North Carolina, George G. Suggs, Jr., captures in rich detail the world of a thriving cotton mill town where the company was dominant but workers had forged a strong community. Here the focus is on the workers - their interests, personalities, and values - in their best and in their darker moments. Ultimately, we see the many dimensions of working-class culture and taste a way of life that has vanished.

Drawing upon childhood memories and his father's recollections, Suggs covers events in Bladenboro during the 1930s and 40s. He describes the nature of cotton mill work, the stresses and strains produced by undesirable working conditions, and the various ways in which workers and their families learned to cope. Many characters emerge from this story - from the kind woman who dispensed the company fiat money to the desperate men who would gamble it away. The book explores key topics such as social rankings, medical care, the company store, and workers' responses to death. Above all, we see how faith found expression on the job and in the surrounding evangelical churches. The workers of Bladenboro are gone, and little remains of the mills, but this work pays tribute to lives well lived under the most challenging circumstances.

The book is published by Wayne State University Press.

©2002 Wayne State University Press (P)2016 Redwood Audiobooks

Critic reviews

"...a moving tribute to [Sugg's] father and other relatives and acquaintances who were part of that past. (Bess Beatty, Oregon State University)

Great book

Dr. Suggs brings to vivid life a time and a place that is lost to history. His recollections provide a valuable record of the past and underscore the transitory nature of what it is to be human. Dr. Suggs finds magic in the work-a-day activities and happening of the people and places he describes, magic that will be familiar to anyone who fondly remembers times that are at once gone and yet still live in heart and mind.