Linda Dalton, President
Robin Brabham, Vice President
Jim Williams, Treasurer and Corresponding Secretary
Jane Johnson, Program Chair
Barbara McCray Jackson, ex-officio, President of the MHA Docents
Chase Saunders, Immediate Past President
Board Members:
Allen Brooks
Luther Moore
Marion Redd
Robin Cochran
Monday, May 21, 2018
Trinity Presbyterian Church. Dinner is at 6:30 followed by the program at 7:15. Those not having dinner may enjoy the program at no charge. To make a reservation for dinner use the order form in your MHA Newsletter or contact Barbara Taylor, 1016 Goshen Place, Charlotte, NC 28211, btaylor797@aol.com or 980-335-0326.
Early America’s Sleeping Beauty: How Nature and Nurture Turned an Unruly Fiber into King Cotton,
Augmented by the Rural Hill Farm Journals
In America’s early days Upland Cotton, the variety that grows readily across the South, had botanical factors that kept it unprofitable. This was a great frustration to farmers until Eli Whitney invented a new kind of gin. We’ll hear about the botany of cotton, Whitney’s improved gin, and how it complicated his sad love life. Scientific farming was coming into play, yet cotton farming was still very labor intensive. Cotton had a major impact on the national economy, and a role in precipitating the Civil War.
Ann Williams has researched and interpreted local antebellum historic sites for many years. About ten years ago she began researching cotton in order to better understand plantation life. More recently she published The Rural Hill Farm Journals of Adam Brevard Davidson, 1834-1856. She will talk about transcribing those journals, Rural Hill’s use of Scientific Farming, an important advancement for 19th century agriculture, and the immense amount of detail the journals added to her research.
Tuesday, May 1, 2018
A Journey to Springfield
Our May meeting will be a field trip to Springfield, the plantation home of John Springs III. In February of this year Ann Evans presented a program on the large extended Springs family, and their great influence on the prosperity of Mecklenburg County and of upstate South Carolina. We asked for more and she has delivered. Ann will lead us on a tour of Springfield built by John Springs III in the early 1800s. It is an excellent example of early 19th century architecture and is used today primarily as office space.
Details to follow.