{"id":{"repo_id":"uab","oai_identifier":"oai:digitalcommons.library.uab.edu:etd-collection-7931"},"canonical_url":"https://search.dev.ndltd.org/etd/uab/oai:digitalcommons.library.uab.edu:etd-collection-7931","repository":{"repo_id":"uab","name":"University of Alabama Birmingham","base_url":"https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/do/oai/"},"display":{"title":"Migration in the Cotton South: The Geographic Mobility of Alabama Farmers, 1850-1860.","abstract":"In 1855, in an address before the Chunnenuggee Horticultural Society, Clement C. Clay described the migration of farmers from the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama. The small planters, Clay observed, \"after taking the cream off their lands,\" were going westward in search of new land. Wealthier planters \"with greater means and no more skill\" bought out their poorer neighbors, extended their plantations, and added to their slaveholdings. As Clay summarized this process, \"the wealthy few . . . are thus pushing off the many, who are merely independent.\" In his own Madison County, Clay saw \"numerous farm houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and delapidated [sic].\" The result was, as Clay somberly concluded, an agricultural region where \"the freshness of agricultural glory is gone, the vigor of youth is extinct, and the spirit of desolation seems brooding over it.","abstract_html":"In 1855, in an address before the Chunnenuggee Horticultural Society, Clement C. Clay described the migration of farmers from the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama. The small planters, Clay observed, "after taking the cream off their lands," were going westward in search of new land. Wealthier planters "with greater means and no more skill" bought out their poorer neighbors, extended their plantations, and added to their slaveholdings. As Clay summarized this process, "the wealthy few . . . are thus pushing off the many, who are merely independent." In his own Madison County, Clay saw "numerous farm houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and delapidated [sic]." The result was, as Clay somberly concluded, an agricultural region where "the freshness of agricultural glory is gone, the vigor of youth is extinct, and the spirit of desolation seems brooding over it.","abstract_has_math":false,"creators":["Inman, Henry Forrest"],"institution":null,"degree_name":null,"degree_level":"Thesis","degree_discipline":null,"degree_department":null,"school":null,"contributors":[],"advisors":[],"committee_chairs":[],"committee_members":[],"year":1981,"date_issued":"1981-01-01T08:00:00Z","date_published":"1981-01-01T08:00:00Z","updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:06:03Z","subjects":["Alabama farmers","Cotton South","Farmer migration"],"languages":[],"rights":[],"rights_urls":[],"identifier_entries":[]},"links":{"outbound_url":"https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6939","outbound_label":"Repository record","outbound_source":"dc:identifier"},"metadata_groups":[{"id":"people","label":"People","entries":[{"key":"dc:creator","label":"Author","values":["Inman, Henry Forrest"]}]},{"id":"academic_context","label":"Academic Context","entries":[{"key":"thesis:degree_level","label":"Degree Level","values":["Thesis"]}]},{"id":"subjects_keywords","label":"Subjects and Keywords","entries":[{"key":"dc:subject","label":"Dc Subject","values":["Alabama farmers","Cotton South","Farmer migration"]}]},{"id":"identifiers","label":"Identifiers","entries":[{"key":"dc:identifier","label":"Identifier","values":["https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6939"]}]},{"id":"additional","label":"Additional Metadata","entries":[{"key":"dc:description.abstract","label":"Abstract","values":["In 1855, in an address before the Chunnenuggee Horticultural Society, Clement C. Clay described the migration of farmers from the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama. The small planters, Clay observed, \"after taking the cream off their lands,\" were going westward in search of new land. Wealthier planters \"with greater means and no more skill\" bought out their poorer neighbors, extended their plantations, and added to their slaveholdings. As Clay summarized this process, \"the wealthy few . . . are thus pushing off the many, who are merely independent.\" In his own Madison County, Clay saw \"numerous farm houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and delapidated [sic].\" The result was, as Clay somberly concluded, an agricultural region where \"the freshness of agricultural glory is gone, the vigor of youth is extinct, and the spirit of desolation seems brooding over it."]},{"key":"dc:title","label":"Title","values":["Migration in the Cotton South: The Geographic Mobility of Alabama Farmers, 1850-1860."]}]}],"canonical_facts":{"dc:creator":["Inman, Henry Forrest"],"dc:description.abstract":["In 1855, in an address before the Chunnenuggee Horticultural Society, Clement C. Clay described the migration of farmers from the Tennessee Valley region of Alabama. The small planters, Clay observed, \"after taking the cream off their lands,\" were going westward in search of new land. Wealthier planters \"with greater means and no more skill\" bought out their poorer neighbors, extended their plantations, and added to their slaveholdings. As Clay summarized this process, \"the wealthy few . . . are thus pushing off the many, who are merely independent.\" In his own Madison County, Clay saw \"numerous farm houses, once the abode of industrious and intelligent freemen, now occupied by slaves, or tenantless, deserted, and delapidated [sic].\" The result was, as Clay somberly concluded, an agricultural region where \"the freshness of agricultural glory is gone, the vigor of youth is extinct, and the spirit of desolation seems brooding over it."],"dc:identifier":["https://digitalcommons.library.uab.edu/etd-collection/6939"],"dc:subject":["Alabama farmers","Cotton South","Farmer migration"],"dc:title":["Migration in the Cotton South: The Geographic Mobility of Alabama Farmers, 1850-1860."],"thesis:degree_level":["Thesis"]},"updated_at":"2026-07-24T05:06:03Z"}