'Room for improvement, but no room for progress': The material basis of the economic transition in the Georgia Piedmont, 1880--1910

This dissertation analyzes 228 probate inventories from Crawford, Jasper, and Franklin counties in the Georgia Piedmont dating between 1880 and 1910 to positively explore how the possessions of yeoman farmers reflect responses to the economic and social challenges of the postbellum period. While many studies document the evolving pattern of land tenure, agricultural production, and the dependence on store credit, few reveal the ways in which individual farmers viewed their world, how they defined social and economic success, or the strategies they employed to improve their condition.;The study begins with a discussion of economic hardship as a defining feature of the postbellum South and posits that yeoman farmers in Middle Georgia were forward thinking and hopeful actors who worked diligently to become self-reliant and successful. The following chapter describes the historical context for each county in order to characterize the regional variability that developed within the Piedmont due to differing cultural antecedents as well as varying rates of incorporation into the cotton economy.;Chapter Three presents the methodology used to analyze the material culture listed in inventories and argues that probate data are the most representative sources available to permit a comprehensive analysis of yeoman households. The fourth chapter explores the full range of production conducted on farms including production for market, home use, as well as additional income-generating activities. Chapter Five focuses on the household as an integral part of the farm operation as well as the way in which household possessions reflect consumption practices among farm families in Middle Georgia. This chapter concludes with a discussion of estate auctions as a secondary market in used goods that provided Georgians with a cheaper alternative for acquiring the goods.;The sixth chapter considers wealth and economic independence as they are represented through land tenure and the pattern of farm goods, household possessions, and livestock recorded in probate inventories. Chapter Seven, the concluding chapter, discusses the findings from previous chapters as an inter-related whole, showing that the cotton-based economy of the Georgia Piedmont was as complex, dynamic, and viable as the urban model characterized by increasing industrialization and conspicuous consumption.