Days gone by: A folklife, history and oral history study of Bay Springs, Mississippi

The study is an historical reconstruction of Bay Springs, a small northeast Mississippi community that flourished through much of the latter half of the nineteenth century. The primary focus of Bay Springs was a cotton processing factory, a characteristically northeastern manufacturing concern atypical of the South at the time. The factory complex was destroyed by a fire of mysterious origin in the mid-1880s. Subsequently, the community began a gradual decline that was hastened by the construction of the Tennessee-Tombigbee Waterway in the late 1970s.;Using the techniques and methodologies of history, oral history and folklife, a detailed study was undertaken to construct a chronology of Bay Springs from its inception to its demise. Historical research suggested that the direction taken in the community's development as well as the events that precipitated its demise were strongly influenced by technoeconomic variables operating independently throughout Bay Springs' history. Evidence of these same variables also were reflected in the data generated by the folklife and oral history phases of the Bay Springs study, and these correlations validate the argument that independent technoeconomic variables were influential in charting the course of Bay Springs' history. Additionally, the study indicates that a multidisciplinary approach employed in an examination of various aspects of traditional culture can provide a more detailed record than do any of the above approaches used singly.