Mule and Wagon To Automobile: Social Change in North Georgia

For north Georgian farmers in 1870, the cost of traveling over rough paths from farm to market by mule and wagon was prohibitive. Local farm households produced most of their own food, clothing and other essential needs. When the railroads were built, the cost of transporting goods fell sharply. Local farmers shifted from subsistence farming to cash crop production, sold their crops in Gainesville, and bought inexpensive goods at local stores. Many poor farmers abandoned rural life, moving ...