Raised on Railroad

The end of the Civil War found the South in a state of financial ruin. Almost the entire Southern economy had been based on agriculture, and that, in turn, had depended on slave labor for high profits.

The Boys in Gray returning home in 1865 were greeted by a terrible vision: Millions of acres of farmland had been untended for years. Storehouses were depleted, destroyed or plundered. The South’s only truly industrial city, Atlanta, had been leveled, and the Confederate dollar was no longer worth the paper upon which it was printed.

Emancipated slaves also faced a bleak-looking future. Many freed African-Americans found themselves with no where to go. The Union promise of “40 acres and a mule” never became a reality. Those who were willing to work the same land, as freedmen, that they had previously worked as slaves found that their former masters no longer had the means to employ them. This resulted in the sharecropping system, which essentially replaced slavery with serfdom, binding men and women of both races to the land they worked with little hope of ever leaving it.

Finding this situation untenable, many African Americans migrated to rebuilt Southern cities looking for factory jobs. Here they found keen competition for these jobs from similarly displaced whites and could often secure only the most menial and low-paying positions. The African-American districts of such cities were places of shocking squalor, being the last to receive funding for basic services.

But others found redemption in the great American undertaking of the late 19th and early 20th centuries: the railroad.

Starting in the 1870s, the reunified United States began the massive work of expanding and improving its railroad network. Even existing lines in states like Georgia and Tennessee were reengineered to make them straight and level, which would in turn allow faster travel by train.  The backbreaking labor of laying crossties and rails, often eschewed by white men, was willingly accepted by the freedmen. Unlike former slave labor, work on the railroads left an enduring mark on the American landscape, giving the freedmen a sense of gratification that far exceeded their wages.

Cobb County remained a key player in all of this.

In 1892, James Bolan Glover, II, a descendant of , purchased the Phoenix Foundry and Machine Shop in Marietta. In 1895, he converted it into the Glover Machine Works, and by 1897, the Glover Locomotive was considered one of the finest locomotive engines produced in the world.

This also brought jobs and financial stability to the region, allowing Marietta to keep its standing as a thriving and affluent community. The boon of the railroad also brought prosperity to other cities on the lines, such as and Austell.   

The railroad industry created a hierarchy through which African Americans were able to climb. Beginning in 1862, George Pullman had been manufacturing railroad “sleeping” cars at his company in Chicago. By the late 1870s, the Pullman Sleeper was the height of luxury travel, boasting finely-finished interiors, rich draperies, strict standards of cleanliness, and a level of personal service that was largely unmatched in the travel and hospitality industry.

To provide this level of service, Pullman sought out former slaves who possessed dignity, bearing and attention to detail to become porters on his sleeping cars. Although modern sensibilities might see this as another form of black servitude, the job of Pullman Porter became on of the most dignified and respected positions to which African Americans could aspire.

But being a Pullman porter was more than a mark of status; it was an avenue into a wider world. During a time when few people journeyed beyond the borders of their native states, Pullman porters accompanied their wealthy passengers across state lines from Georgia to New York and westward to Chicago, St. Louis and even California. Pullman porters became the most well-travelled and well-connected African Americans in the country, contributing greatly to the 20th century emergence of the black middle class.

Some famous African Americans who had been Pullman Porters include U.S. Supreme Court Justice Thurgood Marshall; Morehouse College President Benjamin E. Mays and civil rights leader Malcolm X.

The Southern Museum of Civil War and Locomotive History, located in historic downtown Kennesaw, chronicles the history of the American railroad and houses an extensive collection from the Glover Machine and Locomotive Works. A permanent exhibit entitled “Up Through the Rails” celebrates African Americans and their contributions to the nation’s railroads.