There are some skilled workmen among the negroes, especially in tobacco, but generally they furnish the unskilled labor.
The textile industry employs the greatest number of operatives, or at least concentrates them more.

From the farms or the mountain coves, or only one generation removed from that environment, they have been drawn to the mills by various motives.

The South is still sparsely settled, and the life of the tenant farmer or the small landowner and his family is often lonely.

Until recently, roads were almost universally bad, especially in winter, and a visit to town or even to a neighbor was no small undertaking.

Attendance at the country church, which sometimes has services only once a month, or a trip to the country store on Saturday afternoon with an occasional visit to the county-seat furnish almost the only opportunity for social intercourse.