Introduction
“New ideas have taken
a firm hold in the South, and, to succeed and prosper, we must spin cotton…in
light of the new order of things,” proclaimed D.A. Tompkins of Charlotte,
an influential engineer, mill designer, manufacturer, and publicist. Edward
Dilworth Latta, whose Charlotte Consolidated Construction Company introduced
trolleys to the Queen City, wrote in May 1891, “We must go forward
or retrograde—there is no resting point with progress.”
Industry is often thought of as requiring big machinery, assembly lines, and buildings with smokestacks. But industry encompasses any large-scale business activity, including agriculture, manufacturing, and services.
Geographers call manufacturing industries secondary economic activities: businesses that process raw materials gathered through primary activities to produce higher-value goods. Service industries, called tertiary economic activities, provide services, such as education, and products. Transportation, telecommunications, government services, finance, real estate, wholesale and retail businesses, and utilities are all service industries. The following time line of North Carolina’s manufacturing and service industries focuses on the traditional “Big Three” in manufacturing—furniture, textiles/apparel, and tobacco—banking, and tourism.
Click on the image below to activate the timeline. The interactive timeline requires Macromedia Flash Player 4 or later. Click here to download the free Flash Player plug-in.
From
Field to Factory to Market
So how do items get from the field to your favorite store? These Web sites offer answers. Furniture Value Chains Hog Farming Value Chain On the Job in North Carolina
Textiles and Apparel
Value Chains Tobacco Value Chains |
Duke Homestead State Historic
Site
http://www.ah.dcr.state.nc.us/sections/hs/duke/duke.htm
Like a Family: The Making of
a Southern Mill Village
http://www.ibiblio.org/sohp/laf/
The North Carolina Atlas
http://www.ncatlasrevisited.org/homefrm.html
(click on Manufacturing; Retail Trade, Banking, and Tourism; and The Economy)
North Carolina Business History
http://www.historync.org/index.htm
The North Carolina Experience:
Beginnings to 1940: Topical Access to Economics & Business
http://docsouth.unc.edu/nc/econ.html
North Carolina in the Global
Economy
http://www.soc.duke.edu/NC_GlobalEconomy/index.html
North Carolina Progress Board
http://www.ncprogress.org/
North Carolina Tobacco and the Shifting Global Field http://www.ucis.unc.edu/globalsouth/papers/Marr-paper.pdf
North Carolina Tobacco Timeline
http://www.unctv.org/ncdependence/history.html
Old West Durham Neighborhood
Association: Southern Cotton Mills
http://www.owdna.org/History/history15.htm
On the Job in North Carolina
http://www.workingfilms.org/
Tourism—A Service of
the North Carolina Department of Commerce
http://www.nccommerce.com/tourism/
Assignment
3
Complete one of the following assignments:
Option1:
Outline how the material in the time line correlates with the five themes
of geography. Include a list of other subjects that can be incorporated
into the study of manufacturing and services.
Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncmail.net.
Option 2:
In Special Session 2, Dr. Stuart outlined four basic questions for studying
geography: what, where, why, and so what? Address the so what question
in relation to North Carolina’s manufacturing and service industries.
As Stuart stated, what are the implications? Why do we need to understand
it? If what’s happening is not what we want it to be, how do we
change it? Write as if you are addressing your students.
Submit your completed assignment via e-mail to: tricia.l.blakistone@ncmail.net.
Option 3: (If you are seeking
technology credits, choose this option.)
Would you use an interactive computer tool such as the time line in this
session in your classroom? If so, how? What advantages do the Internet,
CD-ROMs, PDAs, and other recent technologies offer in your curriculum?
How do they compare to traditional teaching tools? Which do you prefer?
Use examples from your own experience when possible. Post your answers
on the workshop’s Bulletin Board.