The Most They Ever Had

Rick Bragg in his beautifully and aptly titled book THE MOST THEY EVER HAD has given the world a portrait of the people in and around Jacksonville, Alabama, most of whom spent their often all-too-short lives working in cotton mills there. Their stories are similar: they had little education—often quitting school early to earn a living to support sick parents or single moms or younger siblings—they were white, they were dirt poor, they breathed lint from the cotton that destroyed their lungs, they often lost a finger, a hand or arm while working in the mills, they never missed a day’s work until a respiratory disease forced them to quit work, they died too young, they seldom complained.Through the lives of these people whom Bragg calls over and over “my people,” we see families of three generations of mill workers, the only attempt at getting a union, the United Textile Union, and a strike by workers that ended in the winter of 1933. As the author writes so succinctly: “There would never be another union here.” The final textile mill closed in 2001. The jobs were going out of the country. “Like the grandparents and great-grandparents of the Jacksonville workers, the Latin American and Asian workers would take what they could get, because there was little else.” The bosses held a meeting of employees on March 14 of 2001 to break the news to them. “Some cried, but quietly."These mill workers’ stories—seldom told-- are stories that need to be told and are obviously very dear to Mr. Bragg’s heart. He is at the top of his game here. A fantastic and heartwarming book.

This slim volume is author's Rick Bragg's tribute to Southern textile mill workers. Bragg's brother, Sam, worked in the textile mills for many years, so he knows the working environment, health risks and challenges first hand.Bragg, one of the best writers around, profiles several textile mill workers and cotton pickers, who were hard-working, low paid and poorly treated. They had few expectations and goals, outside of putting food on the table, which was often a struggle.Bragg writes that the mountain people sought salvation in the textile mills. Often called "lint heads," they worked in terrible conditions, as lint was constantly in the air. They inhaled it and developed byssinosis, a disease of slow suffocation. Workers breathed like their lungs were stuffed with rags. Industry executives called it a "phantom disease," suggesting it was an excuse for laziness and hangovers. While the textile mills allowed workers to put bread on the table, they paid for every scrap with poor health.Most workers felt like they had no choice but to work in the textile mills. It was a matter of survival. And, no matter how deplorable the conditions, there was always someone who would be glad to take that position.Workers ate their skimpy lunches at the machines. And, company officials regularly implemented "Stretch Out" times where they ran the machines at back-breaking speed, forcing the workers to keep up.In 1933, President Franklin Roosevelt raised the minimum weekly wage in textile mills to $12, but William Greenleaf, who owned a mill where workers were only paid $7 a week, gave a meager 25 cents a week raise.If you've read Rick Bragg's other books, you already have an appreciation of the honest, hard-working, poor folks of the South. This book will add to that appreciation.

There stands a hundred or more silent mills across the south that, should you listen closely, echoes with the grinding of gears, the screeching of cog wheels and conveyor belts and pulleys, the growling of iron monsters ready to chew a careless arm or crush an unsuspecting hand. The people of these once noisy factories are the ghosts you'll see, their spirits still alive within the confines of the towering walls containing such noise. They are the people who Rick Bragg hail from, their veins coursing with the hearty blood of the Scotsman and Irish come over generations ago when the crystal minerals of the Appalachian mountain streams flowed all the way to the emerald Gulf shores, creating some of the whitest beaches ever. These people even now have a strength in their bodies and spirits like no other; they don't understand what quitting or giving up means, even when the thing they refuse to or can't quit is slowly killing them. These are my people too, and there isn't another of us who can tell there story as clearly, as eloquently, as Rick Bragg, all the while making me miss that red clay and the tall pines and the gentle breeze flowing through the hills of home, making me want some collards and corn bread and an afternoon of sitting on a porch shelling peas until late afternoon when the mill's whistle blows, signaling the end of a long day's shift. If you are of this ilk, read this book. And if you are not, but are curious about the ways of the South...read this book. Immerse yourself in it. It is most worthy.

I love that Mr.Bragg gave voice and recognition to these hard working people. Life was hard,the work unbearable. And yet the joy of baseball, the love of family and humor kept them going. I guess because my mother's family is from there I felt drawn to the stories. I knew mamma had poor circumstances to live thru ,but humor always was the key. The way they all coped. And man do I feel blessed to have had that passed down to us kids! I love all his books. Ever one of em!

Being from Alabama and having family and friends that worked in the textiles mills. I can relate first hand to this tale. I love his stories and it takes me back home every time. Great read.