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• Mass Production, Marketing and Consumers

Mass Production, Marketing and Consumers

Consumerism in America had its beginnings as early as the mid-eighteenth century if not earlier. “From the 1750s Chesapeake colonists were inundated with an unprecedented flow of nonessential consumer goods, including a wide variety of textiles, ceramic dining wares, cutlery, mirrors, and time pieces, some of which free families, middling and poor as well as rich, eagerly embraced, for reasons of both practicality and social utility” (Walsh 1997:149).

The decades following the Civil War were generally a period of economic struggle for many small farms in Virginia's southern Piedmont. The mill offered debt relief that the farm could not. Railroads undoubtedly factored into the region's gradual rebirth after the Civil War and were instrumental in Riverside Mill's success. The Danville and Richmond Railroad and its successors transported both people and goods into and out of Danville and the rest of the southern Piedmont. The increased shipment of goods, fostered by industrial growth in the eastern United States, only intensified consumer appetite. Consumerism began in the region during the previous century, but its dramatic expansion after the Civil War was made possible by the rail system.

In late nineteenth-century America there was "a dramatic output of goods ... [and] a steady decline in prices...; the period 1865–1897 remains the longest unbroken era of deflation in American history” (Klein 1994:15). A vast array of new, affordable products were shipped by rail and offered by store merchants and mail order catalogs. It was in this economic setting that the Danville and Richmond Railroad connected the inhabitants of Danville and its outlying communities with important commercial centers in North Carolina, and northward with Richmond and beyond. Acquiring new and improved goods may have been a gradual process for many of the earliest families. Most may have been more excited by the prospects of steady employment and better living conditions. This sentiment is expressed in a letter written in 1913 by an operative to a relative back home:

Hit's true about the mills having jobs, jist like the man said. Your family of 9 would really be welcome 'cause they have plenty of openings here at Schoolfield. I wish I had 'acome a long time before. After they opened in 1902 they even built houses for the workers. At first they had jist 10 houses but now there is lots more'n at.....If you ever decide to bring your family, come on. We will give you lodging and help you git settled. It ain't bad a 'tall. We have 3 rooms in our house in walking distance to work and there's a' out house no more'n 50 feet from the back door. We even git free toilet paper and light bulbs (quoted from Thompson 1984:8).

By the 1920s and 1930s, many of Danville's mill households were probably not “straight off the farm,” rather second or third generation residents keenly familiar with the benefits of urban life. In Danville there was the potential for steady employment, access to merchants, doctors, and other providers, and entertainment seemed to represent the best opportunities. A flavor of services available can be found in local advertisements. The increased importance of national brands can be seen in the list of advertisers in a widely read magazine like Good Housekeeping. Urban life, coupled with improved technology and goods distribution beginning in the late nineteenth century is reflected in part by the diversity of items recovered from Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181. The variety of ceramics, glass, personal objects, toys, among others, were known to their grandparents and great grandparents to some degree, but now were “consumed” in perhaps greater abundance due to improved access. Different economic spheres of interaction undoubtedly had become more a part of their lives than for past generations and helped shape their responses to the challenges they faced (Barnard 1995).

After the Civil War, consumer mind set was increasingly shaped by the availability of mass-produced goods brought about through technological improvements and improved transportation via roads and rail. The number, diversity, and origin of household and personal goods increased dramatically due to these developments and whetted consumer appetites for more diverse, mass-produced items from national and international sources (Adams 1991; Bedell et al. 1994; Stewart-Abernathy 1986). Family aspirations in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries mirrored those of earlier times, but were fueled by a vast array of available inexpensive, mass-produced goods brought about by industrialization. The recovery of once expensive porcelain dolls and teawares, for example, attests to “....the falling price of manufactured consumer goods in the later nineteenth century [and] obscured the class differences...” among those within the consumer ranks. In some ways, assemblages reflect the residents choices to participate in the market economy rather than status differences. "Industrialization redefined the experience of all Americans, and even the ordinary citizens of Teddy Roosevelt's generation saw and did things the richest of George Washington's compatriots could scarcely have imagined” (Bedell et al. 1994:54).

The Great Depression has traditionally—almost nostalgically—been portrayed as a period of utmost scarcity of goods; precipitating the household phrase “making the best with what we have” (Barnard 1995:9). Historian Rita Barnard and others suggest, however, that even the devastating economic effects of the Great Depression did not significantly dampen consumer aspirations or appetite to the extent that one might think. During this period modern consumerism as we know it today emerged, the beginning of a "‘culture of abundance,’ ... in which the strategic element is no longer production, but consumption” (Barnard 1995:9). Barnard also notes: “... it was in the twenties and thirties that the characteristic institutions and habits of consumer culture—the motion picture, the radio, the automobile, the weekly photo-news magazine, installment buying, the five-day work week, suburban living, ...the self-service supermarket—assumed the central position they still occupy in American life”. The standardization of marketing strategies through supermarkets and regional and national chain stores as well as commercial broadcasts through mass media outlets like magazines, radio, and movie theaters helped to fuel consumer desires (Barnard 1995:16). To varying degrees, this new face on consumerism touched the lives of Danville's mill community through newspapers, radio, and later, television. Family shopping trips were usually to retailers in Schoolfield but sometimes included excursions “down town” to large department stores such as Thalheimers and Belk-Leggett.

The benefits of industrialization for the consumer, even those of very modest means, is reflected at Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181 by the diversity of recovered items, especially in glass containers. Glass bottles and jars represent the most prolific artifact class on the site. The full automation of glass container manufacturing beginning in 1903 increased production efficiency and output. This advancement led to greater standardization of bottles in weight and capacity and “assured both retailers and consumers that they were not being cheated in the sale of bottled products” (Busch 1991:119).

Lower prices combined with changes in American life to expand the bottle market. Urbanization and a rising standard of living expanded the markets for products that were formerly produced at home, such as liquor and canned food, and for products that were previously consumed in small quantities, such as patent medicine and carbonated beverages. Glass container use grew along with the increased demand for packaging of all kinds. With the development of roads, canals, steamboats, and railroads, more packaging was needed to protect and preserve goods during shipment. Sealed glass containers helped to assure consumers that the contents were pure and sanitary. Brand names on bottles reinforced consumer confidence. Packaging was also adopted to make it easier for customers to bring home and store their purchases (Busch 1991:114).

The general abundance of bottles led most people to dispose of them with little thought; however, thrifty individuals encouraged reuse for home and business. A housewife observed in 1916: “There is a vast array of bottles and jars accumulated in the course of a few months in the average home, in which pickles, cream cheese, dried beef, and various other kinds of edibles are sold, and there is a vast array of uses to which they can be put instead of being thrown away” (Farmer 1916:89–90, quoted from Busch 1991:119). Empty beer and soda bottles were filled with homemade sauces, fruit wine, corn beer, root beer, and other “exhilarating drinks” (Anonymous 1902:84, quoted from Busch 1991:117).

At Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181, the numerous recovered beer, wine, and liquor bottles and shot glasses suggest frequent use of alcoholic beverages. Such containers were also suitable to reuse for storing homemade beverages and condiments. The business of illegally refilling branded bottles of legitimate retailers was a problem of serious economic proportion recognized by the federal government. This practice, particularly acute during and soon after Prohibition, prompted the federal government in 1935 to require all liquor bottles to be embossed “Federal Law Forbids Sale or Re-Use Of This Bottle.” (Busch 1991:121). During the early twentieth century, bottles (i.e., milk , soda, beer) embossed with the name of the retailer were considered to be property of the retailer and consumers were “obligated” to return them to help lower costs. Speciality bottles such as these had not benefited from the level of automation in manufacture as other types, and were more expensive to produce (Busch 1991:119–120; Miller and Sullivan 1981:10). Still, most were either discarded, or sold to second hand bottle dealers. Eventually, the more widespread practice of deposits on returnable bottles provided more incentive for individuals and families to retain bottles with value, especially as economic times tightened.

The occupants of Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181 may have benefited from the deposit system. However, the quantity of returnable and/or reusable bottles and other saleable items (i.e., pots) suggests either simply a lack of need or desire to redeem them for cash, or a lack of access to scavengers to whom they could sell (Busch 1991:124). However, discard patterns suggest large-scale dumping of empty bottles and other refuse into Site 44PY178 and 44PY181 privies during the period 1920–1950, especially during the years leading up to and during the Depression. This activity corresponds to the generally high turnover rate that characterized tenements and is consistent with the period of high turnover on the Front Street properties. “Left-over trash requires disposal, and the privy serves as an opportunistic midden for the wholesale discard of one group's trash by the newcomers to the site” (Wheeler 2000:12).

Recovered ceramics provide clues about consumer choice at Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181. These consist predominantly of whiteware and other refined earthenware in common use during the early twentieth century. Vessel forms are mostly tableware (plates, saucers, bowls). Recovery of a few nineteenth-century stoneware sherds hint at traditional methods of food storage. However, far greater amounts of canning jar glass reflect an important milestone of change in consumer choice and technological development that emerged in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries (Miller and Sullivan 1981). The seemingly out-of-place creamware and pearlware found in the backlot of Site 44PY181 may represent either domestic scatter from an earlier site located near Site 44PY181, or curated examples used by early occupants of Site 44PY181 and eventually broken and discarded by them. It is not inconceivable that the Poplin and Hill households set their dining tables with ceramics that were not fashionable at the time, but still useful and practical hand-me-downs. Family hopes may have hinged on a steady income and opportunities of city life to eventually expand and modernize their dining equipage with increasingly affordable ceramics and glassware. The acquisition of ceramics, glassware, and other items indicates ties to the local, regional, and national economy, although the emphasis appears to be on the former two. The recovery of numerous local dairy bottles (i.e., Danville Dairy, Ring Gold Dairy, Neal's Dairy, Clover Hill Farm), and Coca-Cola bottles from Danville attests to local commercial trade (Thompson 1984:27). Local markets undoubtedly provided cuts of beef, pork, and chicken consumed by the Front Street residents. The local network may also have included a barter system known in some rural areas as “neighboring.” “Neighboring, as a socioeconomic entity, binds families and binds the community. It is a local network for the distribution of wealth in the form of goods and labor. Neighboring results in informal bartering disguised as gift giving and helping—visit a neighbor and bring some garden produce, help him build his barn” (Adams 1991:391). Mill operatives living on Front Street may have needed assistance in the form of food, clothing, or other items, as well as for emotional support, at some point to help cope with job loss, illness, or death (Beardsley 1987). This practice may have been of major importance for extended families, all of whom may have worked at the mill, and held management in suspicion due to the level of control in their lives. Neighboring may actually have strengthened community intradependence. Archaeologist Natalie Adams and others note of mill operatives at Sampson Mill Village in Greenville, South Carolina: “Although most of them had no money, there was a strong sense of community which enriched their lives in ways that money could not” (Adams et al. 1993:65). A little help from one's neighbor or kin for some basic subsistence needs may have been of increasing importance as Riverside Mills reduced its “welfare programs,” and with the onset of extensive layoffs in the 1920s and 1930s. Socioeconomic relationships with grocers, dairymen, druggists, and others inside and beyond the boundaries of the mill community may have helped families enough just to get by in the leanest of times. Like their rural neighbors in the hinterland, some may have sought inexpensive items (i.e., clothing, tools, toys) available in mail order catalogs, or perhaps even collaborated with neighbors, friends, and kin to buy items in bulk for the discounted shipping costs (Latham 1972). Further research may shed light on economic relationships between mill households and retailers in Danville and abroad.

The long reach of the railroad, and eventually the interstate road system, was crucial in making accessible a world of affordable goods to families living along Front Street and elsewhere in Danville. Many nonlocal products likely came via the Danville and Western Railroad, which later became the Southern Railroad. These were long a part of the community's economic lifeline and brought forth many a new worker to the mills (Thompson 1984:9). Improved roads and highways facilitated truck transportation of commercial goods, and “slowly but surely the age of steam was yielding to the gasoline age” (Latham 1972:70). Danville's merchants advertised for truckers' business (see Figure 77). The products brought forth by the trucking industry and the railroad that made their way to the occupants of Sites 44PY178 and 44PY181 originated in Norfolk, Virginia; Winston-Salem, Charlotte, Raleigh, and Rocky Mount, North Carolina; Boston, Massachusetts; Florida; New York; and undoubtedly numerous other places. The purchase of non–locally made fruit juices, tonics, and other “imported” products such as these provided a high degree of choice that did not exist in other aspects of the mill workers' lives. Income and job stability, however, likely influenced the extent to which families could participate as consumers.