Gilded Age Period (1877-1917)
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So named by Mark Twain in his eponymous novel, The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, the Gilded Age marked a period of economic growth, creation of the so-called “New South,” economic speculation, industrialization, modernization, and political reform. A tumultuous period of booms and busts (there were three economic depressions during the period), it was also a period of reflection upon the days before the Civil War and the creation of the Myth of the Lost Cause. One of the strongest proponents of the Lost Cause was Columbia resident John Trotwood Moore. A novelist and amateur historian who later became Tennessee’s state librarian, Moore could not bear the possibility that his ancestors were potential villains. Lost Cause apologists argued that African Americans were inherently inferior and that they had been better served while enslaved. They even advocated lynching as a positive means of social control. In all other instances a decent and generous man who promoted humanitarian programs to improve the lot of poor whites, Moore reflected his contemporaries’ stance on race relations.
The Gilded Age witnessed the rise of a number of industries in the Duck River region, from the timber industry that expanded rapidly during the period, to the creation of textile mills, woolen mills, and other forms of factory work. Due to the raft of inventions that typified the period, new technologies made it possible to diversify the economy and the work force. (Those new gadgets included the telephone, electric light bulb, linotype, internal combustion engine, bicycles, and many more.) No longer totally dependent upon water as a source of power, steam engines made it possible to establish mills and plants farther away from the Duck River and its tributaries. Greater industrialization lessened people’s dependence on agriculture and also put more hard currency in their pockets.