Tuesday, March 24, 2009

Roswell, Ga

Roswell
Roswell is a city located in northern Fulton County and a suburb of Atlanta, Georgia. As of 2008 the population is estimated to be 101,851. It is the seventh largest city in Georgia. A branch of the Chattahoochee River National Recreation Area, a component of the National Park System, is located in Roswell at Vickery Creek. In 1830, while on a trip to North Georgia, Roswell King passed through the area of what is now Roswell and observed the great potential for building a cotton mill along Vickery (Big) Creek. Since the land nearby was also good for plantations, his idea was to put cotton processing near cotton production. Toward the middle of the 1830s, King returned to build a mill that would soon become the largest in North Georgia. He brought with him 36 enslaved African-Americans from his own coastal plantation, plus another 42 slaves bought at Darien on the coast. He used the slaves to build the mill, infrastructure, houses, mill worker apartments, and supporting buildings for the new town. The African-Americans brought their unique Geechee culture, language, and religious traditions from the coast to north Georgia.
King invited other coastal planters to join him at the new location. He was also joined by Barrington King, one of his sons, who succeeded his father in the manufacturing company. Archibald Smith and Major James Stephen Bulloch were among the leading planters who migrated there to establish new plantations, bringing enslaved African Americans from the coastal areas. The Barrington King, Smith and Bulloch antebellum houses have been preserved and restored. According to the 1850 Slave Schedules, these three planters, together with the next three largest planters, held 192 slaves, 51% of the total 378 slaves held in Roswell District. Archibald Smith had a 300-acre (1.2 km2) cotton plantation. Barrington King held 70 slaves. He likely directed their labor both for mill construction and plantation work as he expanded the mill manufacturing company. Other planters also ran cotton plantations in the area.

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