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by Ronnie Tumelson (Author)
It has been said that "ignorance is bliss." Naturally, I was quite happy before embarking on this project. Truly, Tennessee Charcoal Iron (TCI) began in ignorance and confusion. Having read unreliable (and occasionally unscrupulous) sources on the topic, I set about presenting its history in a more scholarly manner. The originally conceived work was to be much longer; it is still in progress. This little book is a distillation of my research to date. I publish it for those who want a reliable overview of that longer, engaging history. The shorter, condensed version was intended at first to serve as a guidebook. Indeed, its working title as late as May 2025 was always "Stewart County Charcoal Iron: A Guide to the Ironworks."
The plan for the guide, carried through into this introductory work, was to devote at least one page to every establishment that processed or produced iron in the county. Some deserved more space. An introduction touches on the process of making charcoal iron and situates that activity in the nineteenth century. After the introduction are accounts of early and antebellum ironworks. Following those is a brief discussion of the fate of the county's ironworks at the time of the Civil War, then the remaining establishments are taken up to the end, in 1927. Included as well are a glossary and a name index.
TCI evolved into an introduction for those who have no prior knowledge of the subject. And, for those who do, it is a reintroduction. Familiar territory abounds, but there is new terrain as well, terrain that has never been covered before and terrain that has been covered but poorly. Although TCI can be read from cover to cover, I might suggest reading it instead modularly, much like consulting a handbook on key terms in a given field of knowledge, or a handbook of the key players or episodes in some grand historical event. If you prefer a unifying plot, then think of this little book as you read as the condensed or potted version of "the rise and fall of the iron industry in Stewart County, Tennessee." about the authorRonnie Tumelson was trained in cultural history. His scholarship has been published by the university presses of Cambridge and Oxford and by Routledge. In addition to writing a longer history of the iron industry in Stewart County, Tennessee, he is writing about a revolt by enslaved laborers that took place in the county and the neighboring region in 1856.
