Wednesday 3rd February 2010 - Birmingham City Library

          Silver whisks me downtown for breakfast beside the City Library.  The breakfast is nothing to write home about, but it contains a ladleful of the mandatory 'grits', which is like semolina, only, em, grittier.  The library, on the other hand, is quite something, and has a skybridge over to the Southern History Research Center, which is a substantial building in its own right.

         

          The grown-up ladies here show just the sense of decorum you would expect in such a building.  But books and newspaper clippings appear in short order.  There is very little reference to Glasgow, but the references to Glasgow Hollow and Glasgow Hill suggest they were "coloured" parts of town.

          I get seriously diverted into the arrrival of black miners in the area, and the strikes and strife that ran from 1894 to 1908.  The Mineworkers Union seemed to be quite integrated, but, in the end, that was more of a hindrance than a help.  In 1908, they ambushed a train, killing several "scabs" ("blackleg" didn't quite work here) in what was described at the time as the biggest battle since the Civil War (or "War Between the States" as they are inclined to call it here).

          Some of the old township grid maps show Glasgow

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but the maps of the original patents haven't uncovered any patentees for that bit.  Some Glasgows held patents a short way away.  It's a relief to be back in settler country, where the land is described with reference to a fixed grid of Townships and Ranges.  When I get to find land deeds, it will be possible to work out where they are.

 

          Later that night, my favourite bar introduces me to Georgia.  They now have a draft beer called "Sweetwater 420".  It's from Atlanta, and among the best I've tasted.  They also produce a brown ale, which, appropriately, they call "Sweet Georgia".  I didn't try it, but the label actually claims that it's as smooth as a Bill Clinton apology.