For more than 100 years Mullins was the major tobacco market for South Carolina. Since 1997 the tobacco allotment has been cut in half, textile manufacturers have moved away and Mullins, a town of 5000 has lost more than 1200 jobs. The Last Auction explores how this small rural town is working to reinvent itself after the crippling loss of its economic base.
Closed captioning has been provided for this broadcast program.
Video
The Last Auction: Part 1, Introduction Tobacco has a long and important history in South Carolina's Pee Dee region. During the 1890s, South Carolina tobacco production went from 200,000 pounds per...
Video
The video, "Mullins Then" provides a look at Mullins in its best times. The Mullins community began when farming families settled here in the 1600s, The City of Mullins was formally established in...
Video
A look at the pageantry of the tobacco industry in its heyday.
Video
A look at the struggle to find crops to replace tobacco. Some farmers have substituted cattle, corn, beans and other vegetables for tobacco, but the profits are not what they were with tobacco.
Video
A look at the economy during tobacco's heyday and how that often translated into segregation in Mullins and other agricultural towns.
Video
The history of sharecropping and its after-effects in the tobacco industry. After the Civil War, former enslaved Africans had a great desire to own their own farms. Most freedmen were very poor...
Video
Looking at the transition from hand-held farming to the advent of machines. In the past, tobacco was a labor-intensive crop. People handled every leaf throughout the growing, harvesting and curing...
Video
Understanding the challenges of farming in Mullins today. Health Risks of Tobacco Almost a half-million Americans die of smoking-related illnesses every year, making smoking the leading cause of...
Video
Understanding how to keep youth in the city of Mullins.
