I had really hoped to be back on track with ghost towns, but things just haven't worked out. We're still in temporary housing after Hurricane Helene over a year ago. It's been frustrating. I put the podcast on hold because I thought we would be busy moving back in, but it's been one delay after another.

I have done lots of research and I've got a long list of potential episodes, so there's lots more content and places to explore.

Jewish workers in the Socialist Commune of Happyville, Aiken, SC

Happyville was a short-lived agricultural commune near Montmorceni in Aiken County, South Carolina. The community was based on socialist concepts, and was sponsored by the South Carolina Department of Agriculture, which wanted to bring in Eastern European Jewish immigrants to work the farmland. The project was purely racist, with the intent of replacing "less desirable" black farmworkers with Jewish workers.

The Happyville residents didn't succeed. Unusually harsh weather, inexperience, and racial troubles of their own eventually doomed the colony.

Here are some of the resources used in this podcast:

• Wikipedia Article
• The Sharing Project - Joel Tauber film
• Interview with Rose Rudnick Rubin
• H Is for Happyvile - Walter Edgar

Kingdom of the Happy Land by Gary Carden. Acrylic on canvas, 36”x24”. Source

The Kingdom of Happy Land was a settlement of freed slaves on the North Carolina/South Carolina border near Tuxedo, North Carolina. The Kingdom had a King and Queen, and was operated as a socialistic society with all sharing equally.

Resources:

• Blog Post - Seeking the Kingdom of Happy Land
• Happy Land - Dolen Perkins-Valdez
• Interview with Dolen Perkins-Valdez
• Happy Land Liniment
• Serepta Merritt Davis Grave
• Google Search