“Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?

This article presents a case study on the efforts to reestablish ferry service for an isolated island-type community in Wilcox County, Alabama, known as Gee’s Bend or by the formal name of Boykin. Gee’s Bend, a community of inhabitants who can trace their ancestry to slaves on the antebellum plantat...

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Main Authors: Terri R. Jett, Paul Gentle
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives" 2018-12-01
Series:Geopolitics under Globalization
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Online Access:https://businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/11359/GG_2018_01_Jett.pdf
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author Terri R. Jett
Paul Gentle
author_facet Terri R. Jett
Paul Gentle
author_sort Terri R. Jett
collection DOAJ
description This article presents a case study on the efforts to reestablish ferry service for an isolated island-type community in Wilcox County, Alabama, known as Gee’s Bend or by the formal name of Boykin. Gee’s Bend, a community of inhabitants who can trace their ancestry to slaves on the antebellum plantation there, depended on the ferry to provide access to the county seat of Camden, the center for social and economic activity. There was no ferry between 1962 and 2006. For forty-four years the ferry did not operate, having had its’ cable deliberately cut so that Gee’s Bend residents could not get to Camden to register to vote. It was an attempt to lessen the political power of the African-Americans in the area. This article explains the key economic and political factors that resulted in restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend ferry.
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language English
publishDate 2018-12-01
publisher LLC "CPC "Business Perspectives"
record_format Article
series Geopolitics under Globalization
spelling doaj-art-23bcd179f7714569b997a61e730c2f1e2025-08-20T01:51:11ZengLLC "CPC "Business Perspectives"Geopolitics under Globalization2543-54932543-98202018-12-0121455410.21511/gg.02(1).2018.0611359“Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?Terri R. Jett0Paul Gentle1Associate Professor of Political Science, Department of Science, Butler University, Indianapolis Ph.D., Visiting Assistant Professor, Economics and Business Department, NCC British Higher Education GZIT, Guangzhou This article presents a case study on the efforts to reestablish ferry service for an isolated island-type community in Wilcox County, Alabama, known as Gee’s Bend or by the formal name of Boykin. Gee’s Bend, a community of inhabitants who can trace their ancestry to slaves on the antebellum plantation there, depended on the ferry to provide access to the county seat of Camden, the center for social and economic activity. There was no ferry between 1962 and 2006. For forty-four years the ferry did not operate, having had its’ cable deliberately cut so that Gee’s Bend residents could not get to Camden to register to vote. It was an attempt to lessen the political power of the African-Americans in the area. This article explains the key economic and political factors that resulted in restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend ferry.https://businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/11359/GG_2018_01_Jett.pdfAlabamapolitical corruptionpublic financeracismrural economic development
spellingShingle Terri R. Jett
Paul Gentle
“Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
Geopolitics under Globalization
Alabama
political corruption
public finance
racism
rural economic development
title “Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
title_full “Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
title_fullStr “Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
title_full_unstemmed “Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
title_short “Rollin’ on the River”: what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the Gee’s Bend public ferry?
title_sort rollin on the river what economic and political factors caused restoration of service for the gee s bend public ferry
topic Alabama
political corruption
public finance
racism
rural economic development
url https://businessperspectives.org/images/pdf/applications/publishing/templates/article/assets/11359/GG_2018_01_Jett.pdf
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