Before the war most Alabama mill workers were white. The original piney woods folk. However, most proudly marched off to war. Slaves were used as replacements. After the war, they were kicked out and what whites remained took their old jobs back.
Alabama is a very interesting state, in that those places with rich, flat dark soul was about 90% black (10% white planters), while the foothills, ridges and deep valleys were 90 % white.
The planters controlled the state in 1860, and they owned almost all the slaves.
It wasn’t until after the war that the hillbilly/piney wood folk took control of the state government. And the boll weevil killed the remnants of the planter class circa 1890-1900.
soil, not soul!