Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Postwar economic conditions:
*Economy: at a standstill
*Transportation system: broken
*Economic lifeblood—agriculture: crippled
*Labor system—slavery: collapsed
*Seed and livestock: scarce, plundered
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
*Blacks and poor whites forced into
sharecropping° + tenant farming
*At mercy of former masters, now their
landlords/creditors
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
*sharecropping (defined):
*Postwar agricultural system in which black and poor
white farmers rented land and residences from former
planters in exchange for a “share” of each harvest.
*Dominant form of postwar southern agriculture.
*Landowners manipulated this system to keep tenants
in perpetual debt and unable to leave.
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
*CROP LIEN system
*storekeepers extended credit to small farmers
for food and supplies
*in return, they took a lien (legal claim on
someone’s property) on their harvests
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
*Southern blacks were condemned to eke out a
threadbare living under conditions scarcely
better than slavery
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
Certainty of labor supply was reinforced by...
*Jim Crow (legal codes of segregation)
*Disfranchisement (literacy tests, poll taxes, voter
registration laws)
*Plessy v Ferguson (“separate but equal” was
constitutional under the 14th Amendment)
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Post-Reconstruction Economy
*To ensure the stability of this political and
economic “new order” any black who dared to
violate the racial code was dealt with harshly:
usually by lynching
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
*Industrial tidal wave in the North resulted in
only feeble ripples in the South
*Welcome agricultural boost in 1880s:
machine-made cigarettes  James Duke 
American Tobacco Company, Durham NC
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
*Industrialists tried to coax southerners out of
the fields into the factories—modest success
*Booster of the “New South” = Henry Grady,
editor of Atlanta Constitution: outplay the
Yankees in their commercial/industrial game
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
New South faced obstacles
Railroads’ regional price discrimination
Preferential rates for North
moving manufactured goods South
but only favored the South in
transporting raw materials North
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
Example of this economic discrimination—
Pittsburgh plus pricing scheme
Birmingham, AL coal + iron deposits should have
produced prosperous steel manufacturing
BUT steel lords of Pittsburgh pressured railroads to
add fictional fee to Birmingham steel,
thus stunting Southern economic growth
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
Manufacturing cotton textiles
“BRING THE MILLS TO THE COTTON!”
1880s saw Northern investment in Southern looms:
*Tax benefits
*Cheap, nonunionized labor
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
Manufacturing cotton textiles
“BRING THE MILLS TO THE COTTON!”
This was a mixed blessing
Cheap labor = main attraction
Thus, keeping labor cheap became sacred
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
Manufacturing cotton textiles
Mill work was available only to whites
Entire families of “hillbillies”/”lint-heads” came to
work in hastily constructed company mill towns
where the company owned/controlled everything:
houses, stores, schools, medical care, etc.
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
The South in the Age of Industry
Manufacturing cotton textiles
Southern mill workers worked from dawn to dusk for
½ of Northern mill workers’ rate
“Payment” was often in company scrip = non-legal
tender worthless anywhere else
Workers paid exorbitant prices at company stores,
which kept them in perpetual debt and “locked in”
Origins of the New South
Reconfiguration of southern agriculture
Origins of the New South
Expansion of manufacturing
& industrialization
Despite some measurable growth, the South
remained largely untouched by the Industrial
Revolution sweeping the rest of America.
Origins of the New South
The politics of segregation
POPULISTS, AGRARIAN UNREST AND 1892
ELECTION:
>1m black farmers Colored Farmers’ National
Alliance, sharing complaints w/poor white farmers
Common economic goals lead both groups closer to
overcoming racial differences
Origins of the New South
The politics of segregation
POPULISTS, AGRARIAN UNREST
AND 1892 ELECTION:
Blacks, many of whom could still vote at that time,
gave Populists an edge
Populist leaders like Tom Watson, from Georgia,
reached out to black voters
Blacks, disillusioned with Republicans, were willing
to vote for Populists in the South
Origins of the New South
The politics of segregation
POPULISTS, AGRARIAN UNREST
AND 1892 ELECTION:
Alarmed conservative white “bourbon”
(and Democratic) Southern elites
played on old racial antagonisms
to counter the Populists’ appeal
for interracial solidarity
Origins of the New South
The politics of segregation
POPULISTS, AGRARIAN UNREST AND 1892
ELECTION:
Frightened by the power of the black vote,
they aggressively used...
literacy tests,
poll taxes, and
the grandfather clause
to disfranchise blacks
Origins of the New South
The politics of segregation
POPULISTS, AGRARIAN UNREST AND 1892
ELECTION:
This conservative crusade to eliminate the black vote
affected the Populist Party itself.
Tom Watson became a rabid racist and, with him, the
Populist party—bitterly ironic fruits of Populist
attempt at reforms in the South.