The New South

 

Agriculture

          1/3 of draft animals

          ½ of farm equipement

          cotton

          problems:  high prices for goods, declining prices for crops, taxes, debt

Creation of black institutions:  schools, churches

Black people in politics:  43 in SC leg.,

Poll tax:  GA, 1877; literacy tests

Interpretation of the 14th Amendment

          Struck down 1875 Civil Rights Act

Sharecropping and Crop-lien system

          Number of farms doubled

          Number of landowners stayed the same

          Size of farm decreased

          1880 – 1/3 of farmers were sharecroppers; ½ by 1920

          Furnishing merchant – inflated prices and interest

          Backcountry and commercial agriculture

          Closing the range

The Redeemers

          Unity in the Democratic (conservative) party – solid south

          Government subsidized industry, especially railroads

New South ideology:  Low wages, outside investors, small government

Industrialization of the South

          Textile mills, 1870s

          Tobacco (James B. Duke)

                   Cigarette making machine, 1880

          Extractive industries:  Lumber, Coal, company towns

          Iron and Steel

                   Birmingham