After the Civil War and Reconstruction, it was clear that the Old South was dead. Folks in the South realized that the institution of slavery was not coming back and that the South needed a new economic paradigm — one similar to the industrialized North. The South's reliance on agriculture, especially King Cotton, would have to be changed for the South to enjoy prosperity.
Nostalgia for the Old South
· Songs like "Old Folks at Home"
· Chorus: "All de world am sad and dreary, Ebry where I roam, Oh! darkeys how my heart grows weary, Far from de old folks at home.
Henry Grady
· Chief advocate of the New South
· Editor of the Atlanta Constitution
· "100 farms for every plantation"
· "50 homes for every palace"
· Diversified industry
Advocates of New South Creed
· Confederacy lost because it relied too much on King
Cotton
· South must follow North's example of industrialization
· Diversified and efficient agriculture will grow the
economy
· Vocational training would prompt material success
New industries in Florida
· timber
· cattle
· citrus
· winter vegetables
· railroads
· tourism
Textile production
· By the 1920s, Southern textile production of textile
production overtook New England competitors
· Increase in Southern cotton mills
· Increase in Southern cotton mill workers
Tobacco production
· New varieties of tobacco were explored
· Bright leaf: grown on otherwise infertile soil and
cured by a charcoal process
The rise of Bull Durham
· Washington Duke: Started selling bright-leaf tobacco after the Civil War. By 1872, his factory produced 125,000 pound of tobacco annually.
· Buck Duke: Realized that the tobacco industry was "half smoke and half ballyhoo." He invested heavily in "Bull Durham" advertising.
· Mark Twain on Bull Durham: Twain claimed that when he visited Egypt, he never saw the pyramids because they were obscured by Bull Durham signs.
American Tobacco Company
· Created by Buck Duke's entrepreneurial spirit
· Competitors were undersold and eventually consolidated
· Supply on ingredients was cornered
· Company controlled 90% of cigarette production
· 1911: Supreme Court ruled that the company was a
monopoly and forced it to break up
Coal production
· Along the Appalachian mountains, from West Virginia to
Alabama
· 1875: 5 million tons
· 1900: 49 million tons
· Birmingham became a major steel-producing center, dubbing itself the "Pittsburgh of the South"
Lumbering
· Industrial growth created a need for wood-framed housing
· Millions of trees were cut down without regard to
ecological devastation
· Warm climate of the South allowed for quick renewal of
trees
Railroads
· Many railroads were destroyed during the Civil War
· Transportation was necessary for the development of
industry
· Many state governments made "deals" with railroad
executives
Sharecropping
· Sagging prices made it more difficult than ever to own
land
· By 1890, most Southern farms were worked by people who
did not own the land
· Folklore of the South was replete with tales of
shiftless tenants and scheming landlords
16 hours a day, 6 days a week
· 1880s: the average work day was 16 hours
· 1880s: the average work week was six days
· A series of labor strikes in industrial areas of the
North created the 8-hour day and the 5-day workweek
· These advances were not made in the South
Return of the planters
· Supporters called them "Redeemers" because they
supposedly redeemed the South from Yankee domination
· Critics called them "Bourbons," comparing them to the
French royal family that, as Napoleon said, had
forgotten nothing and learned nothing from the French
revolution
Bourbon leaders
· Most supported the cause of the New South
· While they worshipped the old social order, they
embraced the new economic order
· Formed a political alliance with northern
conservatives and capitalists
Bourbon policies
· Like Southern Republicans, Bourbon leaders favored
railroad expansion
· Unlike Republicans, Bourbon leaders focused on cutting
back the size and the cost of government
· Schools created during Reconstruction were downsized
or dismantled
Convict leasing system
· Created by conservative Bourbon leaders
· Destruction of prisons during the Civil War
· Need for cheap labor on the railroads, in the mines
and in the lumber camps
· System avoided costs and generated revenue
Gov. Franklin Drew
· Florida's first Bourbon leader
· Wanted to attract investors and immigrants
· Allowed unrestricted development
· State's resources were managed by private individuals
and corporations
· Taxes were kept at a bare minimum
Gov. William Bloxham
· Public land was given away to private railroads
· Bloxham arranged for the sale of 4 million acres of swampland to Philadelphia capitalist Hamilton Disston at 25 cents an acre
· Disston drained the swampland and sold the land to
railroad corporations
Bloxham's progress
· When Bloxham became governor, Florida had 550 miles of
railroad
· When Bloxham left office, Florida had 2,566 miles of
railroad
Florida industrialists
· William Chipley
· Henry Plant
· Henry Flagler
William Chipley
· Native of Georgia
· Railroad executive
· Invested heavily in Pensacola; became the city's mayor
Connected Panhandle Florida with the rest of the state
Served in the Florida Senate
Henry Plant
· A native of Connecticut
· Joined rails from Jacksonville with Tampa
· Built the exotic Tampa Bay Hotel to encourage tourism
to Tampa
· Hotel is now the University of Tampa
· Encouraged citrus development in Florida
Henry Flagler
· Railroad magnate
· Partner of John D. Rockefeller
· Made a fortune before moving to Florida
· Built several grand hotels to accommodate wealthy northerners who wanted to "winter" in Florida
Flagler hotels
· Ponce de Leon Hotel
· The Breakers
· The Royal Palm
· The Royal Poinciana
Julia Tuttle
· Native of Cleveland, Ohio
· Moved to Miami in the 1870s
· Purchased 640 acres of land on Miami River
· She convinced Flagler to build a railroad to Miami by sending him fresh flowers from during an especially chilly winter
Democratic Party
· Old Whigs
· Unionists
· Secessionists
· Businessmen
· Small farmers
· Hillbillies
· Planters
The rise of segregation
· Schools
· Churches
· Hotels
· Trains
· Theaters
· Soda fountains
Disenfranchisement of blacks
· 1890s: the rise of populism, which united blacks and
whites
· Because the white vote was split between the Populists
and the Democrats, blacks held the balance of power
Bourbons refused to let blacks control the political
scene
Mississippi
· Led the way to disenfranchising blacks
· Residency requirement: required voters to have lived
in precinct one year (tenants tended to move a lot)
· Criminal record disqualification: those found guilty
of petty crimes were disenfranchised
· Poll taxes: All taxes, including poll taxes, had to be
paid in full by Feb. 1
· Literacy test: but whites could qualify by the loophole "understanding clause"
Louisiana
· Adopted the Mississippi plan to disenfranchised blacks
· Added the "grandfather clause," which allowed another
loophole for whites: allowed illiterates to qualify if
their grandfathers had been eligible on January 1,
1867
Florida
· Adopted both the poll tax and the literacy test
· School Law of 1885: stated that whites and blacks could not be taught at the same school
Thomas V. Gibbs
· Son of a prominent Reconstruction-era politician
· Served in the Florida House of Representatives for Duval County in 1885 and 1887
· Used Florida's school segregation law to create a black college
State Normal College for Colored Students
· Thomas Gibbs pushed bill through Florida Legislature
· Six Florida counties wanted to be home to the new
black college
· Oct. 8, 1887: College began classes in Tallahassee
Homer Plessy
· New Orleans
· An octoroon
· Refused to leave a white railroad car when asked to
· "Separate but equal" put to the test
Plessy v. Ferguson
· 1896
· "Separate but equal" found Constitutional
· Created the widespread expansion of statutory racial
segregation
· Richmond Times, 1900: "God Almighty drew the color line, and it cannot be obliterated. The negro must stay on his side of the line and the white man must stay on his side, and the sooner both races recognize this fact and accept it, the better it will be for both."
Booker T. Washington
· 1881: Founded Tuskegee, a leading institution for
blacks
· Argued that blacks should not antagonize whites by demanding social or political equality
· urged blacks to concentrate on establishing an
economic base for their achievement
W.E.B. Dubois
· Native of Massachusetts
· Fisk University (Nashville) later Harvard Critical of Booker T. Washington
· Advocated "ceaseless agitation"
· Argued that education should not be vocational but equip blacks to challenge segregation through protest
