Chapter 1-9 Overview: Tobacco, Textiles, Coal, and Jim Crow in the New South
Tobacco industry in the New South
The speaker starts with tobacco as a major Southern industry, focusing on its deep impact in the South, especially Virginia.
Tobacco’s role in Virginia:
Tobacco was essential to Virginia’s survival as a colony; without tobacco, Virginia might not have survived or would have been barely viable.
The narrative notes tobacco’s mixed legacy—positive for economic sustenance, with potential negative social and health implications later.
Transition from hand-rolled to machine-rolled cigarettes:
1818: invention of a machine to roll cigarettes.
1876: development of a cigarette roll machine (improvement over earlier designs).
Duke family and the rise of large-scale tobacco branding:
Washington Duke and his son, from North Carolina, already in the tobacco business, recognized the machine’s potential and promoted cigarettes.
They made improvements to the rolling machine and pursued national advertising campaigns, including early tobacco advertising strategies and cards (early baseball cards).
Tobacco company cards became highly collectible today; some of the most valuable baseball cards were distributed by tobacco companies, including the Duke family’s enterprises.
American Tobacco Company and monopoly dynamics:
The American Tobacco Company grew to dominate the market, effectively forming a monopoly.
Under President Taft’s administration, there was antitrust action against such monopolies (implied: eventual breakup, historically in the Taft era).
The Dukes were prominently connected with the American Tobacco Company.
Economic and cultural influence of tobacco wealth:
The Duke family’s wealth funded institutions such as Duke University, commonly referred to as being supported by the “Tobacco Bill” era philanthropy.
Cigarettes and the tobacco industry helped propel a major South-wide consumer culture into the 20th century.
Summary takeaway:
Tobacco linked Southern economic development to branding, advertising, and mass production; it contributed to a nascent industrialized South while also highlighting the era’s monopolistic tendencies and philanthropic legacy.
Textile industry in the South
Logical place for industrial growth: cotton and textiles made the South naturally suited to textile production.
Economic factors that favored southern textile factories:
Cheaper wages in the South than in the Northeast or Midwest (where legacy industries already existed).
Lower taxes and fewer regulatory burdens compared to other regions.
Geography of mill towns and worker housing:
Early textile operations were often located near towns and near the workers, with company houses and conveniences clustered nearby due to the lack of paved highways and automotive access.
The pattern changed with postwar mobility and better highways, altering how workers commuted to mills.
Workforce composition:
In the late 19th and early 20th centuries, textile mills in the South were disproportionately staffed by white workers; Black workers were present but more common in later periods and continuing well beyond the early era.
Decline of the Southern textile industry:
From the late 20th century onward (roughly the 1980s–1990s), the Southern textile industry experienced a dramatic decline.
Firms shifted production to the “third world” (e.g., Mexico, Vietnam, China) to cut costs, leading to a withdrawal of textile manufacturing from the South.
The industry is described as a “silent industry” due to its drastic decline and the fading memory of these jobs.
Implications:
The decline illustrates the global shift in manufacturing and the South’s struggle to retain labor-intensive industries in the face of cheaper overseas competition and globalization.
Coal industry in the Southern mountains
Geographic focus and regional context:
Coal mining is concentrated in the southern Appalachians, with notable subregions such as Blue Ridge (in North Georgia) and the Cumberland Ridge and Valley region (geologically distinct with limestone caves and different rock formations).
The Cumberland Ridge and Valley region contains most of the coal deposits and is distinct from the Blue Ridge area.
Geological features:
Coal occurs in seams—strips of coal within rock—within the Ridge and Valley area.
Ancient fossil beds are present in these rocks, highlighting long geologic histories.
Post-Civil War development and labor:
After the Civil War, mining companies purchased land, cleared forests, and opened mines, creating substantial employment for regional miners.
The industry brought jobs but also health risks, including black lung disease from prolonged exposure to coal dust.
Economic fluctuations:
Coal production rose significantly in the postwar period but experienced ups and downs over the decades, particularly around the early 20th century and after World War I.
Economic status of the South:
Despite industrialization in some sectors, the South was still economically backward relative to the North; a statistic is cited about Georgia’s industrial output beneath the national average, underscoring slower overall industrial development.
Public health and labor concerns:
Black lung disease is highlighted as a major health issue for miners, illustrating the human cost of mining.
Industrialization context and Georgia example
The broader pattern of industrial development in the New South:
The South was expanding industrially, but overall industrial output lagged behind the North.
Georgia statistic:
A cited statistic claims that Georgia produced less than 1\% of the nation’s manufactured products, signaling limited industrial share despite new industries.
Segregation and Reconstruction backdrop:
The economic modernization occurred within a political and social system shaped by Reconstruction’s aftermath and ongoing racial segregation.
Segregation, Reconstruction, and the legal framework
Redeemers and the end of Reconstruction influence:
In the late 19th century, white Southern Democrats—“Redeemers”—claimed to have redeemed the rights of white southerners, shaping post-Reconstruction governance.
Civil Rights Cases (1883): weakening the 14th Amendment:
A group of cases in 1883 reached the Supreme Court, ruling that public places (hotels, restaurants, railroads) were not public institutions because they were privately owned.
This decision weakened the equal protection aspects of the Fourteenth Amendment by allowing private discrimination in privately owned spaces.
The Fourteenth Amendment’s equal protection clause was meant to apply to state actions and protect civil rights; the Civil Rights Cases narrowed its reach for private, semi-public spaces.
Jim Crow and segregated public life:
Following this era, Southern states enacted Jim Crow laws that legalized racial segregation in trains, hotels, restaurants, and more.
The Jim Crow system extended into places not typically considered public institutions (e.g., prisons, some hospitals), reinforcing racial hierarchy.
Plessy v. Ferguson and state-imposed segregation:
In 1896, the Supreme Court upheld Louisiana’s law requiring segregated railroad facilities (Plessy v. Ferguson).
This established the “separate but equal” doctrine, which allowed state-sanctioned racial separation under the premise of equality, though in practice facilities were rarely equal.
The long arc of inequality:
The separate but equal doctrine remained in effect for roughly 58 years, contributing to systemic racial disenfranchisement and social inequality.
The mid-20th century turning point:
By 1954, landmark cases (Brown v. Board of Education) began dismantling legalized segregation in public life, signaling a shift toward greater civil rights protections, though discrimination and inequality persisted in many forms, including employment.
Violence and lynching:
The late 19th and early 20th centuries saw a peak period of racial violence, including lynching, as part of the enforcement of segregation and white supremacy.
Practical and ethical implications:
The legal framework institutionalized racial discrimination, creating lasting social and economic disparities.
The interplay between constitutional amendments, private power, and public policy shaped the lived experiences of Black southerners for generations.
Synthesis and historical connections
Interconnected industries and regional development:
Tobacco, textiles, and coal each shaped Southern economic growth in distinct ways, highlighting a diversification of the New South economy beyond agriculture.
The South’s industrial strategy combined resource endowment (tobacco, coal, cotton) with favorable operating conditions (low wages, taxes, regulation) but faced global competition and structural challenges.
From Reconstruction to Jim Crow:
The legal and social framework established during Reconstruction evolved into Jim Crow, using private power and state policy to enforce racial hierarchy.
Legal compromises like separate but equal allowed systemic inequality to persist, setting the stage for the civil rights movement decades later.
Economic implications for policy and society:
The gap between Northern and Southern industrial development influenced political dynamics, migration patterns, and education funding.
The economic base of the South intertwined with racial politics, shaping debates over labor, wages, and social justice.
Real-world relevance:
Understanding the rise and decline of tobacco, textiles, and coal illuminates the broader patterns of industrialization, globalization, and regional identity in American economic history.
Key terms to review:
Monopoly, antitrust (e.g., Taft administration actions against monopolies)
Separate but equal doctrine, Plessy v. Ferguson, Civil Rights Cases (1883)
Jim Crow, Redeemers, Lynching, Reconstruction amendments (14th Amendment)
Blue Ridge, Ridge and Valley, Cumberland Plateau, coal seams
Company towns, industrial wages, globalization of manufacturing
Questions to consider for exams:
How did the tobacco industry influence Southern economic and political power in the early 20th century?
What factors made the South an attractive region for textile investment, and why did the industry decline later?
How did coal mining shape labor, health, and regional development in the Appalachian South?
What were the key legal milestones that established racial segregation, and how did they evolve toward the mid-20th century?
In what ways did economic modernization intersect with racial hierarchy in the New South?