Civil War, Reconstruction, and the New South — Quick Review

The New South: Industry and Growth

• Concept: The New South seeks to diversify from agriculture to industry and commerce while maintaining white supremacy.
• Resources and drivers: cheap labor, water supply, minerals (iron, coal), timber, tobacco, cotton; oil refining and chemicals emerge.
• Key industries and outcomes:
  • Iron and coal → steel mills; Birmingham, AL as a major steel center (Pittsburgh of the South).
  • Tobacco → cigarettes; James B. Duke's American Tobacco Company near monopoly by 1890, producing about $90\%$ of cigarettes sold in the U.S.
  • Cotton → textile mills
  • Timber → paper mills and furniture factories
  • Oil → refineries and chemicals
• Growth and inequality:
  • Southerners moved from countryside to factory towns despite low wages and poor conditions.
  • By $1900$, Southern manufacturing was $4\times$ the prewar level, but the South’s share of U.S. industry remained $10\%$ (about the same as in 1860).
• Social and political backdrop:
  • Dominated by conservative white Democrats (the Bourbons/Redeemers) who sought to maintain white supremacy.
  • Convict lease system: prisons leased as cheap labor; reduced taxes and public services benefited industrialists but hurt schools and prisons.
  • The Southern ruling class included bankers, merchants, industrialists, railroad men, and lawyers.
• Visionaries and symbolism:
  • Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta Constitution, promoted industrialization and a diversified economy; 1886 New York speech described:
  • $100\text{ farms per plantation}$
  • $50\text{ farms per palace}$
  • A diversified industry for a complex age.
• Railroads and production:
  • Railroad mileage in the South grew $135\%$ from 1880 to 1890, aiding industrial expansion.
• Regional comparison and capital flows:
  • Northern industry remained more developed; much investment in the South came from the North, with profits returning North and slow Southern wage growth.
• Overall trend:
  • The New South aimed for prosperity through industry but lagged behind the North in overall growth.

The North after the Civil War: Industrial Prosperity

• Postwar industrial surge: factories operated at full capacity; new plants built to meet unprecedented demand; labor shortages addressed by new machinery.
• Major growth sectors: meat-packing, flour milling, oil refining, steel production.
• Political economy: Republican control favored business interests; National Banking Act (1863) established nationally chartered banks; laws providing land grants to railroads supported expansion.
• Outcome: rapid economic prosperity and the emergence of large-scale American industries.

The West: Settlement, Legislation, and Immigration

• Population and migration: West grows rapidly, attracting people from the East and immigrants after the Civil War.
• Homestead Act of $1862$: gave $160\text{ acres}$ free to the head of a family who cultivated the land for $5\text{ years}$.
• Morrill Land-Grant Act of $1862$: encouraged agricultural education by establishing land-grant colleges.
• Development drivers: free homesteads, improved transportation, and abundant resources drew settlers and immigrants.

The South after Reconstruction: Bourbons, Redeemers, and the Convict Lease System

• Redemption and control: After 1877, conservative white Democrats (the Bourbons/Redeemers) reestablished control across the South.
• Governance and policy: Reduced taxes and public services; corruption and patronage persisted; prisons leased as cheap labor under the convict lease system.
• Political landscape: Solid South became a one-party system with Democratic dominance; limited influence in national politics.
• Economic pattern: Much Southern investment came from the North; profits returned North; wages remained low in the region.
• Civil rights context: Restrictive measures curtailed Black political and economic rights.

Race, Voting Rights, and the Supreme Court

• Post-Reconstruction restrictions on Black voting intensified (poll taxes, literacy tests, other tests).
• 15th Amendment (amendment text): guaranteed the right to vote cannot be denied on the basis of race; enforcement varied.
• 1898 Williams v. Mississippi: Supreme Court upheld literacy tests and other restrictions as constitutional.
• Civil Rights Cases (1883): Supreme Court invalidated the Civil Rights Act of 1875; public segregation could be legal.
• Fourteenth Amendment: prohibited states from discriminating on the basis of race, but the Court limited its reach to states, not private actors.

Plessy v. Ferguson: Separate but Equal

• 1896 landmark decision: legalized racial segregation in public facilities under the doctrine of separate but equal.
• Case involved railroad cars; Court ruled segregated facilities did not violate the Fourteenth Amendment if perceived as equal.
• Legacy: Provided a legal framework for widespread segregation and the Jim Crow system in schools and public accommodations.