THE SOUTH OF TODAY
The South of the present is a changing South with its face toward the
future rather than the past. Nevertheless the dead hand is felt by all
the people a part of the time, and some of the people are never free
from its paralyzing touch. Old prejudices, the remembrance of past
grievances, and antipathies long cherished now and then assert
themselves in the most unexpected fashion. The Southerner, no matter how
much he may pride himself upon being liberal and broad, is likely to
make certain reservations and limitations in his attitude. There are
some questions upon which he is not open to argument, certain subjects
which he cannot discuss freely and dispassionately. Some Southerners
have so many of these reservations that conversation with them is
difficult unless one instinctively understands their psychology and is
willing to avoid certain subjects. The past has made so powerful an
impression upon them that it has affected their whole attitude of mind.
Time, travel, association, engrossing work, and economic prosperity have
weakened many of these prejudices and antipathies, however, and the
Southerner is becoming free. There are individuals who will always be
bound by the past; there are some men, and more women, who are yet
"unreconstructed"; there are neighborhoods and villages where men and
women yet live in the past and absolutely refuse to attempt to adjust
themselves cheerfully to changed and changing conditions. This is not
true of the Southern people as a whole. In fact there is danger that the
younger generation will think too little of the past. Much of the Old
South is worthy of preservation, and it is never safe for a country or a
section to break too abruptly with its older life.
Economically the South has prospered in proportion as the new spirit has
ruled. The question of secession is dead, and the man who refuses today
to treat it as past history but grows excited in discussing it is not
likely to be successful in his business or profession. The men of the
New South spend little time in discussing the relative wisdom of
Jefferson Davis and Robert Toombs or the reasons for the failure of the
Confederacy. The Southerners accept the results of the War, and all except
a negligible minority are convinced that the preservation of the Union was
for the best. To be sure they believe, partly through knowledge but more
largely through absorption, that the Confederate soldier was the best
fighting man ever known and that the War might have been won if the
civil government had been wiser, but on the whole they are not sorry that
secession failed. They thrill even today to _Dixie,_ and _The Bonnie Blue
Flag,_ but this feeling is now purely emotional.
All the Southern States have felt, though unequally, the effects of
industrialism. The South Atlantic States have been most influenced by
this movement, but even Mississippi and Arkansas have been affected. In
many sections the traveler is seldom out of sight of the factory
chimney. Some towns, in appearance and spirit, might easily seem to
belong to a Middle Western environment but for the presence of the negro
and the absence of the foreign born. The population in these Southern
towns is still overwhelmingly American. In no States except Maryland and
Texas did the foreign born number as many as 100,000 in 1910, and
Mississippi, North Carolina, and South Carolina each had less than 10,000
at that time. The highest percentage of foreign born was 8.6 per cent in
Delaware, the lowest 0.3 per cent in North Carolina. In the South as a
whole the proportion of foreign born whites was only 2.5 per cent.
The laborers in the Southern shops and mills today are not only native
born but almost altogether Southern born. The South has been a great
loser through interstate migration. Other sections also have lost but
the excess of those departing has been replaced by the immigration of
foreign born. Comparatively few have come to the South from other
sections except in Florida, Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Texas, and fewer
foreign born have settled in the South. As a result, the percentage of
increase of population is less for the South, if Oklahoma be omitted,
than for the United States as a whole. Many of the laborers are of rural
origin or are only a generation removed from the farm. They preserve the
individualistic attitude of the rural mind and have learned little of
collective action. Labor unions have made small progress except in a few
skilled trades and class consciousness has not developed in the South.
The important industries have thus far been few and they have kept
rather close to the original raw material. The South does not spin all
the cotton it produces, does not weave all the yarn it spins, and does not
manufacture into clothing any considerable quantity of the cloth it weaves.
The greater part of both yarn and cloth is coarse, though some mills do
finer work. Little bleaching or printing, however, is done. The South is
a land of curious economic contrasts. It produces sugar but buys
confectionery. It produces immense quantities of lumber but works up
comparatively little, and this mainly into simple forms. It produces iron
and steel in considerable quantities but has few machine shops where really
delicate work can be done. It does not manufacture motor cars, electric or
even textile machinery or machine tools, nor does it make watches or
firearms in appreciable quantities. In short, the South carries some of the
most important raw materials only a step or two toward their ultimate form
and depends upon other parts of the country for the finished article.
Years ago the story was told of a Georgia funeral at which that State
furnished only the corpse and the grave. Georgia, and other States too,
can do much more today, if the funeral be not too elaborate. It can
furnish a cotton shroud, each year of finer quality. The knitting mills
of the South are able to supply an increasing proportion of the
population with hose and underclothing, and a number of the mills are
gaining a national trade through advertising. If demanded, Southern-made
shoes may be found, and a Southern-made coffin may be drawn on a
Southern-made wagon by Southern-bred horses and perhaps, though
improbably, in harness of local manufacture also.
The South was once the richest section of the Union. The vicissitudes of
the Civil War rendered it poor, but now it is rapidly growing richer and
since the beginning of the Great War has shown a phenomenal accumulation
of new capital. During this great struggle some of the cotton mills made
in a single month profits as large as they were formerly accustomed to
make in a year. Even though the farmer received for his cotton much more
than usual, the price of cloth would still have yielded a profit to the
manufacturer if cotton had been twice as high. Other enterprises have
likewise been profitable, and when normal conditions are restored this
capital will seek new investment. While prophecy is dangerous it seems
probable that manufacturing in the South will grow as never before; and
new forms of investment must be found, as the rural districts cannot
furnish any greatly increased supply of labor for cotton manufacturing
though the towns can supply some adult labor for other forms of industry.
The labor question is beginning to grow serious in some localities,
though it is difficult to discover whether the problem is chiefly one of
getting labor at all or of getting it at something like the wages
formerly paid. Apparently, however, the industrial growth of the South
has been more rapid than that of population. Heretofore the farmer has
had little difficulty in obtaining some sort of assistance in
cultivating his land, and this abundance of labor has lessened the
demand for agricultural machinery. Now the migration of the negro to the
North has created a shortage of labor which must force the farmer to
purchase machinery. Too much man and horse power has been employed upon
Southern farms in proportion to the results achieved. The South has been
producing a large value per acre but a small value per individual. If
the South is to become permanently prosperous, fewer persons must do the
work and must even increase the production.
A practical cotton-picking machine would help to solve some of the
South's problems, as any family can plant and cultivate after a fashion
much more cotton than it can pick. Many attempts to produce such a
machine have been made, but simplicity, efficiency, and cheapness have
not yet been attained. Like the reaper and binder, a machine of this
sort is needed for only a small portion of the year, but in that short
period the need is extreme. Such a machine would revolutionize the
tenant system, would permit a larger production of food, and at the same
time would set labor free for other occupations. Meanwhile the general
rate of wages in agriculture has risen and must rise still further, as
it has done in other occupations. Any student of economics who draws his
conclusions from observation of life as well as from books realizes how
large a part custom plays in determining wages, and hitherto farm wages
have been very low and labor has been inefficient in the South.
The economic future of the South must rest upon the advance of the
farmer. This thesis has already been developed at length in another
chapter, where the present unsatisfactory organization and conditions of
agriculture were also discussed. Improvement, however, is already
becoming evident. Cotton furnishes two-fifths of the value of all farm
products, with corn, hay, tobacco, and wheat following in the order
named. Gradually the West is ceasing to be the granary and the smokehouse
of the Southern farmer, but the South does not yet feed itself. In 1917
only Maryland, Delaware, Virginia, and Oklahoma produced a surplus of
wheat, though it is estimated that the South as a whole reduced its
deficiency by more than 35,000,000 bushels. The abnormal prices of
agricultural products since 1915 have brought many farmers out of debt and
set them on the road toward prosperity, but many have not yet realized that
they are no longer objects of commiseration. Though the high prices of
war times have brought prosperity to the farmer, the crying necessity today
is a larger production per man employed.
The political, as well as the economic, condition of the South today is
full of interest. Politically the common man is in control, and as a
rule he selects men of his own type to represent him. The primary was
almost universal in the South when the West was only thinking of it as a
radical innovation. The day of aristocratic domination is over, if
indeed it ever really existed. In many instances descent from well-known
ancestors who have held high positions has proved a positive detriment
to a political candidate of today. Some of the successful politicians,
as might be expected, are demagogues. States differ in the number of
politicians of this type, and the same State may vary from year to year.
It may at the same time send a demagogue and a statesman to the Senate. Men
are permitted to hold offices, both national and state, for longer periods
than formerly, and, as a result, in recent Democratic Congresses Southern
men have held the most important chairmanships.[1]
[Footnote 1: North Carolina, for example, had in the 65th Congress, the
chairmanship of the Committees on Finance and on Rules in the Senate,
and on Ways and Means, Rules, Judiciary, and Rivers and Harbors in the
House, besides other chairmanships of less account. Seldom in the whole
history of the country has the representation of any State been so
powerful.]
That the Southern representation in Congress is equal in ability,
culture, and character to that of the Old South or to that of even
thirty years ago can hardly be seriously maintained. There are in
Congress a few men today who recall the best traditions of Southern
leadership; there are more who are mediocre and parochial. For the most
part they come from law offices in country towns, and have the virtues
and the limitations of their environment. They are honest financially,
if not intellectually, and do not consciously yield to "the interests."
They are correct in their private lives and likely to be somewhat
bigoted. Many are convinced that cities are essentially wicked and
conceive them to be inhabited by vampires and parasites. Few can think
in national terms, and fewer have either knowledge or comprehension of
international relations. For a generation the South was excluded from
any real participation in national affairs and was wholly occupied with
local questions. It is therefore difficult for such men to realize the
present position of the United States in world politics. With much
perturbation of spirit the rank and file followed the President in the
steps leading up to the Great War, though some of the would-be leaders
attempted to rebel. On the other hand, some of the most valuable men in
the great crisis were Southerners.
The dominant party in the South is called Democratic, but the name has
little of its original significance today. The representative is likely
to follow the sentiment of his district if he can discover it. Some of
the Southern Democrats advocate doctrines which are far removed from
traditional democracy, for Populistic ideas have not entirely died out
and some of the farmers still demand special privileges, which, however,
they would be the first to deny to any one else. Democracy in the South
really means the white man's party, and the Democratic doctrines are
those in which it is thought the majority of the white men of the State
or section believe for the time. Though the negro is no longer a voting
power, the malign influence of the negro question persists.
Since the South as a whole favors prohibition of the liquor traffic the
representatives of the people are almost unanimously in favor of
prohibition, forgetting all constitutional scruples and all questions of
state rights. The sentiment for woman suffrage is not yet overwhelming
and consequently, as might be surmised, conscientious scruples prevent
representatives from voting for the extension of the franchise. In two
States, however, the friends of woman suffrage, though not strong enough
to pass a constitutional amendment, have realized their aim by a
brilliant _coup_. Since most elections are practically settled in the
primaries, the legislatures of Texas and Arkansas gave women the right
to vote in such elections. In other words, women were given the right to
help nominate candidates, though they are excluded from the formal
elections. Whether these acts will stand in the courts has not been
determined. Missouri and Tennessee have recently given national suffrage
to women, and Oklahoma has given full suffrage.
The negro has been practically eliminated as a voter, but the decision of
the Supreme Court in the Oklahoma case may make necessary the revision of
some state constitutions. Enough restrictions remain, however, to make
white supremacy reasonably secure for the present. As the aim is one upon
which the white South is practically agreed, some other expedients will be
devised if those now in use must be discarded. There is absolutely no
desire for a wholesale restoration of the negro vote, though, of course,
Republican conventions denounce the disfranchising acts and constitutional
amendments. If the control of the Southern States should be gained by the
Republican party, unlimited negro suffrage would hardly be restored unless
such action were forced by the party in the nation at large. In the last
extremity the South would suffer loss of representation rather than face
the consequences of unrestricted negro suffrage.
Socially the South is in a state of ferment. Old standards are passing,
some of them very rapidly, and the younger generation is inclined to
smile at some of the attitudes of the old. The "typical Southerner" who
nourishes within the pages of F. Hopkinson Smith and Thomas Nelson Page
is extremely rare outside of them. Most of the real Southern colonels
are dead, and the others are too busy running plantations or cotton mills
to spend much time discussing genealogy, making pretty speeches, or talking
about their honor. Not so many colonels are made as formerly, and one may
travel far before he meets an individual who fits the popular idea of the
type. He is likely to meet more men who are cold, hard, and astute, for the
New South has developed some perfect specimens of the type whose natural
habitat had been supposed to be Ulster or the British Midlands--religious,
narrow, stubborn, and very shrewd.
A sense of social responsibility is developing in the South. Kindness
has always been shown to the unfortunate and the afflicted, but it has
been exhibited toward individuals by individuals. If a Southerner heard
of a case of distress in his neighborhood, he was quick to respond. Real
neighborliness has always existed, but the idea of responsibility for a
class was slow to develop. Such an idea is growing, however. More
attention has been given to the condition of jails and almshouses during
the last ten years than in the whole preceding century. To be sure, the
section is now becoming rich enough to afford the luxury of paupers, but
the interest in socialized humanitarian endeavor lies deeper. Perhaps
the fact that negroes formed the larger part of the criminal and
dependent classes had something to do with the past neglect. The Old
Testament doctrine that the criminal should suffer the consequences of his
act has had its effect, and the factor of expense has not been forgotten.
Some of the States still permit county commissioners to commit the care of
the poor to the lowest bidder. On the other hand the poorhouse has been
transformed into a "Home for the Aged and Infirm" in some States, and
inspections of public institutions by the grand jury are becoming more
than merely cursory. State boards of charities are being established,
and men have even attacked members of their own political parties on the
charge of incompetence, cruelty, or neglect of duty as keepers of
prisons or almshouses. Hundreds of towns have their associated
charities, and scores have visiting nurses. Where there is only one
nurse, she visits negroes as well as whites, but many towns support one
or more for negroes as well.
In former days orphans were "bound out," if no relatives would take
them, and in that case they might not always be properly treated. At the
present time not only States and municipalities support asylums, but
religious denominations and fraternal orders manage many well-conducted
institutions. The problem of the juvenile delinquent is being recognized,
as several States already have institutions for his care. So far little
has been done for the young negro offender, whose home training is likely
to be most deficient and who needs firm but kindly discipline; but the
consciousness of responsibility for him also is developing. Increasing
prosperity alone cannot account for the multiplication of these agencies
for social betterment. A new social interest and a new attitude of mind are
revealed in these activities.
There are still some communities where social position is based upon
birth and where the old families still control; but these regions are
becoming less numerous. The Old South was never quite so aristocratic as
the North believed, and today the white South is much more nearly a
democracy than New England. Even in 1860 this was true of some parts of
the South, as compared with some parts of New England. The rural South
was always democratic except in comparatively limited areas, and it is
so everywhere today. In those communities which have felt the new
industrial spirit the question of birth plays little part. Any
presentable young man can go where he chooses. In such communities the
tendency--apparently inevitable in industrial societies--to base social
distinctions upon wealth and business success is beginning to show itself.
The plutocrats, however, are not yet numerous enough to form a society of
their own and must perforce find their associates among their fellow
townsmen.
One does not lose social position in the South by engaging in business
or by working with his hands. It may easily happen that in the afternoon
you may purchase a collar or a pair of shoes from a young man whom you
will meet in the evening at the house of the local magnate. The
granddaughter of a former governor or justice of the Supreme Court comes
home from her typewriter and her brother from the cotton mill or the
lumber yard. Social life in a small town--and most Southern towns are
small--is simple and unpretentious, although here too the influence of
prosperity is beginning to be manifest. Social affairs are more
elaborate than they were ten or fifteen years ago, and there is also
less casual expression of informal hospitality. The higher prices of
food and the increasing difficulties of the servant problem have
doubtless put some restraint upon the spirit of hospitality but perhaps
more important is the fact that more of the men must keep regular hours of
business and that women are developing interests outside the home.
Social affairs are almost entirely in the hands of women. The older men
come somewhat unwillingly to receptions in the evening, but the presence
of a man at an afternoon tea is unusual. The Southerner of the small
towns and cities puts away play with his adolescence. The professional
man seldom advertises the fact that he has gone hunting or fishing for a
day or a week, as it is thought to be not quite the thing for a lawyer
to be away from his office for such a purpose. Golf has gained no
foothold except in the larger towns, and even there the existence of the
country club is often precarious. Few males except college youths will
be seen on the tennis court, if indeed there be one even in a town of
five thousand people. Professional men keep long hours, though they
might be able to do all their work in half the time they spend in their
offices.
The theory of the Old South contemplated different spheres of activity
for men and women. The combined influence of St. Paul and Sir Walter
Scott is responsible for a part of this theory, though its development
was probably inevitable from the structure of society in the Old South.
A woman's place was the home. As a girl she might live for enjoyment and
spend her time in a round of visits, but she was expected to give up
frivolity of all sorts when she married. Society in the South was almost
entirely the concern of the unmarried. Women seldom took a prominent
part in any organization, and a woman speaking in public was regarded as
a great curiosity. Not so many years ago the missionary society, and
perhaps the parsonage aid society, were almost the only organizations in
which women took a part. In recent years church and educational
organizations have multiplied, and today there are numerous women's
clubs devoted to many different objects. Southern women are active in
civic leagues, associated charities, and other forms of community
endeavor; they are prominent in various patriotic societies; and there
are many suffrage societies. Where the laws permit, women are members of
school boards; they often head organizations of teachers composed of
both men and women, and at least one woman has been chosen mayor of a
town.
Women have done more than the men to keep alive in the South the
memories of the past. Perhaps because the women of the older generation
suffered more than the men, they have been less willing to forget, and
their daughters have imbibed some of the same feeling. The Daughters of
the Confederacy have been more bitter than the Sons of Veterans or than
the veterans themselves. The effect of recent events upon their
psychology has been interesting. In the Great War their sons and
grandsons were called to go overseas, and the national government was
brought closer to them than at any other time for more than forty years.
It is idle to insist that before this there had been any ardent
affection in the South for the United States. There had been acceptance
of the national situation, perhaps an intellectual acknowledgment that
all may have been for the best, but no warm nationalism had been
developed before the Great War came. Loyalty was passive rather than
active.
The closing of the chasm has been hailed many times, notably at the time
of the Spanish War, but no keen observer has been deceived for a moment.
The recent world crisis, however, seems to have swept aside all
hindrances. Perhaps the people, and particularly the women, were
unconsciously yearning for a country to love and were ready for a great
wave of patriotism to carry them with it. During the week following the
declaration of war more national flags were displayed in the South than
had been shown in the memory of the oldest resident, for except on
public buildings the national flag has not been commonly displayed. At
this time houses which had never shown a flag were draped, and merchants
were chided because they could not supply the demand.
Quite as a matter of course the president of the Daughters of the
Confederacy became president of the Red Cross Auxiliary which was
organized at once. Women were eager to receive instruction in folding
bandages, and knitting became the order of the day. Women threw
themselves with all their energy into various activities. Canteen work
was organized if the town was a junction point, and every instalment of
"selected men"--for the word "drafted" was rejected almost by common
consent--was sent away with some evidence of the thoughtfulness of the
women of their home town. Women have been prominent in raising money for
the Red Cross and the Y.M.C.A. and have done valiant service in selling
War Savings Stamps and Liberty Bonds. There has been some shaking of
heads, and some exponents of the sheltered life have criticized this
invasion of what had been supposed to be the sphere of men, but the women
have gone ahead. Indeed their alacrity has seemed to indicate that they are
glad to have an excuse to throw aside the restraints which have hitherto
bound them. Women and girls have approached men whom they did not know on
the streets to ask for contributions or to urge the purchase of stamps or
bonds, and only those who know the South can realize what a departure from
traditional standards of feminine conduct such actions indicate. The
business woman has been a familiar figure for years, but she was sheltered
by the walls of her office or shop. On the street she was held to a
certain code and was criticized if she failed to observe it. But here also
the old order is changing and giving place to new.
The power of public opinion is very great in the South. While this may
be true of rural or semi-rural communities in any part of the land,
nowhere else does collective opinion exert such overwhelming force as in
the Southern States. Perhaps this phenomenon is a survival from
Reconstruction days and after. Since certain attitudes toward the negro,
for example, were defended on the ground of the necessity of protecting
womanhood, a certain standard must be demanded from women, and every man
claimed a sort of prescriptive right to assist in laying down rules for
such conduct on her part. For a long time the women of the South,
consciously or unconsciously, were subject to these unwritten rules. Today
in increasing numbers the women, particularly the younger women, are
declaring their independence by their conduct. It has not become a feminist
revolt, for many have not thought out the situation and have not recognized
the source of their restrictions. The statutes of some of the Southern
States, moreover, still contain many of the old common law restrictions
upon women's independence of action. More and more women are asserting
themselves, however, and are demanding the right to guide themselves. The
negro woman has been held up as the reason for denying the vote to the
white woman, but this excuse no longer is accepted willingly. Women are
inquiring why the vote of the negro women should be any more of a menace
than the vote of the negro man, and there seems to be no satisfactory
answer. If the women make up their minds and agree, they will gain their
ends.
Though women in the South as elsewhere form a majority of the church
membership, they have not had equal rights in church administration.
During 1918, several denominations granted full laity rights, though the
bishops of the Southern Methodist Church referred the action of the
General Conference back to the Annual Conferences. This is of course only
temporary delay. An unusually large percentage of the adult population
holds membership in one or other of the Protestant denominations. The
Roman Catholics are reported as being in a majority in Louisiana, as might
be expected owing to French descent, and in Kentucky, Delaware, Maryland,
and Texas the proportion is considerable. It is less in Arkansas, Oklahoma,
and West Virginia. In Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia,
Alabama, Mississippi, and Tennessee, the proportion of Catholics is still
smaller, though the latest (1918) official Catholic statistics for the
even States last named show 7 bishops, 415 priests, 635 churches, and
211,000 Catholics. The principal denominational affiliations of the
Southern people, white and black, are with the various Baptist or Methodist
bodies, with a strong Presbyterian influence. In eleven of the Southern
States the Baptists are by far the largest denomination, though the
Methodists lead in two. These two denominations taken together are in a
large majority in every State except Delaware, Maryland, and Louisiana.
Presbyterians and Episcopalians are well distributed throughout the whole
section and have exercised an influence altogether out of proportion to
their numbers. Presbyterianism came in with the great Scotch-Irish
migration of the eighteenth century, and though many of the blood have gone
over to other denominations, the influence of the Shorter Catechism still
persists. In the older States attempts were made to establish the Anglican
Church in the colonial era, and the governing classes were naturally
affiliated with it.
Both these organizations had to give way to the great wave of religious
enthusiasm which swept the section early in the nineteenth century.
Baptist and Methodist missionaries, many of them unlettered but vigorous
and powerful, went into the remotest districts and swept the population
into their communions. They preached a narrow, strait-laced, Old
Testament religion, but it went deep. They believed in the verbal
inspiration of the Bible, and so far as they could they interpreted it
literally, laying emphasis upon the future, the rewards of the
righteous, and the tortures of the damned. Life upon this earth was
regarded as simply a preparation for the life to come. One is sometimes
tempted to believe that these spiritual guides deprecated attempts to
improve conditions here on earth lest men should grow to think less of a
future abode. It is easy to understand why such a doctrine of future
reward should have appealed to negroes, and it is perhaps not surprising
that the poor upon the frontier likewise found comfort and solace in it.
ears ago the social position of the great majority of the Methodists and
Baptists was distinctly below that of the Episcopalians and Presbyterians.
In recent years many Methodists and Baptists have grown prosperous.
Instead of being bare barns, their church edifices are often the most
ornate and costly in the town or city. A Methodist or a Baptist can have
none of the former feeling of martyrdom now, when in numbers and wealth his
denomination is so powerful.[1]
[Footnote 1: Except these five, other church organizations have few
members. There are a few Congregationalists, almost entirely the result
of post-bellum missions to the negroes. White and negro Lutheran
churches are scattered through the Southern States, and in Kentucky and
Tennessee the Disciples are important. Here and there other
denominations have gained a foothold, but their numbers are
insignificant in the South as a whole.]
Though the evangelical religious teaching of former days has been
modified and softened, it has been softened only and not superseded. The
result of this emphasis upon the other world has been to make men look
somewhat askance at worldly amusement. The idea so prevalent in other
sections that the people of the South are convivial and mercurial in
temperament is erroneous. It would be more nearly correct to say that
gravity, amounting almost to austerity, is a distinguishing mark of
Southerners. In any Southern gathering representing the people as a
whole there is little mirth. There is much more Puritanism in the South
today than remains in New England. The Sabbath is no longer observed so
strictly as twenty years ago, perhaps, but only recently has it been
considered proper to receive visits on Sunday or to drive into the
country. As for Sunday golf or tennis, the average community would stand
horror-struck at such a spectacle. Sermons are frequently preached
against dancing, card-playing, and theater-going, and members have been
dismissed from Baptist, Methodist, and Presbyterian churches for
indulging in these forbidden amusements.
The older generation, however, is losing in the fight to maintain the
old standards of conduct and belief. In spite of disapprobation, bridge
clubs flourish and the young people will dance and go to the theater,
though even yet most Southern cities are known as "poor show towns."
Today men go to the post office on Sunday, read the Sunday papers, and
ride on Sunday trains. The motor car makes its appearance on Sunday,
though it would be interesting to know how many of those riding really
feel conscience free, for many who have liberal ideas still have
Calvinistic nerves. Young ministers occasionally preach sermons for which
they would have been charged with heresy not many years ago and openly
read books which would have been considered poisonous then. Men speak of
evolution now and show familiarity with authors who were anathema to the
older generation.
Lately some of the town and city churches have been developing the
social and humanitarian side of religious work, but the greatest number
manage to collect only enough money to keep the organization alive. They
are like engines which can get up enough steam to turn the wheels slowly
and painfully but lack sufficient power to do effective work. In fact,
there is strong opposition to any pastor who attempts to influence the
decision of the congregation on any social question. Many towns and
rural communities have several churches, though their population and
wealth may be hardly large enough to support one properly. This
condition, however, is not peculiar to the South. Here and there in the
country districts a new type of pastor has appeared. He is a good farmer
himself, interested in better farming and able to discuss fertilizers and
methods with his parishioners. He is not afraid that prosperity will turn
his members away from their church duties but considers that improving
the economic conditions of the neighborhood is quite as vital a part of
his work as ministering to their spiritual needs. Largely because of the
work of some of these men the exodus to the towns has slackened in some
neighborhoods and contributions to the work of the church have been greatly
increased.
This movement from country to town has become a serious matter in some
localities. The social level of neighborhoods once attractive because of
the presence of families of intelligence and character has fallen. The
land of the families which have moved to towns has been turned over to
tenants, either whites of a lower status or negroes, the standards of
the community have suffered in consequence, and the atmosphere of some
of these communities has become depressing. Such conditions, however,
are not peculiar to the South but have been observed in central New York
and in New England. Better roads, the motor car, and improvement in
communications have helped to check this cityward movement, and, on the
whole, the educational, economic, and social standards of the country
districts generally are higher than they were ten years ago.
Generally speaking, the South is a law-abiding section. This is true
even when the negroes are included, and as the prohibitory laws are
enforced more strictly, it is becoming increasingly true. The chain gang
which was so common years ago has been discontinued in hundreds of
counties, chiefly for lack of convicts, though partly for humanitarian
reasons. The offenses of the negro were, for the most part, petty
larceny, gambling, and offenses against public order. Affrays are
certainly less frequent since the spread of prohibition, and larceny
seems to be decreasing, though statistics of crime are few and
unreliable. The gambling is usually nothing more than "craps," or
"African billiards" as they call it now. Among the whites, offenses
against property are few. In many rural counties a white man is seldom
charged with theft, fraud, or forgery. A white man is occasionally
arraigned for "disposing of mortgaged property," or for malicious
mischief, including the destruction of property.
The homicide rate, however, is high. Generally the figures given include
the negro, and he is somewhat more homicidal than the white, but the white
rate is among the highest in the world. Blood feuds actually exist in the
Southern Appalachians, though perhaps their number is not so large as is
commonly believed. The moonshiner's antipathy to revenue officers leads
him to use firearms upon occasion, but homicide occurs also in intelligent
communities where the general tone is high. Individuals of excellent
standing in business or professional life sometimes shoot to kill their
fellows and in the past have usually escaped the extreme penalty and often
have avoided punishment altogether. It would seem that life is held rather
cheaply in many Southern communities.
Until recently much of the South has remained a frontier, as some of it
is to this day, and in frontier communities men are accustomed to take
the law into their own hands and are reluctant to depend upon inadequate
or ineffective police protection. Despising physical cowardice, the
individual prides himself upon his ability to maintain his rights and to
protect his honor without calling for assistance. Frontiersmen are quick
to resent an affront, and when their veracity is impugned they fight.
The word "lie" is not considered a polite mode of expressing dissent. All
over the South, in every class of society, one finds this sensitiveness to
an accusation of lack of veracity. Such a theory of life dies hard. The
presence of a less advanced race is perhaps not conducive to self-control.
The dominant race, determined to maintain its position of superiority,
is likely to resent a real or fancied affront to its dignity. A warped
sense of honor, a sort of belated theory of chivalry, is responsible for
some acts of violence. A seducer is likely to be called to account and the
slayer, by invoking the "unwritten law," has usually been acquitted. Such
a case lends itself to the display of flamboyant oratory, and the plea of
"protecting the home" has set many murderers free. Perhaps the South is
becoming less susceptible to oratory; at all events this plea now
sometimes fails to win a jury. Defendants are occasionally convicted,
though the verdicts are usually rendered for manslaughter and not for
murder.
Public sentiment is not yet ready, however, to declare every intentional
homicide murder. Some point to the low rate of white illegitimacy as a
justification of the deterring force of the "unwritten law," not
realizing that such a defense it, really a reflection upon womanhood.
Others allow their detestation of physical cowardice to blind them to the
danger of allowing men to take the law into their own hands. The
individualism of the imperfectly socialized Southerner does not yet
permit him to think of the law as a majestic, impersonal force towering
high above the individual. It is true that the Southerner is law-abiding
on the whole, but he usually obeys the laws because they represent his
ethical concepts and not because of devotion to the abstract idea of law.
There is danger, however, in the attempt to state dogmatically what the
Southerner thinks or believes. There is much diversity of opinion among
the younger Southerners, for many questions are in a state of flux, and
there is as yet no point of crystallization. There is no leader either
in politics or in journalism who may be said to utter the voice of the
South. In the earlier part of this period Henry Watterson, of the
Louisville _Courier-Journal_, spoke almost with authority. The untimely
death of Henry W. Grady, editor of the Atlanta _Constitution_, deprived
the South of a spokesman and he has had no successor. There is no
newspaper which has any considerable influence outside the State in
which it is published, and few have a circulation throughout even their
entire State. There are several newspapers which are edited with
considerable ability, on the political side at least, but none has a
circulation sufficiently large to make it a real power. All are more or
less parochial. The country papers, which are frankly and necessarily
local, exercise more influence than the papers of the cities, though the
circulation of the latter is increasing.
The Southerner is reading more than he once did. Some of the national
weeklies have a considerable circulation in the South, and the national
magazines are read in increasing numbers. Good bookstores are not
common, for the people generally have not learned to buy many books
since they have been able to afford them. The women's clubs, however,
interest their members in the "best-sellers" and pass these books from
one to another. Some members may always be depended upon to purchase
serious books as their contribution to the club. The number of public
libraries in the South is considerable, and the educational
administration of several of the States is striving to put a
well-selected library into every public school[1].
[Footnote 1: North Carolina has established over five thousand of these
school libraries. The State pays one-third of the cost, the county
one-third, and the patrons of the school the remainder. Additional
volumes are furnished by the same plan.]
The Southerner is not only reading more books, but he is also writing
more. A man or woman who has written a book is no longer a curiosity. In
the closing decade or two of the nineteenth century the work of a group
of Southern writers led a distinguished critic to rank them as the most
significant force in American letters. Such a high valuation of the
writers of the present day could hardly be made, but there is a much
larger number than formerly whose work is acceptable. Members of college
faculties, and others, produce annually numerous books of solid worth in
science, history, biography, economics, and sociology. Volumes of
recollections and reminiscences interesting to the student of the past
appear, and much local and state history has been rescued from oblivion.
Some theological books are written, but there is little published on
national questions. The output of verse is small, and few essays are
published. As few Southerners are extensive travelers, there are
necessarily few books of travel and description. Though most of the
people live in a rural or semi-rural environment, very little is printed
dealing with nature. There are many writers of fiction, though few can
be called artists.
The New South is full of contradictions and paradoxes. It is living
generations of social and economic changes in decades, and naturally all
the people do not keep an even pace. One may find culture that would
grace a court alongside incredible ignorance; distinguished courtesy and
sheer brutality; kindness and consideration of the rights and feelings of
others together with cruelty almost unbelievable. In some sections are to
be found machines belonging to the most advanced stage of industry, while
nearby are in operation economic processes of the rudest and most
primitive sort. One who knows the South must feel, however, that its most
striking characteristic is hopefulness. The dull apathy of a generation ago
is rapidly disappearing, and the South lifts up its eyes toward the
future.
THE REPUDIATION OF STATE DEBTS
The debt of Mississippi was small and that of Texas was not excessive,
and neither made any attempt to repudiate the obligations. The
$4,000,000 issued in Florida for state aid to railroads was large for
the small population and the scanty resources of that State, but this
issue was declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of Florida. The
Reconstruction debt of Alabama was large, about $20,000,000, besides
accrued interest which the State could not pay. In 1873, the carpetbag
government attempted to fund these bonds at twenty-five cents on the
dollar. The Funding Act of 1876 repudiated $4,700,000 outright, reduced
the bonds loaned to one railroad from $5,300,000 to $1,000,000, gave
land in payment of $2,000,000 more, scaled other bonds one-half, and
funded still others at par excluding interest. About $13,000,000 in all
was repudiated and the State was left with a debt of less than
$10,000,000[1].
[Footnote 1: W.A. Scott, _The Repudiation of State Debts_, p. 63, but
see also W.L. Fleming, _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, p. 580
ff.]
During 1868 and 1869 bond issues to the amount of nearly $28,000,000
were authorized in North Carolina, but not all of this amount was
issued. From the $13,313,000 which was outstanding at the end of the
carpetbag regime, the State had received little or no benefit. Interest
was not paid upon this sum or upon the previous issues, and the total
debt increased rapidly. Unsuccessful attempts to compromise with the
creditors were made in 1874 and 1875, but not until 1879 was the matter
settled. The Reconstruction bonds were repudiated outright, and the
legitimate debt of the State was funded at from fifteen to forty cents
on the dollar. No provision was made for the unpaid interest. This
compromise did not include the pre-war bonds issued to aid the North
Carolina Railroad. This corporation was a going concern, and as the
result of a suit the stock had been sequestrated. A compromise with the
holders of these bonds was made at eighty per cent of par and interest.
As a result of this wholesale repudiation the debt of the State was so
reduced that it could be carried. In all over $22,000,000 besides other
millions of accrued interest were repudiated.[1]
[Footnote 1: J.G. de R. Hamilton, _Reconstruction in North Carolina_,
pp. 448-449, 659-661.]
Not all of the creditors of the State accepted the compromise at once,
but the offer was left open and, as the years went on and the State
showed no signs of a change of intention, the bondholders gradually
recognized the inevitable. In 1893, nearly fifteen years after this
offer had been made, more than $1,000,000 of the old bonds were still
outstanding. In 1901, a New York firm presented to the State of South
Dakota ten of the class which had been made convertible at twenty-five
cents on the dollar. That State brought suit in the Supreme Court of the
United States and collected the amount sued for.[1] No progress has been
made in collecting the special tax bonds issued during Reconstruction
though some New York bond houses hope against hope, and the Council of
the Corporation of Foreign Bondholders in its annual reports plaintively
regrets the perversity of this and other Southern States.
[Footnote 1: South Dakota v. North Carolina, 192 U.S. Rep., p. 286]
South Carolina presented such a carnival of incompetence and corruption
that the total amount of bonds issued has never been accurately
determined. Apparently there was a valid debt of about $6,666,000 in
1868, which was increased to about $29,000,000 within three years. The
carpetbag Legislature of 1873 repudiated $6,000,000 of this debt, and
attempted to compromise the remainder at fifty per cent, but the State
could not carry even this reduced amount. Judicial decisions destroyed
the validity of some millions more, and finally the debt, reduced to
something more than $7,000,000, was funded. The debt of Georgia was
increased directly and by indorsement of railroad bonds. The Legislature
of 1872 declared $8,500,000 void and in 1875 repudiated about $600,000
more.
Louisiana suffered most from excessive taxation. At the beginning of the
carpetbag period the debt was about $11,000,000, but railroad and levee
bonds were issued rapidly. Though a constitutional amendment in 1870
forbade the State to contract debts in excess of $25,000,000, the
Legislature went steadily on until in 1872 the debt was variously
estimated at from $41,000,000 to $48,000,000. In 1874, when W.P. Kellogg
was Governor, the State began to fund valid obligations at sixty cents
on the dollar. By action of the courts the debt was reduced to about
$12,000,000 bearing interest at seven percent. The State could not pay
the interest on this sum, and the constitutional convention of 1879 made
drastic reductions in the interest rate. Both New York and New
Hampshire, acting ostensibly for themselves but really in behalf of their
citizens, brought suit, but the Supreme Court threw out the cases on the
ground that the actions were attempts to evade the constitutional
provision forbidding a citizen to bring an action against a State. The
bondholders still refused to accept the reduction, and the Supreme Court
in 1883 described the ordinance as a violation of the contract of 1874
but a violation without a remedy. Meanwhile the Legislature, after
consultation with the bondholders, had agreed to a slight increase in the
rate of interest; and in 1884, this compromise was ratified by an
amendment to the constitution.
The debt of Arkansas was not so difficult to settle. The issue of about
$7,500,000 for railroads and levees during Reconstruction was declared
unconstitutional in 1877-78, and the so-called Holford bonds, issued in
aid of banks, were repudiated by the constitutional convention of 1884.
The total amount repudiated and declared void by the courts was nearly
$13,000,000. Tennessee also struggled with a debt which it was unwilling
and perhaps unable to pay. The amount, which in 1861 was about
$21,000,000, incurred principally in aid of railroads and turnpikes, was
largely increased under Republican rule, and most of the money received
for the bonds was stolen or wasted. No interest had been paid during the
War, and the accrued interest was funded in 1865, 1869, and 1873. The
debt was somewhat reduced by permitting the railroads to pay their debt
in state bonds which they purchased cheaply on the market. Other
defaulting railroads were sold, but the State still could not meet the
interest. Many discussions with the creditors were held, but the people
had the idea that much of the debt was fraudulent and they consequently
voted down proposals which they thought too liberal to the creditors. The
question temporarily split the Democratic party, but after much
discussion a long act was passed in 1883 which finally settled the matter.
A part of the debt, with interest, was funded at 76 to 80 cents on the
dollar. The major part was funded at 50 cents on the dollar with interest
thereafter at three per cent.
The financial difficulties of Virginia excited more interest than did
those of any other commonwealth, for this State had the largest pre-war
debt. Its $33,000,000 with accrued interest had amounted to about
$45,000,000 in 1870. In 1871 the question of settlement was taken up;
one-third of the debt was assigned to West Virginia, and the remainder
was funded into new bonds bearing interest at five and six per cent. The
coupons were made receivable for taxes and other debts due the State.
The amount recognized was beyond the ability of the State to pay, and
many members of both parties felt that some compromise must be made. So
many of the coupons were paid in for taxes that money to keep the
Government going was found with difficulty. Various attacks on the
privilege were made, but these "coupon killers" were usually declared
unconstitutional by the Supreme Court of the United States. Meanwhile
the contest had split the State. Some were in favor of paying the whole
debt according to the agreement of 1871; others wished to reduce the
interest rate; while the radicals wished to repudiate part of the debt
and reduce the rate of interest upon the remainder. The last named
faction, under the leadership of H.H. Riddleberger, organized a
political party known as the Readjusters and in 1879 captured the
Legislature. Riddleberger then introduced a bill which scaled down the
debt to less than $20,000,000, but it was vetoed by the Governor. Two years
later the new party captured both Governorship and Legislature and sent
General William Mahone to the United States Senate, where he usually voted
with the Republican party.
The Legislature repassed the Riddleberger bill, which the creditors
refused to accept, and an ingenious "coupon killer." Similar acts were
passed in 1886 and 1887. The United States Supreme Court, before which
these acts were brought, pronounced them unconstitutional in that they
impaired the obligation of contracts, but the Court also stated that
there was no way in which the State could be coerced. Meanwhile the
credit of the State was nonexistent, and all business suffered. In 1890
a commission reported in favor of compromising the debt on the lines of
the Riddleberger Act and, in 1892, $19,000,000 in new bonds were
exchanged for about $28,000,000 of the older issue. Interest was to be 2
per cent for ten years and then 3 per cent for ninety more.
West Virginia steadfastly refused to recognize the share of the debt
assigned to her on the ground that the principal part had been incurred
for internal improvements in Virginia proper, and that one-third was an
excessive proportion. The matter dragged along until the Supreme Court
of the United States decided in March, 1911, that the equitable
proportion due by West Virginia was 23.5 per cent instead of one-third.
West Virginia, however, made no move to carry out the decision, and in
1914 Virginia asked the Court to proceed to a final decree. A special
master was appointed to take testimony, and on June 14, 1915, the Supreme
Court announced that the net share of West Virginia was $12,393,929 plus
$8,178,000 interest. The State, by a compromise with Virginia in 1919,
assumed a debt amounting to $14,500,000.
BIBLIOGRAPHICAL NOTE
Many of the references for the period of Reconstruction are also
valuable for the subject of this volume, as it is impossible to
understand the South today without understanding the period which
preceded it. Much enlightening material is to be found in W.L. Fleming's
_Documentary History of Reconstruction_ (2 vols., 1906-07) and in the
series of monographs on Reconstruction published by the students of
Professor W.A. Dunning of Columbia University, among which may be
mentioned J.W. Garner's _Reconstruction in Mississippi_(1901); W.L.
Fleming's _Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_ (1905); J.G. de R.
Hamilton's _Reconstruction in North Carolina_ (1914); C.M. Thompson's
_Reconstruction in Georgia, Economic, Social, Political, 1865-1872_
(1915).
GENERAL WORKS
Some of the older books are interesting from the historical standpoint,
but conditions in the South have changed so rapidly that these works
give little help in understanding the present. Among the most
interesting are A.W. Tourgée's _Appeal to Caesar_ (1884), based upon
the belief that the South would soon be overwhelmingly black. Alexander
K. McClure, in _The South; its Industrial, Financial and Political
Condition_ (1886), was one of the first to take a hopeful view of the
economic development of the Southern States. W.D. Kelley's _The Old
South and the New_ (1887) contains the observations of a shrewd
Pennsylvania politician who was intensely interested in the economic
development of the United States. Walter H. Page's _The Rebuilding of
Old Commonwealths_ (1902) is a keen analysis of the factors which have
hindered progress in the South.
No recent work fully covers this period. Most books deal chiefly with
individual phases of the question. Some valuable material may be found
in the series _The South in the Building of the Nation_, 13 vols.,
(1909-13) but not all of this information is trustworthy. The _Library
of Southern Literature_ (16 vols., 1907-1913), edited by E.A. Alderman
and Joel Chandler Harris, contains selections from Southern authors and
biographical notes. Albert Bushnell Hart's _The Southern South_ (1910)
is the result of more study and investigation than any other Northerner
has given to the sociology of the South, but the author's prejudices
interfere with the value of his conclusions. The late Edgar Gardner
Murphy in _Problems of the Present South_ (1904) discusses with wisdom
and sanity many Southern questions which are still undecided. A series
of valuable though unequal papers is _The New South_ in the _Annals of
the American Academy of Political and Social Science_, vol. 35 (1910).
Another cooperative work which contains material of value is _Studies in
Southern History and Politics_, edited by J.W. Garner (1914). _Why the
Solid South_, edited by H.A. Herbert (1890), should also be consulted. A
bitter arraignment of the South as a whole is H.E. Tremain's _Sectionalism
Unmasked_ (1907). The best book on the Appalachian South is Horace
Kephart's _Our Southern Highlanders_ (1913). William Garrott Brown's _The
Lower South in American History_ (1902) contains some interesting matter.
ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT
There are several excellent works on cotton and the cotton trade, chief
among which are M.B. Hammond's _The Cotton Industry_ (1897) and C.W.
Burkett and C.H. Poe's _Cotton, its Cultivation, Marketing, Manufacture,
and the Problems of the Cotton World_ (1906). D.A. Tompkins, in _Cotton
and Cotton Oil_ (1901), gives valuable material but is rather
discursive. J.A.B. Scherer, in _Cotton as a World Power_ (1916),
attempts to show the influence of cotton upon history. Holland Thompson
in _From the Cotton Field to the Cotton Mill_ (1906) deals with the
economic and social changes arising from the development of
manufacturing in an agricultural society. With this may be mentioned A.
Kohn's _The Cotton Mills of South Carolina_ (1907). M.T. Copeland's _The
Cotton Manufacturing Industry of the United States_ (1912) has some
interesting chapters on the South. T.M. Young, an English labor leader,
in _The American Cotton Industry_ (1903), brings a fresh point of view.
The files of the _Manufacturer's Record_ (Baltimore) are indispensable
to a student of the economic progress of the South.
THE NEGRO QUESTION
The number of books, pamphlets, and special articles upon this subject,
written by Northerners, Southerners, negroes, and even foreigners, is
enormous. These publications range from displays of hysterical
emotionalism to statistical studies, but no one book can treat fully all
phases of so complex a question. Bibliographies have been prepared by
W.E.B. Du Bois, A.P.C. Griffin, and others. W.L. Fleming has appended a
useful list of titles to _Reconstruction of the Seceded States (1905)_.
F.L. Hoffman, a professional statistician of German birth, in _Race
Traits and Tendencies of the American Negro (1896)_, has collected much
valuable material but all his conclusions cannot be accepted without
question. Special _Bulletins_ on the negro are published by the United
States Census Bureau, of which the issues for 1904 and 1915 should
especially be consulted. Some of the _Publications_ of Atlanta
University contain valuable studies of special localities or
occupations.
Several negroes have written histories of their race. George W.
Williams's _History of the Negro Race in America from 1619 to 1880, 2
vols. (1883)_, is old but contains material of value. William H. Thomas,
in _The American Negro (1901)_, is pessimistic as to the future
because of the moral delinquencies of his people. Booker T. Washington's
_The Story of the Negro, the Rise of the Race from Slavery (1909)_, on
the other hand, emphasizes achievements rather than deficiencies and is
optimistic in tone. Of this writer's several other books, the _Future of
the American Negro (1899)_ is the most valuable. Kelly Miller has
written _Race Adjustment_ (1908) and _An Appeal to Conscience (1918),
besides many articles and monographs all marked by excellent temper. On the
other hand, W.E.B. Du Bois, in _The Souls of Black Folk_ (1903) and in his
other writings, voices the bitterness of one to whom the color line has
proved an "intolerable indignity."
Ray Stannard Baker in _Following the Color Line_ (1908) gives the
observations of a trained metropolitan journalist and is eminently sane
in treatment. William Archer, the English author and journalist
expresses a European point of view in _Through Afro-America_ (1910).
Carl Kelsey's _The Negro Farmer_ (1903) is a careful study of
agricultural conditions in eastern Virginia. A collection of valuable
though unequal papers is contained in the _Annals of the American
Academy of Political and Social Science under The Negro's Progress in
Fifty Years_, No. 138 (1913) and _America's Race Problem_ (1901).
One of the first Southerners to attack the new problem was A.G. Haygood,
later a Bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, who published
_Our Brother in Black, His Freedom and His Future_ (1881). P.A. Bruce,
in _The Plantation Negro as a Freeman_ (1888), has done an excellent
piece of work. Thomas Nelson Page, in _The Negro, The Southerner's
Problem_ (1904), holds that no good can come through outside
interference. William B. Smith's _The Color Line_ (1905) takes the
position that the negro is fundamentally different from the white.
Alfred Holt Stone, in _Studies in the American Race Problem_ (1908), has
given a record of his experiences and reflections as a cotton planter in
the delta region of Mississippi, while Patience Pennington (_pseud._) in
_A Woman Rice-Planter_ (1913) gives in the form of a diary a naïve but
fascinating account of life in the lowlands of South Carolina. Edgar
Gardner Murphy, whose _Problems of the Present South_ has already been
mentioned, discusses in _The Basis of Ascendancy_ (1909) the proper
relations of black and white. The title of Gilbert T. Stephenson's _Race
Distinctions in American Law_ (1910) is self-explanatory.
EDUCATION
No complete history of education in the South has been written. The
United States Bureau of Education published years ago several monographs
upon the separate States. Edgar W. Knight has written an excellent
history of _Public School Education in North Carolina_ (1916). Carter G.
Woodson, _The Education of the Negro Prior to 1861_ (1915), E.A.
Alderman's _J.L.M. Curry, a Biography_ (1911), and R.D.W. Connor and
C.W. Poe's _Life and Speeches of Charles Brantley Aycock_ (1912) are
illuminating. J.L.M. Curry's _A Brief Sketch of George Peabody and a
History of the Peabody Education Fund through Thirty Years_ (1898) gives
an excellent idea of the situation after Reconstruction. _The General
Education Board; an Account of its Activities, 1902-1914_ (1915)
contains interesting facts on the educational situation of today. The
reports of the state Departments of Education, of the United States
Bureau of Education, of the Conference for Education in the South, and
of the Peabody, Slater, and Jeanes Funds should be consulted. The two
volumes on _Negro Education_, United States Bureau of Education Bulletins
Nos. 38 and 39 (1916) are invaluable. There are also histories of
some of the state universities and of the church and private schools.
FICTION
Some of the best historical material on the changing South is in the
form of fiction. A number of gifted writers have pictured limited fields
with skill and truth. Mary Noailles Murfree (_pseud._, Charles Egbert
Craddock) has written of the mountain people of Tennessee, while John
Fox, Jr. has done the same for Kentucky and the Virginia and West
Virginia mountains. George W. Cable and Grace King have depicted
Louisiana in the early part of this period, while rural life in Georgia
has been well described in the stories of Joel Chandler Harris, better
known from his Uncle Remus books. In _The Voice of the People_ (1900)
Ellen Glasgow has produced, in the form of fiction, an important
historical document on the rise of the common man. In _The Southerner_
(1909) Nicholas Worth (understood to be the pseudonym of a distinguished
editor and diplomat) has made a careful study of conditions in North
Carolina between 1875 and 1895, while Thomas Dixon in _The Leopard's
Spots_ (1902) has crudely but powerfully drawn a picture of the campaign
for negro disfranchisement in that State.
In his _Old Judge Priest_ stories, Irvin S. Cobb has described the rural
towns of Kentucky; and Corra Harris from personal experience has given
striking pictures of the rural South principally in relation to
religion. The short stories of Harris Dickson portray the negro of the
Mississippi towns. The stories of Thomas Nelson Page and of Ruth McEnery
Stuart should also be mentioned. Owen Wister has drawn a striking picture
of Charleston in _Lady Baltimore_ (1906), while Henry Sydnor Harrison in
_Queed_ (1911) and his later stories has done something similar for
Richmond.
INDEX
Agricultural Wheel, 34
Agriculture, farmers' revolt, 31 _et seq._; farmer and the land, 60 _et
seq._; county demonstrators, 75-77, 184; Farm Loan Act, 84; influence on
labor, 116; economic future of South in, 198-99
Alabama, Conservative party in, 12; Kolb in, 37-38; Populist party, 42;
suffrage amendments, 54-55; boys' corn club, 79; cotton mills, 97; iron
industry, 101; mines, 102; bituminous coal, 102; school fund, 158
(note); Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 227
American Tobacco Company, 103
Archer, William, _Through Afro-America_, quoted, 141
Arkansas, hill men of, 6; Agricultural Wheel in, 34; election (1896),
44; lumbering, 100; mixed schools, 161; industrialism, 193; migration
to, 194; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt,
230-31
Atlanta (Ga.), Cotton Exposition (1881), 89
Aycock, C.B., Governor of North Carolina, 57
Badeau, General Adam, and expression "New South," 7
Baptist Church, 214, 215-16
Bayard, T.F., of Delaware, 28
Birmingham (Ala.), steel center, 101-02
Blair Bill, 27
Blease, C.L., of South Carolina, 122, 150
Boys' and girls' clubs, 76, 78-81
Brothers of Freedom, 34
Bryan, W.J., presidential nomination, 44
Buck. S.J., _The Agrarian Crusade_, cited, 25 (note), 44 (note)
Butler, Marion, of North Carolina, 43
Butler, M.C., of South Carolina, 13, 41
Calhoun, J.C., agricultural college founded on plantation of, 42
Carlisle, J.G., of Kentucky, 29
Carnegie Foundation and college standards, 189
Carolinas, differing economic conditions, 6; Scotch-Irish in, 6; _see
also_ North Carolina, South Carolina
Carpetbaggers' rule overthrown, 9, 12
Catholic Church, 214
Charleston (S.C.), party management in, 39; Tillman and, 40
Child labor, state restrictions, 97, 118; in cotton mills, 109, 114-15,
117; Federal Child Labor Act, 118
Civil service, Cleveland and, 29
Civil War, blockade as reason for South's defeat, 3; effect on South,
196
Cleveland, Grover, election (1884), 28; and the South, 29
"Cleveland Democracy," 40
Congregational Church, 216 (note)
Congress, ex-Confederate soldiers in, 13, 26; negroes in, 20; reëlection
of Senators, 28; "Force Bill" (1890), 48; Southern representation,
200-01
_Congressional Record_, cited, 13
Constitution, Fourteenth Amendment, 22
Corn, price in South, 35; as crop in South, 64; boys' corn clubs, 78-79
Cotton, price and production, 35; favorite crop, 63, 197; mills, 88-98,
108-21, 195; cottonseed products, 99-100; "linters," 100; need of
cotton-picking machine, 197-98
Coxe, Tench, _Statement of Arts and Manufactures_, cited, 86
Curry, Dr. J.L.M., 27, 169-70
Daughters of the Confederacy, 210
Debt, _see_ Finance
Delaware as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; school fund (1796), 157-58
(note); foreign born in, 194; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; Catholics
in, 214; churches, 214
Democratic party, at end of Reconstruction period, 9; called
Conservative party, 11-12; and political consolidation, 12; Farmers'
Alliance and, 36; Georgia convention (1890), 37; controlling influence
of, 38; Populist party and, 42-43, 47, 201; nature of, 201; split in
Arkansas, 231
Disciples' Church, 216 (note)
Durham (N.C.), tobacco industry in, 103
Education, Blair Bill, 27; in South Carolina, 42; Populist attitude
toward, 46; negro schools, 57; agricultural colleges and experiment
stations, 75; county demonstrators, 75-77, 184; boys' and girls' clubs,
76, 78-81; General Education Board, 76-77, 183-84, 186, 189; college
students, 83; mills aid schools, 119; progress, 157 et seq.; country
schools, 164; academies, 164-65, 171; colleges, 165-66, 187; graded
schools, 166; taxation for, 170, 172, 185, 186; opposition to public
schools, 171-172; normal schools, 172; better buildings, 172; small
districts, 173; length of school term, 173, 184; funds for negro,
182-83; secondary schools, 186; preparation for college, 188;
bibliography, 240-41; _see also_ Negroes
Education, Bureau of, _Report on Negro Education_, 174, 178
Elections, intimidation of negroes, 18-19; frauds, 19-20; North
threatens Federal control, 21; (1896), 44; (1900), 45-46; primaries, 47,
199; "Force Bill" (1890), 48
Episcopal Church, 215
Farm Loan Act, 84
Farmers' Alliance, 30, 33
Farmers' Union of Louisiana, 34 Fiction on the South, bibliography of,
241-42
Field, Marshall, and Company own mills in North Carolina, 95
Finance, problem in South, 22; repudiation of state debts, 22, 227-33;
economies of new state governments, 24-25; platform of National Alliance
and Knights of Labor on, 34; subtreasury plan, 34-35; merchants as
bankers, 61-65; crop lien, 62-63; Farm Loan Act, 84; see also Tariff,
Taxation
Fisk University, 179
Fleming, W.L., _The Sequel of Appomattox_, cited, 2 (note),27 (note);
_Civil War and Reconstruction in Alabama_, cited, 227 (note)
Florida, end of carpetbag rule in, 9; mines, 102; cigar industry, 104;
bonds as part of Peabody Fund, 167; migration to, 194; debt, 227
Freedmen's Aid Societies, schools for negroes opened by, 173
Freedmen's Bureau, 27
French in Louisiana, 6
Friends, Society of, influence in South, 16
Garland, A.H., of Arkansas, 28
General Education Board, 76-77, 183-84, 186, 189
Georgia, Democratic convention (1890), 37; Populist party (1892), 42;
cotton mills, 88, 97; knitting industry, 98; cottonseed oil industry,
100; fertilizer industry, 100; lynchings in, 155; school fund (1817),
158 (note); imports, 195; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 229
Girls' canning clubs, 80
Gordon, J.B., 13, 37
Grady, H.W., uses expression "New South," 7-8; editor of Atlanta
Constitution, 223
Grange movement, 29, 31-33
Great War, negroes in knitting mills during, 126; migration of negroes
to North during, 132-33; negro women in Red Cross work, 149; and capital
in South, 196; South and, 201; and nationalism, 210-11
Greenback movement, 25, 29-30
Hamilton, J.G. de R., Reconstruction in North Carolina, cited, 228
(note)
Hampton, Wade, 13, 41
Hampton Institute, 174, 177, 178
Hookworm disease, 73-74
Howard University, 179
Hughes, C.E., North Carolina vote for (1916), 57
Industries, vegetable growing, 84; industrial development, 86 _et seq_.;
textile, 88-98, 106-21, 126-27; manufacture of cottonseed products,
99-100; fertilizers, 100; lumbering, 100, 123-24; iron, 101; wood, 101;
steel, 101-102; mining, 102; tobacco, 102-04, 124-26; roller mills, 104;
close to raw material, 194-95; see also Agriculture, Cotton.
Jeanes, Anna T., 183
Jeanes Fund, 183, 184
Kelley, O.H., 31
Kellogg, W.P., Governor of Louisiana, 229
Kentucky, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 38; mines, 102; bituminous coal,
102; tobacco industry, 103; free from lynchings, 155; school fund, 158
(note); Catholics in, 214; Disciples in, 216 (note)
Knapp, Bradford, son of S.A., 78
Knapp, Dr. S.A., 76-77, 78
Knights of Labor, meeting at St. Louis (1889), 34
Kolb, R.F., 37-38
Labor, conditions in South, 106 _et seq_.; native, 106, 194; negro,
106-07, 126-27; in textile industry, 106-21; state restrictions, 118; in
furniture factories, 122-23; in lumber mills, 123-24; contract, 123-24;
tobacco manufacture, 124-26; organization of, 127-28; recent problem,
197; see also Child labor
Lamar, L.Q.C., of Missouri, 28, 29
Land, demand for restriction to settlers, 34; tenant system, 60 _et
seq_., 219; different plans of landholding, 65-69; relation between
landlord and tenant, 70; white tenancy, 79; tilled by owners, 74-75;
cultivation, 81; food crops, 81-82
Liquor traffic, made State monopoly, 41-42; problem after
Reconstruction, 57-59; see also Prohibition
Louisiana, negro majority in, 10; Farmers' Union of, 34; election
(1892), 42; election (1896), 44; "grandfather clause" in constitution,
51-52; lumbering, 100; mines, 102; tobacco industry, 103; cigar
industry, 104; lynchings in, 155; mixed schools, 160-61; Catholics in,
214; churches, 214; repudiation of debt, 229-30
Lumbering, 100, 123-24
Lutheran Church, 216 (note)
Mahone, General William, 232
Manufactures, _see_ Industries
Maryland, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; fertilizer industry, 100;
manufactures, 104; free from lynchings, 154-55; school fund (1813), 158
(note); foreign born in, 193; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; Catholics
in, 214; churches, 214
Massachusetts leads in cotton products, 98
Meharry Medical College, 179
Methodist Church, 214, 215-216
Mills, R.Q., of Texas, 29
Mining, 102
Minnesota, manufactures, 104-05
Mississippi, negro majority in, 10; new constitution (1890), 49;
suffrage, 49-50; lumbering, 100; lynchings in, 155; school fund, 158
(note); mixed schools in, 160--61; bonds as part of Peabody Fund, 167;
industrialism, 193; foreign born in, 193-194; Catholics in, 214; debt,
227
Missouri, not included in South, 5; Grange in, 32; election (1896), 44;
tobacco industry, 103; woman suffrage, 202
Missouri Compromise and sectionalism, 16
Morrison, W.R., 29
Mountaineers. 14-16
Nashville (Tenn.), Peabody Normal College, 169; Me-harry Medical
College, 179; Vanderbilt University, 188
National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, _Thirty
Years of Lynching_ (1919), 154 (note)
National Farmers' Alliance and Cooperative Union of America, 34
Negroes, suffrage, 2, 18-19, 21,45, 48, 49, 50-55, 202-03; distribution
of, 10; in mountain counties, 15; support Federal officials, 17; sent to
Congress, 20; relation of races, 22, 129 _et seq_.; fear of domination
wanes, 30; not admitted to Grange, 32; politics in North Carolina, 45;
segregation, 57; use of drugs, 59; as share tenants, 67; opportunity for,
71; in furniture factories, 122; in tobacco factories, 124-25; in
textile industry, 126-27; personal characteristics, 126-127,135;
occupations, 127, 133-37; unorganized, 127-128; increase in
numbers, 130-32; migration to North, 132-33, 156,197; farm owners, 134;
illiteracy, 137-139, 166; treatment in North, 139-40; treatment in
South, 140 _et seq_.; "old-time negro," 142-43; "new negro," 142, 143-44;
educated, 144-47; and Great War, 149; mulattoes, 150; and lower classes
of whites, 150-51; lynchings, 151-55; plans for solution of problem,
155-156; problem in South Africa, 156; education, 160-63,
164, 171-72, 173-84; criminals and dependents, 204-05, 220-223;
bibliography, 238-40
New England, mill machinery from, 90; mills build Southern branches, 92;
Southern wages compared with, 110-111
New Orleans, Exposition (1884), 89; tobacco industry, 103
New York, election frauds, 20
Newspapers, 223-24
North, negroes in, 139; migration of negroes to, 132-33,156, 197;
treatment of negroes in, 139-40
North Carolina, Friends in, 16; negroes sent to Congress from, 20: gives
up local self-government, 21; Populist party, 42; revolt from Democratic
party, 43; election(1896), 44; election(1900), 45; fusion government, 45;
suffrage, 52-54; Republican opposition in, 56-57; textile products
(1810),86; first cotton mill (1810),88; Marshall Field and Company owns
mills in, 95; cotton mills, 97; knitting industry, 98; lumbering, 100;
furniture manufacture, 101; minerals, 102; tobacco production, 103;
Republican party, 122; free from lynchings, 155; school fund, 158-159;
public schools, 163,184-185; school term, 173; negro education, 179-81;
school expenditures, 179-81; foreign born in, 193-94; chairmanship of
committees in 65th Congress, 200 (note); Catholics in, 214; school
libraries, 224; repudiation of debt, 227-29
North Carolina, University of, 168
Ocala (Fla.), Alliance convention, 34
Oklahoma, as Southern State, 5-6; disfranchising amendment, 55-56;
mines, 102; disproportionate number of lynchings in, 155; migration to,
194; surplus of wheat (1917), 199; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in,
214
Page, Thomas Nelson, and "typical Southerner," 203
Patrons of Husbandry, _see_ Grange movement
Peabody, George, 167
Peabody Fund, 167
Peabody Normal College, 169
People's party, 36; _see also_ Populist party
Phelps Stokes, Caroline, 183
Phelps Stokes Fund, 183
Philadelphia election frauds, 20
Plantations, system discontinued, 60; in the Old South, 87
Politics, consolidation of South, 10-12; Confederate soldiers in, 13;
_see also_ names of parties
Pope, General John, prediction as to negro development, 130
Populist party in South, 42 _et seq._; _see also_ People's party
Presbyterian Church, 214, 215
Prices, decline, 25, 31; of cotton, 35; Populist party and rising, 46;
Southern credit system and, 72; rise of, 84; (1890-1900), 107
Pritchard, J.C., 43, 45
Prohibition, South and, 58, 202; _see also_ Liquor traffic
Quakers, _see_ Friends, Society of
Railroads, government ownership, 34
Ransom, M.T., 13, 43
Readjusters, political party in Virginia, 231-32
Reconstruction, 2-4; end of, 9; Union element makes possible, 17; debt,
22-23; and schools, 157, 159-61; bibliography, 235
Red Cross, 149, 211
Religion, 213 _et seq_.
Republican party, and end of Reconstruction, 9; called Radical party,
11; and mountaineers, 16; Quakers and, 16; Union element in South,
16-17; organization discontinued, 21; failures, 26; success (1893-95),
43
Richmond (Va.), tobacco industry, 103, 104
Riddleberger, H.H., 231-32
Roads, 107
Rockefeller Foundation, researches, 73-74
Roosevelt, Theodore, Mississippi vote (1912), 50
Rosenwald, Julius, and negro education, 183
St. Louis, session of National Alliance at (1889), 34; tobacco industry,
103
Scalawags, Confederate soldiers against, 12
Scotch-Irish in South, 6; and Presbyterianism, 215
Scott, W.A., The Repudiation of State Debts, cited, 227 (note)
Sears, Barnas, General Agent of Peabody Fund, 167-68
Secession, past issue, 192
Sewall, Arthur, candidate for Vice-President, 44
Silver, free coinage, 43-44
Slater, John F., Fund, 182-83
Slavery among mountaineers, 15
Smith, F. Hopkinson, and "typical Southerner," 203
Social conditions, 82-83, 203 _et seq_.; in mill towns, 119-21
Sons of Veterans, 210
South, New as distinguished from Old, 1-8; geographical limits, 5-6;
beginning of New, 10; political consolidation, 10-12; character of
people, 11; Republicanism in, 13 _et seq_.; mountaineers, 14-16;
election frauds, 19-20; debt, 22-24; and agrarian revolt, 26;
participation in national affairs, 28; Grange in, 31-33; social
conditions, 82-83, 119-21, 203 _et seq_.; Socialist vote in, 128;
growing sense of responsibility for negro, 148; education, 157 _et
seq_.; of today, 191 _et seq_.; population, 193-94; present political
condition, 199-203; jails and almshouses, 204-05; orphanages, 205-06;
juvenile delinquents, 206; democracy, 206-07; hospitality, 207;
amusements, 208, 217; power of public opinion, 212-13; churches, 213-17;
crimes, 220-21; leaders, 223; newspapers, 223-24; books and libraries,
224-25; contrasts in, 226; bibliography, 235-42
South Carolina, inhabitants, 6; negro majority, 10; "eight box law," 19;
negroes sent to Congress from, 20; political revolt, 39; representation
in Senate, 41; suffrage amendments, 50-51; boys' corn club, 79; cotton
mills, 97; Blease in, 122; school fund, 158 (note); mixed schools,
160-61; foreign born in, 193-94; Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt,
229
Stokes, _see_ Phelps Stokes
Stone, A.H., on Mississippi negro, 71-72
Suffrage, _see_ Negroes, Women
Supreme Court, Oklahoma disfranchisement amendment, declared
unconstitutional, 55-56, 203; Bailey vs. Alabama, 123-24; South Dakota
vs. North Carolina, 228; cases against Louisiana, 230; and Virginia
debt, 231, 232; debt of West Virginia, 232
Taft, W.H., Mississippi vote (1912), 50; North Carolina vote (1908), 56
Tariff, South and Cleveland agree on, 29; platform of National Alliance
calls for reform of, 34
Taxation, Mississippi, 49; for education, 170, 172, 185, 186
Tennessee, Grange in, 31-32; Populist party in, 42; girls' canning club,
80; cotton mills, 98; knitting industry, 98; iron industry, 101;
bituminous coal, 102; mines, 102; school fund (1806), 157 (note); woman
suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; Disciples in, 216 (note)
Texas, Farmers' Alliance, 33, 34; Populist party (1892), 42; boll
weevil, 76; encouragement of food crops in, 82; cottonseed oil industry,
100; mines, 102; lynchings in, 155; foreign born in, 193; migration to.
194; woman suffrage, 202; Catholics in, 214; no attempt made to
repudiate debt, 227
Tillman, Benjamin R., 39-41
Tobacco, a favorite crop, 63; industry, 102-04; labor conditions in
factories, 124-26
Tompkins, D.A., on cotton production, 108
Toombs, Robert, and New South, 192
Tourgée, A.W., 2; _Appeal to Cæsar_, 131
Tuskegee Institute, 174, 177, 178; statistics on lynching, 154 (note)
Vance, Z.B., of North Carolina, 13, 43; and teaching of pedagogy, 174-75
Vanderbilt University, 188
Vardaman, James K., of Mississippi, 150
Virginia, differing economic conditions, 6; cotton mills, 98; knitting
industry, 98; iron industry, 101; mines, 102; tobacco production, 103;
school fund (1810), 157-58 (note); surplus of wheat (1917), 199;
Catholics in, 214; repudiation of debt, 231-32
Wages, in cotton mills, 109, 110, 113; in tobacco factories, 126
Washington, Booker T., cited, 143; "intellectuals" enemies of, 146; and
Tuskegee, 177
Washington (D.C.), Howard University, 179
Watson, T.E., 44
Watterson, Henry, of the Louisville _Courier-Journal_, 223
West Virginia, as Southern State, 5; Grange in, 32; iron industry, 101;
bituminous coal, 102; mines, 102; free from lynchings, 154-55; Catholics
in, 214; Virginia assigns debt to (1871), 231; settlement of
controversy, 232-33
Wheat, winter, 63-64; roller mills, 104
Whig party dislikes name Democrat, 12
Wiley, C.H., superintendent of education in North Carolina, 159
Wilmington (N.C.), uprising of whites in, 45
Wilson, Woodrow, North Carolina vote (1916), 57
Winston-Salem (N.C.), tobacco industry, 103
Winthrop, R.C., of Massachusetts, and Peabody Fund, 167
Women, in mills, 97; suffrage, 202, 213; position in South, 208-10; and
Great War, 211-12; independence, 213; and churches, 213-14