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. Tourgee’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 naive 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; reelection 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
Tourgee, A.W., 2; _Appeal to Caesar_, 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