chapter 12
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Chapter 12. Section 3: Birth of the “New South”. Key Terms. Sharecropping Tenant Farming Infrastructure Carpetbaggers Scalawags. State of the South. Many farms are ruined. 1/5 of adult white men from South died in the war. Difficult to finance rebuilding effort, poor credit. - PowerPoint PPT PresentationTRANSCRIPT
Chapter 12Section 3: Birth of the “New South”
Key Terms• Sharecropping• Tenant Farming• Infrastructure • Carpetbaggers• Scalawags
State of the South• Many farms are ruined.• 1/5 of adult white men from South died in the
war.• Difficult to finance rebuilding effort, poor credit.
o Creation of public works programs, raise taxes• Low property values• Labor shortage• Economy not diversified
o Raise taxes, adopt sharecropping and tenant farming, diversify economy
The Republican South• Carpetbaggers, how did
they get this name?• They were Northerners
who moved down to the postwar South.
• Southerners thought they came to make a quick profit.
• Why would their be opportunity for profit?
Republican South, cont.• What is a scalawag?• Why would a scalawag be
viewed as a traitor?• What are some other names
for a “scalawag”?• Why would scalawags have a
lot of power in southern governments?
A Southern view on “Scalawags”
“Words are wanting to do full justice to the genus scalawag. He is a cur with a contracted head, downward look, slinking and uneasy gnit; sleeps in the woods, like old Crossland, at the bare idea of a Ku-Klux raid.
Our scalawag is the local leper of the community. Unlike the carpetbagger, he is native, which is so much the worse. Once he was respected in his circle; his head was level, and he would look his neighbor in the face. Now, possessed of the itch of office and the salt rheum of Radicalism, he is a mangy dog, slinking through the alleys, haunting the Governor’s office, defiling with tobacco juice the steps of the Capitol, stretching his lazy carcass in the sun on the Square, or the benches of the Mayor’s Court.”
Infrastructure Changes
• Why would the South have a lot of business opportunities?
• Infrastructure: public property and its services• Railroads, telegraph lines, roads, etc.• Funding also allowed for public education for all
states by 1872.• Developing infrastructure was demanding on
southerners, why?• Spending added $130 million to Reconstruction
debt.
Southern Industrialization
• The growth of railroads in the South.• By 1872, there was 40% more railroad track in
the South than before the Civil War.• How would railroad developments help foster
growth in southern cities?• Cities that prospered: Atlanta, Nashville,
Richmond, Memphis, Charlotte, etc.
Downtown Atlanta map
Peachtree Street in 1870s
Production Line• Southern industry did not produce finished
products, but did not send these products to Britain.
• Where would these products be sent?• Northern factories could finish southern pig iron
or lumber products, such as for furniture. • Southern textile factories developed, they spun
and wove the cotton.• What significant part of the finished process is
left out?
“New South” FarmingTenant Farming Sharecropping
• Did not own land• Tenants paid to rent
land• Had more freedom
with their farming• Farmers had to buy
supplies on credit at inflated prices
• Did not own land• The most common
farming arrangement• Families farmed a
planter’s land and gave a portion of the harvest to the family
• Potential to be harshly punished by planter
The Effects of Farming• Tenant farming caused white southerners picked
40% of the cotton, 10% pre-Civil War.• Farming agriculture focused on cash crops like
cotton, tobacco, and sugar cane.• Tenant farming created the merchant class,
which supplied the tenant farmers.• How does tenant farming compare to miners
during the Gold Rush?• Is selling supplies at inflated prices good
business or unethical?