292 Georgia and the American Experience

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Unit 4: A New Spirit 293

n the South, the period following the Civil War was a time forrebuilding homes, towns, businesses, farms, government, and —yes—lives and hearts. With leadership from men and women like HokeSmith, Rebecca Felton, and Henry W. Grady, Georgia recovered physi-cally. Rebuilding lives and hearts, however, was more difficult. While

groups like the Freedman’s Bureau worked on changing lives, other peopleand groups, including the Bourbons, Tom Watson, and the Ku Klux Klan,worked just as hard to maintain “Old South” ways.

This was also an era of progressive ideals that demanded reform. Suf-frage for women, improvements for workers, temperance, prison reform, edu-cational reforms, equality and freedom from discrimination for AfricanAmericans were all important goals for reformers.

After the turn of the century, reform took a backseat to World War I. Thatwas followed by the carefree ways of the “Roaring Twenties.” But the lev-ity of the twenties disappeared in 1929 with the crash of the stock market.Suddenly, the nation and Georgia were swept into an economic depression.

President Franklin Delano Roosevelt and his New Deal policies helped easethe pain of the depression. But it wasWorld War II that actually set Americaand Georgia back on their feet. Whathad once been an agricultural statewith little industry became a leaderin business and industry. Anotherresult of the war effort was that mili-tary bases and installations spreadthroughout the state.

Left: The Madison-Morgan CulturalCenter is housed in a red brick build-ing that was erected in 1895 as oneof the first graded public schools inthe South. Right: This is a restoredclassroom of the period in the Cul-tural Center.

Reconstructionand the New South

1866–1889

294 Georgia and the American Experience

Reconstructionand the New South

GG Chapter PreviewChapter PreviewGeorgia character word: Self-respectTerms: freedmen, Freedmen’sBureau, Reconstruction,disfranchise, ThirteenthAmendment, nullify, provisional,discrimination, Black Code,Fourteenth Amendment,carpetbagger, scalawag, Ku KluxKlan, suffrage, Georgia Act,Fifteenth Amendment, impeach,sharecropping, credit, tenantfarming, Redemption, whitesupremacy, Bourbon Triumvirate,ally, temperance, convict leasesystem, New South, normalschool, segregate, Grange,Farmers’ Alliance, co-opPeople: John Wilkes Booth,Andrew Johnson, CharlesJenkins, Herschel Johnson,General John Pope, RufusBullock, Tunis G. Campbell,Henry McNeal Turner, Aaron A.Bradley, Alfred Terry, Joshua Hill,H. V. M. Miller, Joseph E. Brown,Alfred H. Colquitt, John B.Gordon, William Felton, RebeccaLatimer Felton, Henry W. Grady,Joel Chandler Harris, SidneyLanier, Charles Henry SmithPlaces: Milledgeville, Pulaski,Tennessee

Section 1 Lincoln andReconstruction

Section 2 Reconstruction inGeorgia

Section 3 Georgia’sRedemption Years

Section 4 The New South

Chapter 9: Reconstruction and the New South 295

eorgians, and other southerners, had to deal withthree basic questions in the aftermath of the war:(1) What would be done with 4 million newly freedslaves? (2) How could sectional differences and

emotional war wounds be healed so that the nation could be re-united? (3) How could the South, which had suffered most of thewar damage, resurrect itself and its economy? In addition to thosequestions, southerners had yet to find out what type of treatmentthe defeated Confederacy would receive from the victorious Union.

Left: This depot, reconstructed at the GeorgiaAgrirama in Tifton, was originally built in Montezuma and

belonged to the Atlanta, Birmingham and Atlantic Railroad. After theCivil War, the railroads in the South had to be almost completely rebuilt.

They were critical to the economic recovery of Georgia and the South.

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296 Chapter 9: Reconstruction and the New South

Signs of theTimesSigns of theTimes1865-18891865-1889Population: 1,184,109

in 1870; 1,542,180 in 1880Life Expectancy: 44 years in 1870, but 39.4 years in 1880

Costs of Living: It varied, depending on thesection of country: Rent averaged $10-$25 a month;food, lights, and fuel averaged $40 a month

Art/Architecture: Artist Winslow

Homer, known for his ocean scenes, painted “Prison-

ers for the Front,” “Fog Warning,” and “The Life

Line.” Frederick Remington became famous for his

paintings of the American West. The “Shingle”

architectural style was introduced for houses.

Literature: Louisa Mae Alcott publishedLittle Women and Little Men. Mark Twain pub-lished The Adventures of Tom Sawyer, Life on theMississippi, The Prince and the Pauper, and TheAdventures of Huckleberry Finn. Sidney Lanierpublished “Corn,” about farming in the old South,and “The Symphony,” about the industrial North.Joel Chandler Harris wrote Uncle Remus: HisSongs and Sayings using black dialect.

Religion: In 1872, Charles Russell organized

Jehovah’s Witnesses. Mary Baker Eddy published

Science and Health, the beginning of Christian

Science. The American branch of the Salvation Army

was founded in Philadelphia. The Knights of Colum-

bus, a fraternal organization of Catholic men, was

formed. Billy Sunday began his evangelistic career.

Wages/Salaries: In the mid-1870s, a

school teacher might earn $360 a year, a factory

worker, $500, a farm worker, $180, a cowboy,

$480, a bank clerk $1,800, a policeman $600-

$900, and a reporter, $1,040.

Music: Showboats and vaudeville musical reviewsreappeared. Popular songs of the period included“Silver Threads Among the Gold,” “I’ve Been Workingon the Railroad,” “Clementine,” “My Wild Irish Rose,”and “ Sweet Rosie O’Grady.” John Philips Sousapopularized such march songs as “The Stars andStripes Forever” and “Semper Fidelis.”

Fads/Fashions: The popularity of bicycling

enabled women to give up long-skirted, heavy Victorian

attire and use long hose and balloon below-the -knee

trousers. Zippers were invented by Whitcomb Judson.

Louis Tiffany opened his glass factory and his incred-

ible lamp designs became fads among the wealthy.

Transportation: Andrew Hallidie, aCalifornia engineer, invented the cable car for SanFrancisco. John Montgomery began air travel bylaunching a glider from a 300-foot hill; it flew 600feet. Pullman Car Company constructed anelectric locomotive for hauling freight.

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Signs of the Times 297

Figure 29 Timeline: 1865–1890

1887Bauxite discovered inGeorgia

1881International CottonExposition held in Atlanta

1877New state constitution adopted; Atlanta named permanent capital

1874StateDepartmentof Agricultureestablished

1872Grangechapterfoundedin state

187015th Amendment ratified; Georgia readmitted to Union

1869Georgia Act passed; State returned to military control

1868Atlanta named capital; Georgia adopted new constitution and ratified 14th Amendment

1867Georgia put under military rule; Atlanta University granted charter

1865Georgia adopted new constitution and ratified 13th Amendment

1865 1870 1875 1880 1885 1890

1865Lincoln assassinated

1867Grange founded

1875Congress passed

Civil Rights Act

1878Yellow fever epidemic swept

through South killing 14,000

1889Johnstownflood

1886Statue of Liberty, a gift fromFrance, dedicated in NewYork Harbor

1881Clara Barton established

National Red Cross

1883Supreme Court struck downCivil Rights Act of 1865

Science/Inventions: Inventions ofthe period include an electric voting machine,mimeograph machine, phonograph, incandescentlamp, air brakes, typewriter, adding machine, andfountain pen. Alexander Graham Bell invented thetelephone; his first words in the first call were“Mr. Watson, come here. I want you.” Saccharin(500 times stronger than sugar) was discovered.

Education: Howard University was

founded in Washington, D.C. The first school of

nursing opened in 1873 in New York at

Bellevue Hospital. Booker T. Washington

became president of the school that was to

become Tuskeegee Institute. The first state-

supported women’s college was chartered—

Mississippi State College for Women.

Leisure Time: Basketball and ice hockey were introduced. The first running of the Belmont Stakes and

Kentucky Derby horse races took place. The first annual indoor track and field meet was held by the New York

Athletic Club. The first professional baseball team was formed—the Cincinnati Red Stockings. The first intercolle-

giate football game was played with Rutgers beating Princeton 6 to 4.