The New South:Political

TechnologyBusiness and

Education & Culture

Political Redemption• After the Civil War ended what

would the “New South” be like?• “New South”

– phrase used to describe southern progress in late 1800s.

– Used 1874 by Atlanta newspaper

• Henry Grady coined the term. Wanted Industry in South

• Editor for Atlanta Constitution.

Redemption Era

• Redemption Era– To redeem Georgia from the hardships that

followed the Civil War and especially from the leadership of Republican party that ruled during Reconstruction.

• Redemption Led by “Bourbon Triumvirate”

Bourbon Triumvirate• Bourbon:

– Named for French Word for Castle

• Triumvirate:– Ruling body of Three Castle of Three Rulers

The Bourbons: • Wanted Strong Economic Bonds with

Industrial North

• Wanted to keep Many Old Southern Values – White Supremacy in particular

Joseph Brown• Born into poverty• Teacher, Lawyer, & Judge• Governor

– Before, During, After Civil War

• Not a soldier• Tried to support Reconstruction

to shorten it in Georgia• Successful Railroad Businessman

became very wealthy

Alfred H. Colquitt

• Son of U.S. Senator• Confederate General• Governor in 1876• Became wealthy farmer

and businessman during Reconstruction

• U.S. Senate – 1883 & 1888

John B. Gordon

• Confederate General

• Said to be:– Head of Georgia KKK

• U.S. Senator 1872

• Wealthy Railroad Businessman

• Governor 1886– Reduced state debt

– Recruited industry to move to Georgia

Bourbon TriumvirateBrown, Colquitt, & Gordon

Successes:– Pushed Georgia through Economic Reconstruction– Taxes Lowered– State War Debt Reduced– Business and Industry Expansion In Georgia

Bourbon TriumvirateBrown, Colquitt, & Gordon

• Failures:– Did not help the poor, especially Tenant Farmers– Public Education not funded– Industry Working conditions remained poor– Prisons

• now 90% black• Convict lease system = prisoners leased to people for

work or labor and received food & housing• Most Contracted to 3 Companies of which 2 were

owned by Triumvirate (Railroad or Construction)

Feltons Challenge The Bourbons • Accused Bourbon of supporting:

• Planter aristocracy• New Businesses

• Accused Regular Democrats for not supporting :

• Poor and lower middle class farmers

• Called themselves Independent Democrats

Reformers

Rev. William Felton• Doctor, Minister, Farmer• From Cartersville• Congress 1874• Georgia Legislature 1880

– Education Reform

– Prison Reform

– Prohibition (Anti Alcohol)

ReformersRebecca Latimer Felton

• Leader for:– Public Education Funding

– Vocational Training

– Women’s Equal Rights

– Women’s Suffrage (vote)

– Temperance (Anti Alcohol)

• Newspaper columnist writer• First Woman U.S. Senator

served for 24 hours

Tenant Farming vs. Sharecropping

Tenant Farming

• Some rented land; provided their seed and supplies.

• Paid the land owner an agreed upon $ amount after the sale of their crops.

• In some cases, the rent was a portion of the crops.

Sharecropping

• People who were too poor to rent.

• Land owner provided everything in exchange for labor.

• At the end of the harvest, the sharecropper got a portion of the harvest.

Rise of Populist Movement

• Grange (Social Club at First)– “Patrons of Husbandry”

– Formed after Civil War

– Means farm and its buildings

• Prices dropped – Item 1873 1885

– Wheat $1.21 0.49

– Cotton $0.21 0.05

• Framers went into Bankruptcy

• Lost Farms

Grange becomes Political Force

• Grange • Organizes in Georgia• 18,000 Ga. Members• 750,000 in USA

• Forces Ga. to have– Dept of Agriculture

• Regulate Railroad Rates

Farmers Alliance• Early 1870s to 1880s

• Purchasing Issues and Marketing Issues

• Cooperative Buying Stores or Co Ops– Group Bought seed, feed,

machinery directly from producers to save farmers money

– Group Sold products directly

• Worked against high Railroad Rates

Populist Party

• Formed 1891• Represented poor farmers &

workers• 8 Hour day for workers• Government own railroads• Graduated income tax• Elect U.S. Senators• Immigration restriction• Australian Ballot (secret)• Loans for Farmers & Storage

Georgia’s Best Known Populist

Tom WatsonIntroduced in Congress

Rural Free Delivery (RFD)

Deliver mail free to rural homes

No longer had to go to Post Office to get mail

Ran as Vice President 1896

Progressive Movement

• Like Bourbons, believed in keeping Georgia a one-party state

• Attempts to diversify economy had not been successful – GA still a cotton state

• Wanted to legislate moral behavior – prohibition, improving education, helping those in need.

Hoke Smith; Progressive –GA gov. 1906

Disenfranchisement

• Progressives supported the removal of black right to vote, also poor white right to vote

• Passed laws that applied to everyone but served to make it harder for blacks and poor whites to vote.

• Poll taxes required people to pay to vote, in addition to property taxes

• In 1900, primaries were only open to whites.

• 1906, Hoke Smith urged GA to pass a constitutional amendment requiring literacy tests to vote, except for

– People with at lest 40 acres of land

– Generally illiterate whites

– Grandfather clause

Preventing social equality

• Bourbons and Progressives believed in white supremacy, forcing social segregation

• 1891 – Jim Crow laws passed – written and unwritten laws to keep races separate

• Fed. Gov’t accepted segregation as lawful as well.

• 1896 – Plessy vs. Fergusson ruled that facilities could be separate as long as they were also equal.

Education In The New South

• Public Schools– Public education was limited

to elementary school 1877– Property Taxes not enough

pay for schools– 3 month school terms

allowed students to work on farms or factories.

– Teachers would rotate to different schools each 3 months.

Education in the New South• Gustavus James Orr was Father

of Public Education• Normal Schools set up to train

teachers• Teacher salaries went from $25

to $60 a month or about $1 per pupil per month.

• Schools were segregated white from black students

Textile Mills Move To Georgia• Textile Mills moved to

Georgia in the late 1800s from New England.

• Located on Fall Line of rivers where water falls could move water wheels for power to the mill.

• The state became more urban (city-like) as mill towns were built.

What is a “Fall Line”

It is were the river falls over the piedmont onto the coastal plains, it has water falls and stops river boat traffic.

Textile Mills Move To Georgia

• Mill towns were run by factory owners for their workers.• Mills owned everything and conditions were often poor.• Worked long hours, low pay, and company store had high prices.• Houses all alike, even churches were owned by the mill.

Child Labor laws

• Children under 10 could be forced to work 12 hours a day for as little as 4 cents a day.

• 1906 – children under 12 can not work in factories, unless they’re orphans or helping support a needy parent.

• Children under 14 could work if they could write a simple sentence, write their name, and had attended school for 12 weeks the previous year.

Other Georgia Industries

• Forestry– Lumber and Paper– Naval stores from Pine

• Turpentine• Rosin• Tar and Pitch

• Mining– Kaolin

• White clay for paper

– Bauxite for aluminum

Inventions

Alexander Graham Bell1876 Telephone“Watson come here, I need

you!”New York – Chicago 1883

Thomas A. Edison 1879 Electric Light Bulb

Photography

George Eastman

Hand Held Camera 1884

Used Rolled Film

Thomas A. Edison

Motion Pictures 1891

Silent movies

Medicine

Louis PasteurRabies Vaccines 1885PasteurizationFrench

Wilhelm Roentgen

Discovered X-Rays 1895

German

Agriculture

Luther Burbank

“Plant Wizard” 1875-1926

Cross breeding Plants

Joseph Glidden

Barbed Wire 1873

Peace for Farmers & Ranchers

Rich’s Department Store

Morris Rich started his Atlanta business in 1867.He divided the store into sections and put clerk in

each department creating a department store.

Rich’s Generosity

Rich’s in the early days would trade for goods he sold.

In 1930 scrip (promises given teachers to pay them later) were accepted as cash by Rich’s.

He also accepted 5,000 bales of cotton in 1931 in exchange for merchandise.

Coca Cola Company

Coca Cola was first made in the basement of John Pemberton’s house.

Later they moved it to Jacob’s Pharmacy.

John S. Pemberton invented coca cola in 1886 in response to Prohibition law in Fulton County.

Asa Chandler bought formula in 1888

Art

• Sidney Lanier– Georgia Poet and

Author– Was captured as a

Blockade Runner spent time in prison and caught Tuberculosis

– Went West for dry air– Later to mountains for

dry air– Wrote poem sunrise– Lake Lanier named for him

Arts

• Joel Chandler Harris• Georgia Author 1880• Wrote Uncle Remus,

His Songs and Sayings• Lived at “Wren’s

Nest”

Entertainment

• Ty Cobb– Baseball player– Called the Georgia Peach– First player in the Baseball

Hall of Fame– Famous hitter and base

stealer– Other players did not like him– He would sharpen his cleats

for sliding into players– First millionaire ball player,

but he made his money on Coca Cola stock.