The Gilded Age

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The Gilded Age

• The New South
• From Plantation to Iron

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Henry W. Grady

• Editor of the Atlanta Constitution
• Major voice of the New South
• Called for
• Industrialization
• Diversified efficient agriculture
• Widespread education
• Sectional peace and racial harmony

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The Old South
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Tredegar Iron Works

• (Richmond, VA)

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The Old South

• By committing itself to cotton production, the
  South
• Gambled its future on unending demand (primarily
  British)
• Tied its economic performance to international
  commodity prices
• Sacrificed long-term development for short-term
  gain
• Accepted moral isolation from rest of the world
  (Due to existence of slavery)

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The Old South

• Southern Society
• A Study in Contrasts

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The Old South

• Distinguishing Characteristics of
  Plantations(How were they different from other
  farms?)
• Large size
• Substantial commercial enterprises
• Dedicated to producing staple crops for market
• Large labor force
• Management structure
• Division of labor
• Distinction between management labor
• Owners did not work alongside slaves

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The Old South
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The New South?
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Mechanizing Cigarette Production

• Hand rolling
• About 240 per hour
• The Bonsack
• rolling machine
• 12,000 per hour
• Ten machines could replace 500
  workers

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Cigarettes and the Tobaccos Industry

• The tobacco industry is about half smoke and
  half ballyhoo. James Duke
• Massive advertising
• aggressive pricing
• virtual monopoly on supplies and key technologies
• Market domination
• 90 of cigarette production by 1890
• 75 of tobacco production by 1904

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Southern Steel

• By 1889 Birminghams steel industry,
• founded in 1870,
• was ready to challenge Pittsburgh for
• the lead in steel production. By 1907,
• had been bought by its northern rival

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Railroad Impacts

• Connected isolated areas to national
  international markets.
• Opened new areas to settlement development.
• Fueled growth of interior cities.
• Eased migration westward.
• Opened southern economy to outside interests.

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Southern Economics

• Limits to Southern Economic Growth
• Burgeoning North
• Low wages
• Limited capital
• Colonial Economics
• A colony serves as a producer of raw materials,
  which are shipped to the mother country.
• A colony serves as a market for finished goods
  produced by the mother country.
• The colony exists for the economic benefit of the
  mother country.

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Sharecropping/Tenancy Rates

• 1890
• South Carolina - 61
• Georgia 60
• Alabama 58
• Mississippi 62
• Louisiana 58

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Sharecropping

• facing the eastern end of a westbound mule

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Sharecropping

• Landlord provides
• A house
• A plot of land
• Seed, tools, mule
• Credit at a store (usually owned by the landlord)
• Sharecropper provides
• Labor (to grow the crop and maintain fences,
  ditches, etc.)
• Crop split 50/50 between landlord and sharecropper

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Sharecropping

• Pitfalls
• Sharecropping was not a contract between equals.
• Landlord held all the power
• Landlord controlled the accounting
• Tremendous incentive for landlord to cheat
• Forced continued emphasis on marketable cash
  crops
• Often trapped croppers/tenants in a cycle of debt

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