THE NEW SOUTH Henry Grady The New South Creed. Industry

THE NEW SOUTH

Henry Grady

The New South Creed

Industry

Timber Industry in the Gulf South A Colonial Economy

THE NEW SOUTH

• Agriculture – Still dominated by production of cotton, but

nature of the labor force had to change with emancipation

– Origins of the sharecropping system (a compromise)

– http://mshistory.k12.ms.us/articles/228/farmers-without-land-the-plight-of-white-tenant-farmers-and-sharecroppers

THE NEW SOUTH

• Sharecropping v. other forms of tenancy• The crop-lien system• Sharecropping involved up to three agents

– The landless farm family supplied labor– Planter supplied land– Furnishing Merchant supplied credit (sometimes

the same person as the landowner)

Extent of sharecropping/tenancy

THE NEW SOUTH

• Typical contract– The Share : “Halves” Sharecropper family typically

farmed for half cotton and corn crops with payment received after harvest

– Tenant family had access to planter's work stock (mules), specialized tools, and forest (firewood)

• Actual contractual arrangements viewed tenant as a laborer, not as lessee– Crop mix, tenant’s off-farm labor strictly supervised by

planter

Planter controlled crop at harvest and returned tenant’s share, if any, only after

crop sold

The sale of every cropper's part of the cotton to be made by me when and where I choose to sell, and after deducting all they may owe me and all sums that I may be responsible for on their accounts, to pay them their half of the net proceeds. Work of every description, particularly the work on fences and ditches, to be done to my satisfaction, and must be done over until I am satisfied that it is done as it should be.

Source: “A Sharecrop Contract” Grimes Papers, Southern Historical Collection, UNC-CH

THE NEW SOUTH

• Consequences of the Sharecropping System– Merchant/landowners’ crop lien tended to promote

extensive cotton production– Little incentive to invest in responsible land practices

by either planter or tenant, as neither would realize a full return on investment

– Little incentive to invest in mechanized equipment– Planters issue ever smaller plots to their tenants– High credit costs, low productivity, lack of

mechanization = Low farm incomes, tendency towards debt peonage

THE NEW SOUTH

• New South Race Relations– Post-Emancipation

– New Forms of Racial Oppression in the 1890s

– Why the 1890s?• White supremacy in the Western world• Failure of laissez-faire approach• Retreat of the North• Political considerations

Segregation

Civil Rights Act of 1875

Plessy v. Ferguson (1896)

Cummings v. County Board of Education (1899)

THE NEW SOUTH

• Disfranchisement– Residency requirements– Literacy tests– Criminal disqualification– Poll taxes– Loopholes for whites (understanding clause)

THE NEW SOUTH• Lynching

– African-American Response to the Neo-Slavery of the New South

Lynching—Clinton, Alabama, August 1891