APUSH Lecture 4E (covers chapter 15) Ms. Kray

 1877  North withdrew its protection of the freedmen  Redeemers supported by business community & white supremacists took power  Used race as a rallying cry to deflect attention away fr. real concerns of farmers & working class  discovered could gain & keep pol. power by playing on the racial fears of whites

 Even before Reconstruction ended, some southerners promoted a new vision for a self-sufficient southern economy built on modern capitalist values, industrial growth, and improved transportation

 Editor of The Atlanta Constitution  Spread the gospel of the New South with editorials that argued for economic diversity and laissez-faire capitalism

 Local governments helped spur growth by offering tax exemptions to attract investors to start new industries  Cheap (low-wage) labor was another incentive for businesses to locate in the New South  A number of southern cities prospered at the end of the 19 th century

 Prospered as a center for the South’s growing lumber industry

 Developed into one of the nation’s leading steel centers

 Former capital of the Confederacy, became capital of the nation’s tobacco industry

 Cheaper labor enabled GA, NC, & SC to overtake New England as the chief producer of textiles  By 1900, the South had 400 cotton mills employing almost 100,000 white workers

 Widely practiced  Blacks kept out of skilled trade & factory jobs  94% of industrial workers in the South were white  Never learned the industrial skills that would help them rise to the middle class while blacks remained in dead-end farming and low-paying domestic work

 RRs also gave a boost to the New South   South’s rate of postwar growth equaled or surpassed that of the other regions of the country in terms of population, industry and railroads

 Northern financing dominated much of the Southern economy  Northern investors controlled ¾ of southern railroads  By 1900 controlled the South’s steel industry as well  A large share of the profits from these new industries went to northern banks & financiers

 Poorest region in U.S.  Despite progress & growth, remained largely agricultural  most remained in traditional roles & barely got by yr. to yr. as sharecroppers & farmers  Industrial workers earned ½ the national average & worked longer hrs. than elsewhere

 Poverty of the majority of southerners was NOT caused by northern capitalists, instead caused by two other factors: The South’s late start at industrialization Poorly educated workforce

 Only a small number of southerners had the technological skills needed for industrial development  The South failed to invest in technical and engineering schools as did the North  Political leadership in the South provided little support for education of either poor whites or poor blacks

Postwar economy remained tied to growing cottonPostwar economy remained tied to growing cotton  # of acres planted in cotton more than doubled  # of acres planted in cotton more than doubled –Increased productivity only added to the cotton farmer’s problems 1890s  Glut of cotton on world market caused cotton prices to decline by more than 50%1890s  Glut of cotton on world market caused cotton prices to decline by more than 50% Per capita income in the South actually declined & many farmers lost their farmsPer capita income in the South actually declined & many farmers lost their farms

Furnishing MerchantTenant FarmerLandowner  Loan tools and seed up to 60% interest to tenant farmer to plant spring crop.  Farmer also secures food, clothing, and other necessities on credit from merchant until the harvest.  Merchant holds “lien” {mortgage} on part of tenant’s future crops as repayment of debt.  Plants crop, harvests in autumn.  Turns over up to ½ of crop to land owner as payment of rent.  Tenant gives remainder of crop to merchant in payment of debt.  Rents land to tenant in exchange for ¼ to ½ of tenant farmer’s future crop.

 By 1900, over ½ the region’s white farmers and ¾ of the region’s black farmers were tenants (or sharecroppers)

 By 1890  Farmer’s Southern Alliance claimed more than 1 mil. members  Colored Farmers’ National Alliance had about 250,000 members  Both organizations rallied behind political reforms to solve the farmers’ economic problems  If poor black & white farmers had united they would have been a potent political force  but upper class’ economic interests & powerful racial attitudes stood in their way

 Many blacks were attracted to the “New South Vision”  They were former slaves who managed to acquire property, est. small businesses, or enter professions  George Washington Carver  Scientist at the Tuskegee Institute, Alabama  peanuts, sweet potatoes, & soybeans  played an important role in shifting southern agriculture toward a more diversified base & escaping the trap of cotton dependency

 Former slave  1881  est. industrial & agricultural school at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama  Taught blacks skilled trades, the virtues, of hard work, moderation, and economic self-help.

 Supported black economic self-help  Supported accommodation to White society  accept segregation  Advocate of vocation education, racial solidarity, and public political agitation “In all things purely social we can be as separate as the fingers, yet one as the hand in all things essential to mutual progress.”

During Reconstruction federal laws protected southern blacks from discriminatory acts by local & state gov’tDuring Reconstruction federal laws protected southern blacks from discriminatory acts by local & state gov’t Late 1870s  Supreme Court struck down Reconstruction acts applying to civil rightsLate 1870s  Supreme Court struck down Reconstruction acts applying to civil rights Civil Rights Cases of 1883Civil Rights Cases of 1883 –Court ruled that Congress could not legislate against the racial discrimination practiced by private citizens

 Upheld Louisiana law  “Separate but Equal” is okay!  Soon after this decision a wave of segregation laws, were adopted by southern states

 Literacy Tests  Poll Taxes  Political Party Primaries for whites only  Grandfather clauses  Example: Louisiana  1896  130,334 blacks registered to vote  1904  1,342  99% decline!!!

 Blacks barred from serving on juries  If convicted of crimes, often given stiffer penalties than whites  Sometimes no trial  1890s  lynch mobs killed over 1,400 men

 Editor of Memphis Free Speech,  Fought against lynching and Jim Crow laws.  Death threats & the destruction of her printing press forced her to carry on her work in the North

 Disenfranchisement, segregation, & lynching left African Americans in the South in a nearly powerless condition  1894  Bishop Henry Turner formed the International Migration Society to help blacks emigrate to Africa Bishop Henry Turner

 Harvard graduate  Demanded an end to segregation immediately  “Talented tenth”  Niagara Movement