The Origins of the New South

1. The Origins of the New South

2. 13.1- Reconfiguration of southern agriculture: sharecropping and crop-lien system • 13.2- Expansion of manufacturing and industrialization • 13.3- The politics of segregation: Jim Crow and disfranchisement

3. Land Wanted • “The sole ambition of the freedmen, appears to be to become the owner of a little piece of land.” • Landownership would signify economic independence. • “forty acres and a mule” General William T. Sherman • Neither Congress or southern states imposed large scale land reform

4. Restoration of Plantations • Although African American and poor whites wanted to own small farms, the planter class wanted to restore the plantation system. • Faced a labor shortage (many died in war, many freedmen refused to go back to working the fields, and many whites men and women saw it as degrading work too much like slavery). • Some freedman tried subsistence farming, or only growing enough to support themselves, but to stop this trend (and force them to return to work) many southern planters became determined to keep the land out of the former slave’s hands.

5. Southern Homestead Act • Passed in 1866- set aside 44 million acres of public land in 5 southern states to freedmen and loyal whites. • Acreage contained poor soil and most former slaves didn't’t even have the resources to survive until their first harvest

6. Problems for freedmen and planters • Without land of their own, Southern African Americans could not grow their own crops • Economic necessity forced many former slaves into labor contracts with planters • Freedmen thought wages were too low and that white employers had too much control over them • Planters lacked the cash to pay the freedmen for their labor • These conditions led to two experimental arrangements:

7. SHARECROPPING -Sharecroppers– a system be which families were given a small plot of land, seed and tools to work in exchange for half of their crops • Contract was renewed annually. • Benefits both the planter and the freedmen • Sharecropping – only 20% of blacks owned any land • Eventually 70-80% of all southerners were sharecroppers

8. Sharecropping

9. TENANT FARMING • “Croppers” who saved a little and bought their own tools could rent land from planters and keep all their harvest. • Eventually, they could become owners of their own farms • Most tenant farmers bought their supplies on credit causing an endless cycle of poverty

10. Cotton….No longer KING • During the war, foreign countries increased their own cotton production. • This drove the price down by 50%. • Agricultural problems led to the diversification of the South's economy • Textile mills sprang up and so did tobacco manufacturing • The South was plagued by debt and bank had loans that would never be repaid (by Confederate gov’t) • Many people frustrated with loss of political power and economic stagnation would take anger out on freedmen

11. The crop lien system allowed farmers to receive commodities such as food, supplies, seeds, etc. on loan (or credit) and pay this debt back after their crop was harvested and sold. Therefore, there was a lien against the crop. The amount of credit that was received was based on the estimated value of the crop. Farmers would borrow against next crop to plant this one- Constant cycle of debt 50-60% interest THE CROP LIEN SYSTEM

12. Tenancy & the Crop Lien System

13. Jim Crow Laws • In the 1890s, segregation was made into law, and specified in signs in public places. Laws passed in the 1890s established separate drinking fountains, bathrooms, restaurants, hotels, train cars, and separate sections of beaches, parks and theaters.

14. Plessy V. Ferguson (1896) • Supreme Court case to test the constitutionality of segregation. • Ruled that the separation of races in public accommodations was legal and DID NOT violate the Fourteenth Amendment. • Established the doctrine of “SEPARATE BUT EQUAL” • This decision allowed racial segregation for almost 60 years.

15. The Background….. • On June 7, 1892, 30-year-old Homer Plessy was jailed for sitting in the "White" car of the East Louisiana Railroad. Plessy could easily pass for white but under Louisiana law, he was considered black despite his light complexion and therefore required to sit in the "Colored" car.

16. Disfranchisement • In the 1890s, each southern state passed constitutional amendments placing stipulations on voting that hit African Americans hardest. There were three main ways of doing this: • poll taxes • property tests • and literacy tests.

17. Property and Poll Taxes • Property tests made it illegal to vote unless you owned property. • The poll tax simply put a tax on voting. Poll taxes, now illegal, clearly had a discouraging effect on voting by poor people.

18. Literacy Tests • Voters would be confronted by an election inspector, who would ask them to show understanding of some piece of writing. It might be a newspaper story or a children's' textbook, or it might be article three subsection 5A of the state constitution. The potential voter "passed" at the discretion of the election inspector, who might decide on the spot that the person didn't show sufficient understanding. The literacy test was particularly loathsome, in that it made no pretense of fairness and was used selectively to exclude people the election inspectors didn't want voting.