Southern United States Culture

The Reconstruction Era and The Jim Crow Era were both times of Rapid growth in the United States that were characterized by changes not only on the intrapersonal level, but also on the cultural and legislative level. The Reconstruction Era occurred directly after the civil war and spanned twelve years from 1865 to 1877 , while the Jim Crow Era occurred from 1877 to 1954. Some of the common themes of these eras were race relations and tension between northern states and southern states. The first topic that this paper will be covering is race relations during these two eras. Race relations were a central theme in the two films The Birth of a Nation and Within Our Gates making it a natural fit. The other topic that will be covered in this paper is the role and responsibilities of northern states during the reconstruction era. In this paper, Northern states will be defined as any state who supported the union during the American Civil War.

What is unique about the southern culture? The southern culture is unlike any other, it possesses a very diverse group with many different, ethnic communities, and religions. While still binding them all together with one common thread, their heritage. Even with all the differences, southerners embrace each other, reaching across the lines of color, religion, or social standing. Going the extra mile to help someone in need, even if they aren’t family, or a close friend.

In the 1930’s there was a lot of racial tensions and expectations for southern culture. Things are different now than they were back then like the culture, but especially gender roles in the south.

The New South was mostly about development and growth that started to gradually increase after 1877 on into the 1900s. Iron and steel were the main contributors followed by tobacco and timber. Steel mills were popping up all over the south which provided numerous jobs and a better way of living. The downside was the effect it had on the farm industry due to the fact that cotton was cheap and so was labor. As a result most of the people preferred to work in the factories which paid higher wages.

For the most part many historians tend to throw the idea of Southern manufacturing in the backseat since the North had a firm grasp on textile factories. The reason for this view is that many historians appeal to the idea of a Southern economy based on cotton and agriculture. However, this is not the case and many historians have failed to see this critical power move by Southern entrepreneurs. In many instances, business owners from the South would invest in internal improvements of textile mills.

Traditional views of the Antebellum South oftentimes ignore class divides within the American South. African-Americans and Whites are oftentimes viewed as being divided by race with all Whites and African-Americans being equal. However these ideals ignore the seventy-five percent of southerners which did not own slaves and the steep divides between African-American slaves with different roles. Primary sources from authors who experienced the Antebellum South, the American Civil War, and, or Reconstruction alert their audiences to societal divides which existed within each perceived race. Following the abolishment of slavery, economic class divides among whites were mitigated and whites view of African-Americans became standardized. Whites began to only recognize African-American as a rival to their power in all capacities, and as such vilified all African-Americans.

I grew up in the south. Growing up there was like growing up anywhere else I suppose. Woke up, went to school, came home, ate dinner, and went to sleep. Nothing exciting or special. Just a basic 17 year-long routine.

For example, farming was the main source of income for the Confederate states. The main southern chief crop which came to be known as King Cotton, accounted for 57% of all U.S. exports (“Civil War”). However, in order to produce these large amounts of cotton, the southern Confederate states depended heavily on slave labor. Since cotton production began to dominate and fuel the southern economy, the South felt that they did not need to industrialize like their northern neighbors did. This caused the South to manufacture very little goods and caused them to purchase manufactured goods from the industrialized North or to purchase imported goods from overseas.

The South's economy greatly depended on slavery. Document 2 shows a graph that says the South barely had factories. Their economy concentration was on agriculture. The South had a warmer climate and fertile soil. These were factors that were perfect for growing tobacco. Slaves from Africa provided for the hard labor. The South began to grow other crops on plantations, which had the use of slaves. "The South thus quickly established a rural way of life supported by an agricultural economy based on slave labor" (Doc 3). The South felt if they stayed and there was a removal of slavery, it could damage their economy. Instead of risking this damage, the South had another reason for

The South expressed their pride over their cotton-based economy system. Due to the fertile lands in that region, cotton was found to be a valuable cash crop, providing more than half of the world’s production of it. Consequently, the South believed that they played an integral part of the Union. James Hammond showed how much pride he had in the Southern economy when he said, “The South is perfectly competent enough to go on, one, two, or three years, without planting a single seed of cotton. I believe that if she was to plant but half her cotton, it would be an immediate advantage to her”. Through this speech, he expressed the crop as “King”; by using this title, the Southerners portrayed cotton as the honorable and indispensable figure in their economy. It was the staple crop of the South, and without it, the region’s economy was collapse. However, the popularity of cotton production made Hammond and many other Southerners believe that the cotton-based economy would help the region stand on its own as a Confederacy. Due to the Southern pride on how indispensable the region was internationally, the South believed their exports of cotton overshadowed all other exports from America, even though some crops were more profitable than the cotton.

Every year the Reid family has a reunion, and we get to see all the cousins, aunts, uncles, great aunts, second cousins and so on. I have lots of family members that are from the Carolinas, and I really enjoy getting to see them all once a year. When I thought about the prompt of how geography relates to my life, I kept coming back to my Southern roots and what being Southern meant to me in the context of geopolitics.

The Civil War began in the 1860’s and was one of the most important events in southern and U.S. history. In the south one of the major symbols of the war was the confederate flag. For me personally since I am from South Carolina I have found that there are two separate views on the flag which would be the supporting and opposing sides. The supporting side is said to be majority of white southerners and the opposing side is said to be majority of black southerners and white northerners (Webster and Leib). According to Webster and Leib white and black southerners have pride in their southern heritage, but the heritage is much different. What I would like

Southern states consisted of mostly plantations, growing crops and materials needed for daily life. Tobacco, cotton, rice and sugar were the major cash crops that plantations produced. In 1815, cotton was the number one, highest grossing crop produced by the south. The crops were grown, harvested and in some cases processed all in the same location. If a plantation needed to ship a product, for many years wagon was the method of choice. Ships were used to export products. The south had relied on a world market to export products and turn a profit.

* The ways that the south reinvented itself was through attempts in rebuilding their farms and negotiating new labor agreements with their former slaves. This method failed by the majority of southern land owners being to prideful or greedy to pay decent wages of the time. The south also became known for their railway system and is now the standard for development. The railway system brought urban life to the south through city growth and the growth of the iron industry. The southern people used their iron industry as their main competing industry with the northern. In these industries it was uncommon for black southerners to be allowed to work in the factories. Poor whites would be hired over blacks in the rail yards as well. The south being as picky to who they hired only bettered their communities rather than those of both black and white communities. These changes brought our country into an era of segregation. With segregation starting in the following years after the civil war it kept the south from truly catching up to the northern culture and industry because of their hate. If southern people would have been willing to bend more with their own losses after the war and been more willing to give equality to their former slaves things would have turned out

In this essay the question as to how race relationships in the southern area of the United States can be understood as social facts and further this essay will illuminate if being of black skin colour in the southern area of the United States can be regarded as pathological in respect to Durkheim’s sociological views.